THE SWAMP CREATURES
logo design for a band
THE BACKGROUND
The Swamp Creatures is a young band based in Budapest, Hungary. Their music can be placed in the psychedelic, trance and folk genres. Their engaged work has been rewarded by several sponsoring programmes supporting up and coming artists. You can check out their music on Spotify or at one of their many concerts in Budapest.
Their songs are loosely related tales, telling about another realm, a mysterious swamp and it's inhabitants. They have come up with an entire world, an entire universe: a believe system, gods, monsters, traditions and events. Their music opens a window for the listeners to get a glimpse into this other world with all it's exciting oddities and mysterious creatures.
Reviving the tradition of telling tales accompanied by music and integrating elements of folk music evoke an era when man and nature were much closer connected to each other than now.
THE CONCEPT
I have based the visual identity design on the idea that the music allows one to enter another world.
This idea is found in the religious practices of the shamanistic tradition. As there were (and still are) many variations of shamanism, I have concentrated on the Eurasian cultural tradition—the one that most probably could be found amongst Hungarian tribes. Here the shaman is a specially gifted member of a community who has mastered the technique of getting into a different state of mind—a trance, an ecstasy—dividing their spirit from their body and so travelling to the otherworld—the one below or above “our” one—to seek for answers and cures, to heal or to guide the souls of the dead. Reaching this altered state of mind, one of the most important assets was music: they've used rattles, drums and their voices to summon the spirits and as a tool of self-hypnotising.
The ability to travel to another world with the help of music made the shamanistic tradition a suitable conceptual approach in this project. It also evokes the idea of the important role of nature in indigenous traditions and the mystical and secretive quality of the music of The Swamp Creatures.
THE DESIGN
As for the visual realisation of the concept, my goal was to capture the general vibe of the band and the mysterious atmosphere of the music. The elements awake the association of ancient rituals, sacred runes and magical signs letting us enter a different realm.
THE LOGO
A shaman's drum, a snake-like creature coiling around it's many-teethed mouth, the only eye of the swamp monster Yamada are united in one simple and strong sing. It was especially important to me that it represented the band as whole. To ensure that, I have concentrated on the atmosphere and the general impression of the mysterious legend.
COLOURS
The colours depict the light in the swamp throughout a day. They are used as gradients, representing the path between two worlds.
RUNES
As part of the identity design I have designed a set of runes, based on the legend of the swamp.
They appear on the smaller merchandise items such as buttons.
The one-legged shaman, leaning on a stick
The spinning shaman
The one eye of the swamp monster Yamada
The parallel universe
The tree of life
The Sun and the Moon
The galaxy
ILLUSTRATIONS
I have illustrated five songs from the band, you can check them out here.
