BRAND BUILD-OUT: ELATIA
Logo
Mark
Creating an Complete Identity
elatia color theory
elatiamusic Instagram
Finding 'elatia'
Building the 'elatia' Mark
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So, I jumped ship from my path on advertising and branding to jump into the world of electronic music production. Wild right? Well, to my benefit, my background allowed me to build my own artist persona and feel. How did I make 'elatia' clean yet iconic? I started with a geometric typeface and started designing from there. What I ended up with is not only pleasing to the eye but also easily readable and classic.
With the feel of the logo done, it was time to address my mark. How did I want to identify 'elatia'? I decided on a butterfly as a transformative creature. I want my music to transform and transport people, if even for a second. I took the a's from my logo and turned them into the lower wings of the butterfly. I think this additional cohesion between my logo and my mark really helps tie them together and increase brand recognition.
From there I built on my brand with color selections, cover-art and social media posts. My three colors are black, white and a branded purple with my secondary scheme being a muted version of that. I want to keep my colors very close to create cohesion and recognition. I chose purple as I often have colored-hair, another sly element of my brand.
My social media reflects aspects of my recent life, song-release announcements and upcoming show announcements. I use it to 'promote' myself as a human through my posts, stories and (soon-to-come) DJ reels.
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To break down my current grid for you and give a few examples of recent important posts:
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This post was used to promote my first single 'Heart of Glass'.
I specifically chose neon-green as it was eye-catching, would pop-off the screen and it was one of my favorite colors of that moment; building authenticity. I also dyed my hair grey and neon green to match for fun as an additional way to signal something big was going on.
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This was one of four posts I rolled out over a 3 week period as I slowly build hype for what was coming. Posting the album cover day-off was the next step for it's launch. I also updated my link-tree to click-thru to the relevant sources as well.
The follow-up post was to celebrate the number of streams reached so far (30k!) and bump awareness on the track coming out again.
This post was particularly important to me. I was extremely moved and called to action by the BLM events mid-2020. Sparked by the death of George Floyd and the mis-handling of events that followed I felt compelled to make a statement that could also be distributed on friends pages and stories. I busted out my laptop in a fit of rage and frustration at old peers not speaking up whatsoever about the current events of that day.
This resulting post not only spoke to my opinions but also showed the more personal side to my brand. I'm not afraid to speak up on important, essential-to-talk-about issues especially when there is so much work to be done. In terms of overall reach this post had triple my average reach and had nearly 250 story shares that same day by other users.
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For my first show announcement I had dyed my hair with rainbow strips at the front. I actually ended up loving the look and decided to keep it, I took a second round of promotional photos with fresh hair. This shot is from that set for my second live-stream show announcement. A newfound way to perform for an audience, virtually via Twitch, during the beginning of COVID-19 quarantine. These EDM performances usually involve DJ sets or some live-performance aspects.
When it came to the cover art for 'elatia' I knew I would want iconic yet clean covers done in Cinema 4D a rendering software. Since that isn't a skill I wanted to pursue quite yet I commissioned album art from graphic artists I actually found through Instagram. The covers are inspired by the song and the overall magical landscape of 'elatia' that I want to build.
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I also have a linktree in my Instagram bio that funnels fans to the correct outlets cleanly and smoothly. I also use it to post the link to relevant DJ sets I do that are posted on YouTube and keep this area fresh every few months.
Album Covers
