When my 11-year-old son’s music school put him together with a bunch of like-minded kids to form a rock band, one of their first important jobs was to come up with a name. After many rounds of brainstorming and voting, they landed on “Sonic Boom,” and I knew immediately they needed a logo.
These kids are into bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Kiss, Queen, and Black Sabbath. So, of course, a 70s-slash-80s-style hand-drawn logo with jagged letters was the name of the game.
Sketching
The process started with gathering reference images of actual sonic booms. I wanted the logo to reference the concentric shock waves formed when an object breaks the sound barrier.
This is my favourite part of the creative process, when pencil hits paper (or, Apple Pencil hits iPad screen), and anything is possible. Things mostly look terrible, and it can be frustrating, but I have to trust the process. These shitty first drafts are essential to understand the subject matter, warm up, and start to make aesthetic decisions.
A long-haul flight was the perfect time for this time-consuming-but-fun stage.
Refining
Next, it was time to choose the strongest ideas, consolidate them, and start making a bolder sketch.
This stage is all about editing, editing, editing. I try to simplify my lines, think about visual weight and legibility.
Then, when I got down to the best version of my sketch, I imported it into Adobe Illustrator to create a vector version. A vector means smoother lines at any scale — an essential step to ensure the logo can be used in any application.
It also allowed me to make some final tweaks, like varying the line weight of the inner circles, and exploring a perfect circle versus a slightly flattened one.
The finished product:
Feedback
I printed out the logo and showed it to the band, who all agreed it was perfect — no notes!
Merch
The last thing left was to make merch — an important element of any great band. So far, we’ve made t-shirts, stickers, and patches for band members and fans alike.
These creative side quests are so fun and fulfilling for me, and it’s extremely satisfying to go from nothing to a tangible thing that brings everyone joy.
Rock on!
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