CASE STUDY – SLINGSHOT RECORDS

brand identity design | photography | illustration

Overview

I met Slingshot Records at the very beginning of their journey into the big world of record labels. They were still unsure of what direction to take within the industry so we had many sessions discussing where they were going. One thing that they knew from the very beginning was what they stood for – honesty, integrity and just being good old fashioned nice!
They wanted to build the business on kindness before profit and give emerging artists a “slingshot” into the industry – hence the name!
They had a couple of artists known to them who were interested in signing to them but they wanted to attract and find others.

Solution

During the initial strategy session several attributes were coming up over again for both the business/founders and the ideal client – honesty, integrity and niceness – so we started to build the brand around these key words.
Other atrributes that were important to the business were original and political (as outspoke left voters and vegans, the founders literally wanted to stamp their political standing on their sleeve!).
From the strategy session we determind that the businesses needed a logo, branding photos to be used on press releases and on the website (their faces were important to stamp the political statement home), some initial marketing materials (e.g. business cards, postcards etc.) and merchandise.

Outcome

The pair behind the label have a wealth of music experience between them to back up what they do, so we wanted this to show in their branding, along with their values and principles.
The initial concept was to “mess with the minds of the establishment” so we made the logo icon offset (the founders also liked the thought that this would mess with the printers minds too!). The icon and typography came from the concept of Apollo 8’s slingshot around the moon which gave the spaceship a boost – the same as the record label would give their artists.
A set of staged branding photos wouldn’t have shown the real people so we went to town on them to really highlight that they know what they’re doing and how they can help their audience. The voice they use on their website etc. and in print is very knowledgeable but not serious and they love being known as “Those nice people at Slingshot Records”.
The label is still evolving so we regularly meet to discuss any tweaks that may be needed to the branding and the message. This is exactly how a brand should work, it’s a living breathing thing that is constantly moving along its journey.

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