Things are going to get heavy around here. If you are a metal head, you might already be familiar with this guy, but for those who aren’t allow me to introduce you to the mighty Lord of the Logos, Christophe Szpajdel. Christophe is a pillar in the underground metal scene, designing hundreds and hundreds of band logos for groups all over the world including the likes of Emperor, where he created their iconic, symmetrical and often mimicked logo.
Some of his logos are unmistakable in readability, while others are cryptic. Some are straight up type while others are illustrated and atmospheric. Some are beautiful while others are macabre. Now it must be said that this style of logo is not for everyone. Being a metal guy I absolutely love this stuff, and the cryptic nature of these is almost a code among metal heads. Think what you will of these, but what is painfully obvious across the board is Szpajdel’s unrelenting command of typography and organic form.
And are you ready for this? All of the logos you see in this post were hand-drawn. With all of our fancy-pants computers today we can’t come close to the conceptual execution Christophe can achieve with simply a pencil and paper.
I selected a handful of logos for this post, but going through Christophe’s portfolio for favorite images is like walking into a forest and finding your favorite branch. Swing over to his Flickr stream to see a tonne of his band logos and photography, and there’s also an interview with Christophe over at Maelstrom. If you like what you see I highly recommend picking up his book aptly titled Lord of the Logos. Thanks to my buddy Fulton, I have a copy right by my side.
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