Typeface Choice - Live Music Brief

For Jonny Pain I had the image of using distressed, sans-serif type. I want it to look like it could relate to their post-hardcore music so it has to have the perfect balance with modern and also gothic... I saw something I really liked in the email that they had sent me with some ideas for the album cover.

http://thelastdisaster.net/2012/10/intohimo-northern-lights-2012.html

This type reminded me a lot of Bebas Nueue, but before I set myself on using that typeface I went and had a look through dafont and also my own font collection. Here were my possible typefaces:

Dirty Ego was one of the typefaces I downloaded, who's blood-like splatters on the typeface caught my eye as it had a dark and spooky connotation to it. It was also grungy because of the slightly distressed edges.
However because of the blood splatters on the type it kind of reminds me of the typeface used to promote zombie films, so maybe this can effect the way the public thinks of the band (perhaps badly) because they might think that the band plays some very heavy metal/grunge music when they don't.

Promises Broken Dreams is much like Dirty Ego because of the distressed edges, but they also have places where the type has been erased. This reminds me of paint that has degraded with age and I don't want that. I want it to reflect a modern band, not a band that has existed for so long that it's lingering on the wall and is being slowly forgotten.

Now for a more gothic-looking typeface. I chose Copperplate because of the nice amount of kerning between each letter which makes it easier to read at a very small pt., despite it's serifs. It looks slightly rigid and strong, and this could relate to the strength in the band.
Although the x-height is very small so that the typeface looks as if it has squashed down slightly and there's not much of a difference (or any at all) because upper and lowercase letters.

I went and looked for a typeface that was similar to the one that Iron Maiden uses - as that was the first album cover that Jonny Pain mentioned - and found Desdemonia. It has a lovely amount of decoration that isn't too overwhelming and reflects the style shown in Art Nouveau paintings. This is because Desdemonia forms the outline of the typeface rather than filling it in like other typefaces. Another reason is because of the extreme angles that some of the letters have - take "A" as an example - combined with how smooth these angles are like the smooth lines seen on Art Nouveau paintings.
The problem was that it looked too much like Iron Maiden's typeface, so I wanted to take a look at some other typefaces.

 Meet Lobster Two, the typeface I had used for my branding identity. It was the smooth ligatures and joined up lettering that had made me list this as one of my possible typefaces for this project, but then I realise that it lacks the "rock band" feel that I wanted and this is because it's a bit too smooth and curly. It would be perfect for something like a carnival-themed poster but not to represent a post-hardcore band.

Aah, Optimus Princeps, one of my favourite typefaces after using it in my Avicide piece. I chose this typeface for the same reasons I had chosen Copperplate; it's kerning is perfect, and there is a bit more of a difference between upper and lowercase letters. It is also similar to the typeface that Within Temptation uses so it ticked all of the right boxes for me! But would it look a bit too gothic...?

After avoiding it for so long I have chosen to list Bebas Neue as one of my typefaces. My reason for avoiding it was because I wanted to explore into different styles of typeface and I wanted to avoid just going "yep yep I'm just gonna' choose this BECAUSE IT IS PERFECT". It'll only cause a problem later when I decide, "actually I want to try out a different typeface."
Bebas Neue is perhaps the more modern and fashionable brother to Helvetica. It appears tall because of the small width of each letter and it also looks similar to the type in the album cover I have shown above. I can just imagine it being used as a logo or the title with scratches and erased edges.


Conclusion:
I'm going to try out using both Optimus Princeps and Bebas Neue to see which one related to Jonny Pain a little better. They each bring about their own connotations on a similar genre, and they are both effective to use for headings or the whole name "Jonny Pain".


Type in Album Covers

My main focus is on the album cover; once I get the design for this done I could simply repeat it onto the business card. So I need to figure out what type to use for the album title, "Unbroken".

(Now that I have already designed my logo - which you can view here - you can see that I had decided to go along with Bebas Neue.)

My initial thought was to go with Bebas Neue but that might be too repetitive as I have already used that for the logo and the band name... In my research I have concluded that the main typeface is usually the band name, with the album name beneath it in a small typeface and different colour. To keep my options open I shall switch in between the two.

If I am to use Bebas Neue as my main typeface then I want the other to have a rather small x-height, possibly a serif type but with thin serifs. It would need to be quite thin so that it doesn't clash with Bebas Neue.
Now Optimus Princeps has a small x-height and serifs, so I went and tried this one out first as well as Bebas Neue.

With the album name as the main focus.

Bebas Neue and Optimus Princeps 

Bebas Neue

So far I can see that Bebas Neue would only work as the secondary typeface if it's much smaller as it's a bit too tall. Optimus does work well but only with a large amount of kerning.

Bebas Neue & Lady Copra Wide

I quite like this typeface as the serifs aren't so obvious, but I feel that it's still a bit too thick. The R looks as if it's been cut off short at the bottom, giving it a slightly awkward appearance.

Here I realised that large kerning actually looks quite appealing.

Bebas Neue & Chanticleer Roman

Chanticleer Roman seems to be the perfect design because it doesn't look as if it's too big because of it's thin strokes. There is a slight contrast between thick and thin which reminds me of Modern typefaces such as Didot, yet it's slightly strict structure doesn't make it appear too elegant or fancy. It work quite well with Bebas Neue because of it's not-so-obvious serifs and thin strokes.

Conclusion:
I think I shall use Bebas Neue and Chanticleer Roman as their styles don't clash. I want more of an emphasis on the main typeface - which will be Bebas Neue - and because that's already quite thick, it would just clutter the design if I chose two thick typefaces.