Pickled Priest's Moderately Definitive Guide to the 50 Best Band Logos of All-Time
Pickled Priest's Top 50 Band Logos
The art of a great band logo has no set formula. It can be simple, it can be complex. It can be clever, it can be obvious. It can be just the band's name or it can be a proxy image. Sometimes both. It can be large or small, short or tall, funny or serious. All it needs to accomplish is simple: to build brand loyalty. Why do you think we call them name brands in the first place? We want you to pick one preferred thing over another generic thing and stick with it forever. Yes, you can build loyalty with a bad logo, too, as long as the product is good. But it makes it so much easier when the visual reminder of that preferred thing stirs something in someone. Hopefully a lot of someones. That's when a fan base, by wearing a t-shirt or hat or putting a sticker on their car, can do your marketing for you. Man, that marketing class I took sophomore year is really paying off finally.
One last comment: You won't be entirely happy with this list. It doesn't include things you would include. You won't agree with those chosen and those left out. I know you'll be itching to post a snarky, dismissive comment at the end. Bad news: we don't have a comments section. So take this as intended. As a launching point for a discussion about the best band logos of all-time.
50 The Commodores
When the Commodores blew up in the late-70s (when Lionel Richie started writing ballads), it looks like they spent a chunk of their advance on a gold-plated, later platinum-plated, logo that they would use during the entirety of their peak commercial period and beyond. If made of solid gold, this thing would've been worth a mint, that's for sure. It looks heavy enough to be a murder weapon. It made a statement, to be sure, one that said, "We're here to blow your minds and romance your women." Welcome, ladies, to the Commodore Suites, we hope you enjoy your stay. Man, I just love a logo that gets some real mileage.
49 Men Without Hats
It's counterintuitive to me that a quirky synth-pop band would be the group to advocate for not wearing hats during frigid Montreal winters in order to demonstrate intestinal fortitude (a true story). Tongue in cheek surely, it still flies in the face of expectations, doesn't it? They never really conveyed the same "tough guy" image with their music, but then again they weren't afraid of drawing lines in the sand either. In addition to their hat aversion, in their biggest hit, "The Safety Dance," they basically said that people who don't dance "are no friends of mine." Persnickety little canucks aren't they? Interestingly, later in that same song came this lyric: We can dress real neat from our hats to our feet! What the fuck, boys? Which is it? The band may be historically insubstantial (unless you're Canadian, maybe even then), but the logo succeeds with subtle humor and a simple concept. It's the easily identifiable image to slap on a sticker, t-shirt or, if you're out dancing, a hat.
48 The Chemical Brothers
The only requirement of a good logo is to be an effective representation of the band or artist. If that means the band's name in a cool font that perfectly syncs with an image, aesthetic, or musical style, then so be it. For a band in the 'what have you done for me lately' field of electronic dance music, Manchester's Chemical Brothers
have remained steadfastly loyal to the same logo since their first single in 1995 and have used it regularly all the way to their 2023 release, For That Beautiful Feeling. To create a logo that manages to remain futuristic all the while is quite an accomplishment.
47 Blue Öyster Cult
How many bands are known just as much by a symbol as they are by their actual name? Browsing this list, the answer is not many. Perhaps the longest running and most pervasively used logo in rock history, the Blue Öyster Cult "symbol" was created by artist Bill Gawlik for the band's debut album and carried over to his design for the cover of 1973's Tyranny and Mutation. The band loved the symbol so much it has since been present every step of the way, usually in a position of prominence on their album covers. In 2024, fifty-two years after its first appearance, there it was once again, on the floor, surrounded by candles, encircled by ghosts, retaining all of its inherent power and mystery all this time later. It has been used as the center of a bullseye, on a plane's tail wing, on a limo's flag, on a horse bridle, a wall carving, a cult-leader's robe, and even on a spaceship. If you must know, it's described officially as being "a stylization of the astronomical symbol for the planet Saturn."* That works for me. No wonder it runs circles around so many other band logos.
*Also thought to have some tie-in to the Kronos symbol from Greek mythology, but I'll stick with the band's "official" explanation.
46 The Saints
One of the first and best punk bands ever, it makes sense that the band's logo could be easily painted or sprayed on an open wall. That the logo is actually more worked than that is irrelevant because what it's saying is that we do things quickly and imperfectly around here and our music is better that way. Hence, there's no time for cleaning up mistakes or waiting for the paint to dry. We've already moved on.
45 The Cramps
When a logo perfectly matches a band's unique style and substance it can be the ultimate marketing tool, especially when you're trying to reach a decidedly niche demographic. And few bands screamed "niche demographic" quite like the Cramps, purveyors extraordinaire of American trash culture. With a logo font ripped straight from the front cover of a Tales from the Crypt comic circa the early-1950s, the Cramps leaned into their love of B-movie horror and came away with just the right image, creepy enough to attract a growing cult of like-minded fringe-dwelling miscreants and even a couple renegade accountants and insurance salesmen, too.
44 The Adicts
With a logo that's part A Clockwork Orange "droog" and part Joaquin Phoenix-period Joker (before his character even existed, no less), what the Adicts (yes, only one "d") lacked in originality they more than made up for in execution. At least when it came to their logo, that is. The unnerving, bowler-hat-wearing image used by the band seemed to fit perfectly with the demented lunacy of their music (Exhibit A: "My Baby Got Run Over By a Steamroller"), preparing all in advance for what will likely will be an unforgettable experience. Like a great album cover, some logos just make you want to hear what the corresponding band will sound like and this is one of them. With name in slashing letters, each capable of killing someone, and the "t" approximating a needle ready to plunge into a waiting vein, the whole graphic conveys an unsettling sense of danger, like there's a madman jiggling your front door knob downstairs.
43 Whitesnake
Sometimes logo development is a long process of give and take, a garbage can overflowing with crumpled drawings, and sometimes your band is named Whitesnake and the logo can be nothing else but a long white snake spelling out the band's name for you. One question before I go: How did the snake manage to cross the "t" or is that just artistic license?
42 The Monkees (tie)
42 Spin̈al Tap (tie)
Instead of using two spots for "created" bands, one for TV the other for a mockumentary, I've decided to lump both together for the first time ever in public. It would make for a killer double-bill, that's for sure. Plus, for a website that espouses main two things—music and humor—how could I not include both? The Monkees very 1960's logo was bright, cheery, and clever just like the show. The fact they charted numerous hit singles a shocking yet welcome byproduct of an experiment that exceeded all reasonable expectations. Putting the "double-EE's" on the neck and the final "S" on the headstock with heart-shaped tuning pegs (a bit much?) wasn't so much brilliant, per se, but it was attractive. The bright red color works as well, standing out no matter what merch the logo was emblazoned on. It persists decades later, proof of its enduring appeal.
No eye-popping color needed for the Tap's logo, of course, where "none more black" is always the answer for a comically serious proto-metal band of such epically stupid magnificence. The existence of the Spin̈al Tap logo makes highlighting countless other "really serious" but similar metal logos redundant. This logo captures the essence of the whole genre in one convenient location: jagged angles, misplaced umlauts, aggressive linework, and sharp-edged letters all seemingly laser-cut out of a slab of thick steel. If you can't use a metal band's logo as a lethal weapon, what good is it?
41 Bad Religion
If there was ever a band logo that reinforces our "Records as Religion" motto, it's this bold, controversial image that has come to represent the identity of the long-running California punk band, Bad Religion. As if the band name itself doesn't adequately convey a pretty clear message, nothing could drive the message home even further than a big chunky cross behind the universal image for banning or prohibiting whatever it is you want to ban today (children's books with gay characters, certain types of people, skateboards, men without hats, profane music, etc.). The logo definitively eliminates any chance of misinterpretation. In fact, it makes a bold, two-can-play-that-game, statement. It wasn't nicknamed '"The Crossbuster" for nothing.
40 Public Image Ltd.
It's only fitting that a band named Public Image Ltd. would have an iconic logo to go with it. As anyone who has ever worked for a soulless corporation will tell you, they live and die by their acronyms, sucked of any real meaning through repetition. So abbreviating the band's name here and embedding it in tablet form, courtesy of big pharma most likely, was a brilliant but obvious design idea (the band's name is one letter short of the word "pill" so it's not quite a creative masterstroke). Could it be that simple or is there more at work here? Perhaps it's not an evil drug company that's the problem. Maybe it's the fact that attention is our drug of choice. The idea holds more water now that it ever has before. Thankfully, the logo works either way. Credit to photographer/designer Dennis Morris for the concept and many other ideas he developed for a band known for being innovative and ahead of its time. The guy knew how to craft a visual identity, that's for sure.*
*Most notably, it was Morris who designed the "Metal Box," complete with the band's logo stamped on a metal film canister, for the band's second album.
39 Wu-Tang Clan
Now reduced to a giant stack of threadbare t-shirts on a display at your local Target, the Wu-Tang Clan logo has been cheapened over the years, but it has never lost the original menace implied by a hip hop collective named after the sword of a mythical kung fu warrior. Only now you can get that image from the same place you buy your adult diapers, waffle makers, and granola bars. The thick yellow W, taking the imposing form of an exotic bird in mid-flight, looks like an emblem you might see on a thick wood door guarding the entrance of a secret martial arts collective hidden in the hills of Shanghai. If this wasn't the origin of the phrase "Fuck around and find out," it should've been.
38 Minutemen
Last night I dreamt of San Pedro
It all seems like yesterday, not far away
-"La Isla Bonita" / Madonna
If this logo was any more sophisticated than a prison tattoo it just wouldn't work as well. For a band whose unofficial motto was "We Jam Econo," a crisp image with sharp edges and a stock font wouldn't have conveyed the band's thrifty manifesto. I imagine this design has been inked countless times in and around San Pedro, sometimes by professionals, sometimes by amateurs, but I'm not sure which one would look better. If this band proved anything, they showed us that greatness can be achieved on a low budget.
37 Chicago
Inspired by the iconic Coca Cola script, perhaps the most timeless logo in branding history, Chicago's own loop-filled trademark (pardon the pun) was fashioned by artist Nick Fasciano under the watch of legendary Columbia art director John Berg, who worked with countless artists during his career (Born to Run, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, Underground by Thelonious Monk, and, of course, Loverboy's Get Lucky to name just a few of hundreds). At the time, I know these two creatives were not aware of how prevalent and versatile their logo would become, not only as a major presence on every album cover the band released, but also as a never-ending source of creative inspiration. The Chicago logo has done it all over the years; recreated as a chocolate bar (see below), the top of a high rise building (again, below), as a wood carving, embossed on leather, incorporated into a fingerprint, embedded in a computer chip (in 1982, no less!), and even as a meticulously landscaped garden. If the logo wasn't so gorgeously rendered in the first place, none of this would've been possible. No wonder the original artwork can now be found at MoMA in New York City.
36 Big Star
I'm gonna hit the big time
Gonna be a big star someday
—"Shooting Star" / Bad Company
Ripping off your band name and logo from a supermarket chain isn't normally recommended, but you've gotta admire the audacity. They wouldn't have done it in the first place if the name and image didn't mirror the aspirations of every young rock band ever formed. It's a bit presumptuous, yes, but why not put your dream out there for the world to see? It's the equivalent of titling your first album #1 Record, which Big Star also did! We should all have such self confidence! To the band's credit, they altered the chain's logo with one key revision—they took out the word "star" from inside the star (see below), partially to avoid a lawsuit, but partially due to common sense: there's already a star there, no need to be redundant. Putting the word "Big" in the middle was the perfect solution. So simple, so effective. If only the public played along and gave them what they richly deserved.
35 Spiritualized
With the release of Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space in 1997, Spiritualized began ironically marketing themselves as the product of a soulless pharmaceuticals conglomerate, complete with their name in a boring but readable font, Helvetica to be specific, followed by a registered trademark symbol ® to reinforce the legal protections such a designation affords. How rock & roll! In reality, it was kind of fitting; their sound was drug-like at times with its own set of peculiar side effects like transcendence, hypnosis, and deliriousness. They were so pleased with their new branding approach that they've stuck with it ever since, its last appearance coming on 2022' s Everything Was Beautiful, this time featuring the full packaging collapsed onto the cover (see below). In the end, this logo was an inspired deviation from the norm and quite possibly a cloaked statement about the consolidation and corporatization of the music industry.
34 ABBA
If you thought a logo had to be anything more than the band's name, you were sadly mistaken. In fact, the power is often in the name itself. ABBA. The name conjures different things for different people. For some, it's the worst pop music has to offer, for others (like me) it represents white dance pop at its finest. Show me a white wedding without an ABBA song on the playlist, and I'll show you an empty dancefloor. The plain ABBA font was created by Swedish graphic designer Rune Andréasson (you expected anything else?) in 1972. You know this already, but it's an acronym for Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid. The logo was supposed to be much simpler until Björn (what a kook) held his letter backwards during a photo shoot where they were each asks to hold up large sign letters (which passed for cleverness back then). The rest is history, not only is the name a palindrome, but it looks the same when held up to a mirror. It also folds on itself, a mirror image even without a mirror present! It's so simple, it's brilliant. Abba abba doo!
33 Led Zeppelin
Two great logos for the price of one here. Sometimes sold separately, sometimes marketed as a package deal. It makes no difference. A band of this renown deserves both a traditional (letters) and non-traditional (symbols) reference point. True, I've made quite the fuss about not elevating the logos of iconic bands just because their music is so great—the logo must carry its own weight all by itself—but the lettering here is pretty fucking cool. It was designed by Hipgnosis founders Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell and it looks like something Frank Lloyd Wright might've come up with if tasked with the project. I love the missized letters, long-legged P's, the middle line of the E's, the shorter vowels, the overlong N that drifts below the text line just so, and also the way the D and the Z fit with each other like two continents that drifted apart due to plate tectonics. All this good stuff makes me forget the presence of a hyphen between Led and Zeppelin, something that was never used until this logo was developed. I get why, to provide a little visual separation, but still, not needed. As to the symbols, those have been written about countless times by others. One for each band member. Collectively, however, they gain a powerful mystique, and not just because they were initially used for one of rock's landmark albums, but because the visual unity of the four logos meant that one could never be replaced and still retain the impact of the original visual. Replacing any symbol to accommodate a new member would ruin (or should I say "rune") the whole mystical impact.
32 Queen
If you think this logo is a bit much you haven't been listening to Queen very often, have you? Nor have you set your alarm on a weekend morning to watch a royal wedding, coronation anniversary jubilee, or, gulp, the funeral of Elizabeth II. Pomp and pageantry is the name of the game, so if you're going to call yourself Queen you had best play along with the charade or go completely in the other direction, a la the Sex Pistols, and disrespect the throne entirely. I might've gone for the latter approach, but you know on which side of the line Freddie Mercury landed, of course, as he was all about the pageantry, arguably the de facto reigning Queen of Rock & Roll, complete with his own "scepter," the detached microphone stand he ruled with when in the presence of his subjects. It's no surprise that he was behind the design from the beginning. The font is regal, the coat of arms visually satisfying (inspired by the UK's own), each of its elements worthy of close inspection. The crab, the lions, and the twin fairies all represent the zodiac signs of each member, which is a nice touch and on a logo like this, where extravagance is the norm, the more the better.
31 Foghat
I love this logo because it looks like a sign you'd find hanging outside of a pub in London, complete with an "established" date on the bottom to allow for increasing levels of credibility as time passes. I'd proudly hoist a pint at a pub named Foghat, I assure you, and I'd assume that some local tradition or notable figure inspired its peculiar name. If that was all I liked, it might not be on this list, but the lettering is where the design really excels for me. Every letter, with the exception of the O perhaps, is rendered in an appealing and interesting way. The sweeping capital F, the fat-bottomed lowercase g, the oxbow h, the subtle a, the stretched out t elongated for continuity with the cross of the F. It was so visually balanced the logo went on to be used on the vast majority of the band's album covers. They nailed it from the beginning. So let's toast, then, to the undervalued Foghat logo, now established for well over 50 years!
30 Rush
Behold the "Starman," one of the most high-concept and pretentious logos in rock history! And that's quite an accomplishment, to say the least. Need proof? The origin of the image comes from the band's sci-fi masterpiece, 2112, with the star representing the so-called "Solar Federation" and the naked man, according to lyricist Neil Peart, the "abstract man facing off against the masses." Quite ambitious for a band that, one track later, gave us a song about traveling the world looking for weed ("Passage to Bangkok"). Perhaps they should've put that song first in the running order, just sayin'. The image wasn't meant to be a logo at all, but the fans get what the fans want, and for many of them this image has always defined Rush in a nutshell. I know it does for me, a card-carrying Rush devotee...and proud of it. What could be better than the "little guy" standing up for what he believes in, anyway? He's risking his life for rock and roll, goddamnit! Seems like a good foundation to build upon, one that can inspire millions of die-hard fans for as long as this boring world exists. The fans have assumed control. The fans have assumed control.
*It should be noted that the characterization of "The Priests of the Temples of Syrinx" as music-regulating buzzkills in no way represents the views of the Pickled Priest website or any of its readers (we presume).
29 Hüsker Dü
Sometimes seen together, sometimes apart, the two components shown still mean Hüsker Dü to me in any format. The name logo was made by Grant Hart in his high school graphic arts class by taking the band's proposed logo, ripping it in half, and then reassembling it with a gap almost like it was a casualty of an earthquake (in Minneapolis, no less!). Ironically, the second part of the logo was meant to connote unity, with the three horizontal bars representing the band members and the vertical bar representing their common creative vision for the band. A bit over-thought perhaps, but it does look like an ancient shield of some sort, ready to be battle tested. That works better for me. The combined image did, in the end, reflect some of the divisions in the band itself, so call this logo a self-fulfilling prophecy if you like. A blend of good intent and fractured reality. It looked cool and not just because of the double-umlauts.
28 The Grateful Dead
Take your pick, both are great for different reasons. I'm not a Dead fan and I can definitively tell you that these are classic logos. That said, if you think I'm going to pack this selection with facts about its creation you have another thing coming. Let's put it this way—the Deadheads have this, and every other possible angle, already covered. I may be a rank amateur, but these are my Priest Picks, Volume 1 and 2, and I think Dick would agree with me on this. The top skull (I refuse to call it "Stealie") is a more traditional logo—dynamic, visually unmistakable, and requires no introduction. It's right up there with some of the most iconic and recognizable American logos of all-time in any category, right down to its brilliant use of the good old American red, white, and blue color palette. If I received ten dollars every time this was tattooed, I'd be writing this from my yacht off the coast of Sardinia.
The second logo, and it makes sense that a band with this kind of legacy would have several logos spread over the decades, is the one I like the most. It's a thing of beauty and reflects the whole spirit of the band, which I think is to live your life with a free spirit and open heart so that when death comes you have no regrets, and not "Drop LSD, play some sack, and learn to make a toasted cheese sandwich in the back of a VW." It's a magnificent image worthy of a cult following all on its own. I also love the flying eyeball image used by the band sometimes, but I don't think it is in the same league as these two from a design or impact standpoint. Nor are the absolutely insufferable "dancing bears." whose sole purpose these days is to surround your car's license plate. Any real Dead fan agrees with me on that.
27 Nine Inch Nails
This is one of the most basic yet effective logos ever made. It instantly puts you inside the industrial corridors of Nine Inch Nails Headquarters, where CEO Trent Reznor is hard at work developing new ways to annihilate your ear drums. Or at least that was the company's original mission statement for most of the band's early years. Now he (along with Atticus Ross) has branched out into soundtrack work like Challengers, a movie about a love triangle on the pro tennis circuit. How positively diabolical! Let's start a mosh pit after tea service! The logo, however, in the spirit of ABBA's palindromic mirrored effect (with or without awareness, I don't know), reads the same any way you look at it and its thick letters surrounded by a border of the same thickness looks like something made in a huge punch press (the Nailinator?) in some factory on the campus of Nine Inch Nails, Inc.
26 UFO
The logo for London's UFO is as underrated as the band itself. If you know, you know. For one, UFO is a great band name, supplying endless intrigue centered around the vast unknown and the corresponding conspiracy theories that inevitably fill the gaps in our knowledge with highly implausible explanations. We all have seen movies where an unexplainable signal from another galaxy is received, freaking out everyone in proximity. Top secret, don't let this leak to the public! This logo reflects that moment of first contact. It's well know that otherworldly communication, possibly from an interplanetary craft (Klaatu/Carpenters allusion intentional), never comes in clean. It's always just choppy and staticy enough to defy understanding, and this lack of clarity is reflected in the band's logo. If only the group could decipher the complex transmissions from the arrogant but brilliant alien Michael Schenker, then maybe the the world would know more about this essential band.
25 Scissor Sisters
This logo is a genius distillation of a band that had enough panache to fuel a decade's worth of Pride parades. It's one of those logos that really doesn't need much explanation. You know exactly what it's referencing moments after seeing it and if that doesn't make it the perfect logo nothing will. Credit for it has been given to band member Babydaddy, but later the idea was attributed to revered Argentine cartoonist, Quino. Either way, this is one logo that you can't stop staring at.
24 Emerson, Lake & Palmer
The best thing Emerson, Lake & Palmer ever did from a design standpoint was hire Swiss surreal biomechanical artist, H.R. Giger, to do the cover art for their breakthrough album, Brain Salad Surgery. It's their best album, has the best cover design, and it's where their new logo, also by Giger, was taken (see below). From this point forward, their iconic logo was everywhere on everything. Interestingly, it's not a major design element on the cover, rather placed at the bottom of the frame as part of the hydraulic mechanism required to do the titular procedure. The interconnectivity of the letters seems so natural, it's near flawless. The asymmetrical approach, when symmetry was there for the taking, is an interesting editorial touch as well and to this day I debate the merit of that last little block of P extending below the L. Would it have looked better without? Let me know what you decide, but as is it still stands out.
23 The Beat
If only the Beatles had named themselves the Beat, a far better band name and sans the dumb pun, how would the world have changed? I say for the better. We'll never know. The Beat even beat (smart pun) the Beatles in the logo department, not settling for a stock font with a single dropped-T substituting for real design innovation, instead using a drawing of a hip girl dancing on top of one of their singles (presumably) and even an old school diagram included for those with two left feet. Granted, the band didn't use the full logo pictured all the time—sometimes just the girl and the name, sometimes just the steps and the name—but when put together it's an attractive, cohesive hipster package. But there's more. The name, in a basic block font, with a lowercase "b" and the rest in uppercase is my kind of font innovation. Has anyone de-capitalized only the first letter before? Plus they put them at different angles, almost like they too are dancing to the band's music. Nifty!
22 Blur
The lowercase "blur" that the band has used on every album they've ever released is easily the most iconic of the 1990's Britpop logos. Radiohead? No way. Oasis? Not a chance. Pulp? You're getting warmer, but not quite there. Bandleader Damon Albarn never sits still, constantly evolving, but the logo for the band that made him famous? It has never changed once. That's because it was perfect on delivery. The thick letters, the effortless curvature, the visual crispness, the subtle connectedness. Most design houses, when told their assignment was for a band with this name would've checked in with something like this...
Not bad, but way too literal. If I'm in a band called Blur, I'd want the opposite, and that's why their logo works so well. Not only that, the logo looks good anywhere you put it. Even the later-period version below, which I absolutely love, pays homage to the mod Brit bands of yore while still retaining that baseline Blur cool. It's never been used in any context where I've thought, "Maybe they should've gone with something else this time."
21 Electric Light Orchestra
The prime commercial period of the Electric Light Orchestra featured this elaborate logo based on the design of the Wurlitzer 4008 jukebox speaker. It's a marvel of modern design, which is why you'll never see another thing like it again. We don't do that anymore. Prior to its first reveal in 1976, for the band's A New World Record LP, ELO experimented with branding, but never quite committed to one approach. This started a new era, in one variation or another, and continues to define them for many, including me. It's a gloriously retro and deliriously colorful visual, to the point that sometimes just the script was pulled out as needed. Still, when I think ELO, this image, bursting with life, comes to mind. More bands could stand to put more effort into their music, their production, and their logo, just as ELO did.
20 Descendents
It can be argued that a punk band shouldn't have a brand or logo at all, but don't tell the Descendents that, because they've been mining the same general visual going on 35 years now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It just turned out that they hit on something perfect right from the beginning—something cheap, easy, memorable, and relevant. Now that's more in line with the punk aesthetic! Until I tell you that Milo Auckerman, the band's lead singer holds a doctorate in biology, I suppose. Hence, the nerdy rendering of him above. I just timed myself and I did a pretty good take on this crude drawing in under 20 seconds. Beat that.
19 Naked Raygun
I can hear the criticism now. There's nothing to this logo, so why does it rank so high? Answer: Because there's not much to it. Just a clean-lined, chunky font that's pleasing to the eye, with the R altered to approximate the appearance of the business end of a Naked Raygun. One and done. Actually, what I like most is what isn't here. No stupid cartoon image with someone getting blasted by a naked raygun (likely a busty girl). No Foo Fighters-esque image of said weapon. The name itself has a touch of humor, but the esteemed Chicago punk band was
the real deal, not some caricature of a pop-punk band from Encino.
18 The Kinks
The Kinks didn't have an official logo that was used throughout their career, but in the 1960's they used this positively charming and endearingly quirky design quite often (see below). I'm sorry they grew out of it, because I am in love with it. As you can tell by the variety show image below, that had their own distinct style that presented them as the debonair Brits people probably wanted them to be. I do not recommend playing the drums in a wool overcoat, but that's another issue. Providing each letter with a pair of black dress shoes gives the design a sense of mobility and sophistication, but mostly it's just a throwback to a more innocent time. I want to go back there again.
17 Misfits
I really wonder how many kids these days with their Misfits t-shirts actually know the band's work and/or history. I see this logo all the time and I sincerely hope the logo didn't drive the purchase alone. I want the music to count, too. That said, if you're going with the straight retro cool vibe you could do a lot worse than this deservingly ubiquitous image. The band name font mines the Cramps vibe (mentioned much earlier), but the haunted, strung-out skeleton image is all their own. A horror movie come to life. I love how it looks to be emerging from a dark closet, with only a partial view of its features (or lack thereof).
16 The Residents
Shreveport, Louisiana's The Residents have an enduring identity more than a set logo, but their weird existence will forever be represented by their eyeball helmets that they wore on stage, with top hat and tails, of course, to keep things classy. Even without a formal designation, the eyeball head has been the default Residents logo for fans everywhere. So unusual, you can't look away. How fitting.
15 New York Dolls
Glam rockers the New York Dolls, known for their campy, raucous, genre-defying onstage appearance nailed their logo by writing it out in cursive with pink lipstick. If only a logo could also incorporate a real mirror, then it would be even more amazing. Smartly, they also left the lipstick in the logo so there was no mistaking the logo's source. It's the perfect combination of band and image. A little gaudy, a little trashy, but delightfully bold and brash.
14 The Who
The ultimate mod logo, the Who's red, white, and blue target (the colors of the British flag) became one of the defining symbols of the entire mod subculture. They even wrote Quadrophenia about its glory years. Their logo, fittingly, was modern and hip and stood out in the mid-1960's for its appealing design which cleverly linked both words through the stretching of the h's in each word, with the "o" in Who doubling as a symbol for masculinity. It was designed by an artist named Brian Pike, presumably a mod himself. I say anything that gets more people cruising around on scooters the better.
13 Dead Kennedys
Considering the controversial band name and provocative album and song titles, conservatives should be thankful that this is what the Dead Kennedys settled on for their band’s logo. It could’ve been much, much worse I assure you. Part of me wishes they went for the jugular during the design phase, but I also applaud them for realizing that would’ve been overkill (pardon the pun). Instead, they smartly went for a bold geometric design in punk-rock, standard-issue red, white, and black. They initially thought about making the red dot a brick wall (see below) and I kind of like that idea, as it could've symbolized punk’s difficult, but worth fighting, battle against the establishment. Still, this logo has the feel of organized chaos to me, with attention to detail, considered angles, pleasing construction, and clever concept. There is definitely a feel of a formal “movement” happening with this striking, almost militant, logo. It seems like the organization behind it would be a force to be reckoned with, which of course they were.
12 Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick’s logo would’ve worked fine if designer Christopher Crowe had stopped at the band’s name typed once on a cheap typewriter with an over-inked ribbon. It has a certain tossed-off rock & roll appeal to it, almost punk rock in a way. It wouldn’t have made our Best Logos list, but it still would’ve had a low-budget DIY feel to it. The genius was taking that feasible logo idea and deciding to repeat it six times with increasing levels of distortion like it got jammed in a printer gone haywire at some point and someone yanked it out before the paper got munched in the gears. Now you have a logo that would look good on a drumhead, a t-shirt, an album cover, or anywhere else you want to put it. This version takes up some space and makes the most of it by stressing the band’s name over and over. I can’t think of any other band whose logo repeats the band name multiple times. It was atypical at the time, but coming into an era where brand awareness was more important than ever (hence the explosion of the logo itself), why not replicate the name over and over until it registers with people? Didn’t Andy Warhol base much of his career on the same concept? It makes me sad that the artist, a fan of the band with graphic design skills, never got paid a dime for it.*
Note: Crowe did go on to a career in Hollywood as a writer and director for film and television. His most notable credit, other than making Pickled Priest’s Top 50 Logos list, is writing the screenplay for the 1992 film, The Last of the Mohicans. That said, I’m more impressed that he wrote three Barretta episodes back in 1977.
11 Heart
Oft overlooked, I’m here to argue the merits of Heart’s logo, which never seems to get mentioned by anyone in discussions like this. I prefer the pink version posted here, but it has also been frequently rendered in lipstick red. We all know the band could hold its own against any rock band of any type back in the day, but acknowledging and owning a sense of feminine power by skewing a little softer and prettier was an inspired idea when branding the band. In a world of aggressive, testosterone-fueled bands, this was a refreshing change of pace. In a bold font, the word “Heart” flows smoothly and pleasingly with the “H” brilliantly looping to form a small heart on the left and extending far to the right. I very much appreciate that they didn’t put another heart on the back end, too. Would’ve been too much heart. There’s definitely a little peace and love element to it. Perhaps the source of the bias is that this could be an image straight from a Hallmark sticker pack marketed to pre-teen girls. You wouldn’t be surprised if you saw this slapped on a school locker or bedroom door. But that’s out of context, of course. In the context of a fierce rock band, the logo shows the confidence to change the game, delivering fierce rock and roll music while retaining a core identity, too.
10 Run-D.M.C.
“Rap was very inspirational for me at that time: large, meaningful,
hard-hitting words used with such power that I had not heard before.”
-Stephanie Nash
That was a quote was from Stephanie Nash, the designer of the ubiquitous Run-D.M.C. logo. That makes it all add up for me. I couldn’t quite describe why this logo, just a couple lines and six letters stacked on top of each other, drew me in so completely. With names written in large marquee-sized letters (Franklin Gothic, no less) and bordered by thick lines, there’s a power conveyed for sure, but c’mon, it’s just a basic logo without much else to it, right? The more I thought about it the more I realized that's why it works. A simple memorable image that gets the point across and reflects the revolutionary sound of the music.
09 Public Enemy
Chuck D was trained as a graphic designer and even had a Fine Arts degree from Alelphi University in New York, so it's no surprise he absolutely crushed it on the logo for Public Enemy. Back in 1986, before computers, logos like this had to be done with markers, Wite-Out (ironic), letter stencils, and X-Acto knives—the motherfuckin' hard way, in other words. (It's nearly impossible to make graphic design sound dangerous.) When it came down to capturing the "public" image for a band that would go on to be dubbed "the Black CNN," Chuck D first opted for a military-esque stencil for the band's provocative name. It implied an uprising was imminent and they were the right soldiers to lead the troops through the streets of New York City. As it turned out, a wordmark wasn't even needed, for the image of a black man in the crosshairs of a rifle became one of the most enduring and recognizable symbols of the late-80s and into the 1990s. Chuck described it as representing "the Black Man in America" and if this is how a whole group of people feels they are viewed, a shakeup was needed. And Public Enemy brought that noise in more ways than one.
08 AC/DC
In doing this project, one consistent “bonus” theme that has emerged is that graphic designers of iconic band logos often got very little money for their work beyond the status that goes along with having designed it in the first place. No royalties, limited retroactive appreciation, no cash “bonus” for job well done. Gerard Huerta, the then 25-year-old creator of the AC/DC logo as we now know it, got a one-time payment for his work on the cover of Let There Be Rock and that was it. That album is where the now ubiquitous version of the AC/DC logo made its first appearance, but he got nothing from its subsequent use on every AC/DC album that followed, every band t-shirt printed, and every piece of merch with the logo plastered on it. I get it, it’s just another job, and that was the deal, but would it kill these rich Aussies to throw him a bone? Just cut the guy a fat check already. Instead, Huerta hasn’t spoken with the band since he turned in his artwork. That’s cold. Strangely, Huerta, not even an AC/DC fan anyway, doesn’t seem to mind. He’s made money off his status as the guy who designed the logo in the form of other commissions, so the downstream effects have helped him out financially even if the band hasn't. A refreshing attitude, but it still doesn’t sit well with me. Pony up, boys. It’s the right thing to do. It’s pocket change for you. Now on to the logo proper.
This is going to sound like a dopey teenager is talking, but the AC/DC logo has lasted so long because it’s awesome. Just like the sound of Angus’s guitar powering out of a giant Marshall stack is awesome. It provides the entire experience of seeing the band in five simple characters—four letters and a lightning bolt. It’s balanced, colorful, alive, and most importantly, electric. Huerta’s letters were inspired by nothing less than the Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever mass produced by a printing press. The AC/DC of printing presses—huge, powerful, and heavy. With some line sharpening here and some beveling there, the logo was born. The bolt the perfect substitute for a slash, especially when you’re cranking 130 watts into people’s cottages on the regular. It’s as big as life and as loud as the band itself.
Side note: I don’t mean to imply Huerta suffered by not being paid a “bonus” by AC/DC. He had a long, celebrated design career that included the People Magazine, HBO, and Calvin Klein’s Eternity logos just to name a few. But just because he did well without them doesn’t mean he still didn’t deserve a little more love from the band.
07 Van Halen
The VH logo might be the most doodled logo in high school study hall history. At least it was at mine. The version used on the cover of VH 1 doesn’t quite do it for me though. I think adding the “Van Halen” banner was superfluous. They really nailed the logo once and for all on VH 2 and that is the version being awarded here. That version, even in various forms of embellishment, is untouchable. Anything from the David Lee Roth years is acceptable. That said, the circular VH logo used during the Sammy Hagar years, while not offensive, just don’t cut it, like pretty much anything produced visually or musically during that forgettable era. When using the VH logo, less is more. The simple VH with wings, aka “the flying V” design, is so immediately pleasing to the eye, no augmentation or revision was ever needed. They got it right early and then got cute with it. The band was not very good at making decisions, let’s face it.
06 Black Flag
Raymond Pettibon pissed off tons of people over the years with his provocative, often controversial, outsider art. He will always be known first and foremost as the guy who named Black Flag, his brother Greg Ginn's L.A. punk band, and the artist who designed the four-black-bars flag design that became the band's now iconic logo. A logo that has since gone on to become the bane of every self-respecting tattoo artist's existence, right up there with tribal, tramp stamp, and butterfly tattoos. That aside, the impact of the logo is substantial even though it is comprised of four black, vertical rectangles and nothing else. The stagger of the blocks provides a sense of movement to the flag, like it is blowing in the wind. In addition, it has to be said that a black flag also portends a sense of doom, which is fitting for a band that cause as much troulbe as Black Flag. This is another logo that needs no band name attached to it, you just know. Who would've thought you could accomplish so much with so little?
05 The Ramones
Genius. The Ramones' longtime friend, graphic designer, and lighting director, Arturo Vega (the "fifth Ramone"), decided he was going to create something out of the ordinary for his favorite band's logo, a group he deemed the ultimate American band (with no apologies to Grand Funk, I expect). And he didn't go small, either. He just ripped off the Presidential Seal, that's all! There are so many predictable directions he could have gone with this logo and this is not one of them. That's why it's so great. It's unexpected. And it makes for a very cool t-shirt. What's great is that I don't have to explain it to anyone, we all know it, and probably much more than the Presidential Seal itself. The Ramones logo has the "bird" holding a baseball bat in one hand (in reference to "Beat on the Brat"), but what is the eagle holding in the actual Presidental logo? See what I mean? One last thing. Has anyone ever pointed out that the Ramones eagle looks more like a turkey? It has to be intentional.
04 Motörhead
Lemmy's instruction to artist and graphic designer Joe Petagno was to create an image that would look cool on the back of a leather biker jacket and boy did he deliver the goods. If I didn't know any better, the Motörheads would be a gang I would avoid at all costs. Fuck the Sons of Anarchy bullshit. This is menacing stuff. I do wonder what Lemmy would think about me wearing my Motörhead helmet as I tool around my quiet suburban town on a 125cc fat-bottomed scooter? Suffice it to say, not what he had in mind. This logo has been called a few things, like "Snaggletooth" (don't like it) and "The Iron Bear" (doesn't fit), but for me there's only one way to refer to it and that's "War Pig." Yup, that'll do for me. The logo was there from the beginning, right there front and center on the cover of Motörhead's Motörhead debut album (first song "Motörhead," of course) and has been along for the entire badass ride. If there was ever a band that lived up to their logo, it was Lemmy and his band of speed freaks.
03 Kiss
The Kiss wordmark ranks with the most recognizable ever created and it all came about so easily. Sometimes things just fall into your lap. One day Ace came up with the design, almost as is (see below) sans a dot on the “I” that was smartly edited, and then Paul refined it a little and sharpened the edges. Done. The only surprise is that Gene didn’t somehow claim full credit for it. The brilliant design element is the double-S ending (except in Germany, where it was changed so as to not reference Hitler’s Schutzstaffel logo), two jagged mini lightning bolts that made the entire logo stand out no matter where it was presented. And when I say stand out, no logo has ever been used to a more consistent, widespread, and borderline shameless degree. From the get-go the band has a giant flashing KISS logo behind their stage setup. And, as one of the most marketing savvy enterprises in modern history, the KISS name has been slapped on more products than there are actual products. They even made new products so they could put their logo on them. Good old American capitalism at its finest. Hate them or love them, there’s no denying the KISS name draws attention. Especially when it’s flashing behind Peter Criss’s drum kit or gracing the coffin of your Kiss-loving drunk uncle.
02 The Rolling Stones
Well, here it is in all its glory. The single greatest band logo that doesn't include the band's name anywhere in, on, or around it. Is there a soul on this earth who doesn't know what this logo represents? I doubt it. Inspired by an artifact Mick saw in Africa, the tongue sticking out is the ultimate act of rock & roll defiance by a band that once actually seemed dangerous. You could argue that any logo affiliated with the Stones would be overvalued by its loyal fans (see the Beatles logo), but there's no such worry with this instantly memorable image. What's also interesting is that there's no set corresponding logo or script style for the band's name. Yes, some have been more prevalent than others, but not to the point any layperson could pick it out of a lineup. Why? Because it's not needed. We've got a tongue sticking out at us. That's all we need.
01 Yes
The issue with the internet is that it creates a hive mind. Through repetition certain ideas gain traction. Soon, a conventional order to things is formed mainly through assimilation. This mentality discourages individual opinions out of fear of seeming out of touch with popular opinion, which common sense dictates must be right. I am likely guilty of this to some degree myself because things like this are often achieved subconsciously. This logo is great, this logo is not, determined by repetitive inclusion or consistent exclusion.
I say all this because I am now going to anoint Yes’s logo as the best ever created despite the fact it is rarely ranked near the top of any of the lists of the best logos previously posted on the internet or elsewhere. Until now. My thought process follows.
First, a statement. I am not a Yes fanatic, so there is no “fan bias” present. I do listen to Yes, I grew up around Yes fans, and I do love me some Yes now and then when the mood calls for a little Prog Rock excess. At those moments, few bands fit the bill as well as Yes. But I am not a die-hard.
The logo was created by Yes's graphic mastermind, Roger Dean, one of the most acknowledged and recognized album cover artists in history. He is responsible for the full Yes identity as most know it, although his logo wasn’t developed until Close to the Edge, the band's fifth record. Dean was also the guy behind the album art for the band Asia (which included guitarist Steve Howe of Yes). His logo for Asia didn’t make this list, so we’re not rubber stamping all his work in blind adoration.
The Yes logo, unlike many other entries on this list, is a work of art, a thing of beauty, even without the added boost of its association with a Hall of Fame rock band. Dean came up with the basic design on a train ride and the rest is history. There’s no denying that it takes some artistic talent to make this complex, intertwined series of three letters work together. Proof of its artistic merit: two different art museums have original versions of the Yes logo in their collections.
The logo is versatile. Its “bubble” letters can be “filled” with any color, design, or visual effect and still retains its distinct presence. You can even add a border, shading, fading, or grading and it holds its readily identifiable signature shape. I’ve included several examples below to demonstrate. I don’t think I’ve seen any design alteration outright fail because the canvas is so amenable to further creativity. A sign of great art is that it inspires others to create, too. Take what I’ve done and build on it. Isn’t that how rock and roll was born and why it has evolved? Hence, the Yes logo is rock and roll in a nutshell.
The logo works at almost any size. In fact, I sometimes wish it was a bigger presence on Yes albums. Dean was surprisingly modest with his logo, rarely allowing it to dominate his accompanying artwork. By keeping it tasteful, he allowed each album’s grander theme to flourish, to have its rightly deserved real estate.
The logo, on a standalone basis, is perfect for t-shirts and other merch. When you see someone walking down the street in a Yes shirt, it stands out. Your eyes are drawn to the logo no matter where it appears.
I’m at point #7 and I haven’t even discussed the design of the logo itself, which tells you something. The letters are pleasingly thick and bulbous, which allows for the aforementioned visual flexibility mentioned in point #4. Without some room to innovate and experiment, the logo would not be as impactful and versatile. There are endless possibilities with the logo like this. As Dean cleverly connects the Y and the S together with a “meandering path” (my term) from one side to the other, it provides a sense of unity to the whole design. And the lowercase “e”, while not literally connected, gets to play, too, as the path threads its way through its eye. If you look at it, the path seems to narrow as it recedes into the horizon, only to get fatter again when it returns to create the “s”. Somehow, someway the whole thing is easily digestible and not a complete mess.
It’s well know Yes was a band that liked to “meander” a bit with their music. Progressive often means “complex, long songs”, so having a logo that not only flows in and around itself perfectly but also reflects the complex music of the band is a tricky balance to achieve.
It’s fun to draw, or attempt to draw, especially freehand—no tracing! I’ve been trying to nail it for years, never quite succeeding. All I can say is that I sit in a lot of boring meetings and the Yes logo has come to the rescue more than a few times. The difficulty of recreating it only underscores its accomplishment.
And, finally, you simply cannot fuck up the Yes logo. As seen below. Give it a try.
For these reasons and more, the Yes logo is Pickled Priest's all-time best logo.
Traditional Favorites That Didn't Make the List
...and Why
These logos invariably appear on almost every list of great band logos. We don't see it that way. Warning: contents may make some people angry.
The Beatles
It's not surprising people are attached to this Beatles logo. Almost every list includes it as one of the best logos of all-time for good reason. It represents the most important band in rock & roll history. That said, I would argue that any logo the Beatles used would've been revered simply because of its affiliation with the group. If they chose a grilled cheese sandwich and scraped the band's name into the top of it with a butter knife, we'd love that, too. Don't get me wrong, this looks good, but it's a pretty basic looking font with the major "innovation" being its famous "dropped T." If that's all you got to back up your claim that this logo is more than just a fond remembrance of a glorious moment in time, that's not much to hang your hat on. It's telling that the Beatles didn't use it even once on any of their studio albums, not even on the White Album, where all that was embossed on the cover was the band's name. That would've been a great opportunity to finally bust this logo out officially. Instead, it was relegated to the bass drum of Ringo's drum kit and some merch, but little else. Heck, they didn't even think to trademark it until the 1990s. You've gotta do better than that to get on this list.
The Doors
Everybody thinks this logo is cool because you can see through it, or "break on through to the other side," if you will. That's fine in theory, but seeing through Jim Morrison's bad poetry doesn't require that much transparency. Here, it just required some stenciled letters from the local five and dime and everybody thought it was so deep and iconic. And they should've gone with just "Doors"--it would've looked cleaner. The word "the" has been ruining designs for years. Leave it the fuck out already. Overall, not bad certainly, but wildly overrated from a design standpoint.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
This is an "asterisk" and not an angel's asshole (fucking Kiedis) or the "Star of Affinity" or a creative explosion as some love to claim. It's serviceable as the forever symbol of the Chili Peppers and their fanbase, which is fine by me, but let's not go overboard. In actuality, it's perfect for these guys because perhaps no other band needs more asterisks than this one. They are one of the most successful bands of all-time.* They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.** They have sold over 120 million albums worldwide.*** And they have many songs commonly heard on contemporary radio.**** There's no denying the success of their logo either, which is like the Red Cross doubled-up by one click to the right. Like it or not it is ubiquitous.*****
*Horrifying.
**They shouldn't be.
***The masses are asses.
****That make me want to jam knitting needles in my ears.
*****While Pickled Priest generally doesn't spend much time ripping on bands we hate, I make an exception for the Peppers, who I cannot stand with every fiber of my being. That said, if this is your bag, have at it and we support you.**********
**********That's a lie.
Metallica
I don't get why people love this logo so much. The first and last letters get a little flourish and the seven interior letters are totally plain, bland, and straight as an arrow? Maybe it looks decent on a black t-shirt, I guess, but I don't see the design brilliance here. Something of this quality is done every day in high school study halls around the world.
Guns 'N' Roses
A pretty decent logo that seems almost too fussed over to be affiliated with the clusterfuck that was prime-era Guns 'N' Roses. If only Axl and Slash could've dueled to the death with these pistols at high midnight, then maybe it would've made my list.
Aerosmith
Again, affiliation with a legendary rock band causes people to lose objectivity. You can become so inured to this logo that you might be able to convince yourself of its artistic merit, such are the residual benefits of a Joe Perry guitar solo or Steven Tyler yelp. I know this because I have personally done so for decades. Until now. Until it became time to really consider this dump of superfluous line work and random filigree, which looks and feels like it was created during a Breakfast Club-length Saturday detention by some moderately talented burnout (a John Bender-type, surely). The band name, when extricated, works best standing on its own, apart from the rest of this hood ornament gone wrong. Then, with too much time to kill, the artist adds some kind of steering wheel assembly, two angel's wings, a random star (topped with a half circle for no reason), and more feathers emanating from the bottom of the logo as well. It has the look and feel of a tattoo cover-up and that's not a good thing.
Nirvana
A logo undeserving of its status to say the least. The font chosen, Onyx, was given zero thought during the design stage and could've been replaced with anything really (with the exception of Jokerman) and we'd have been fine with it (I would've chosen Bauhaus 93). The rest of the logo? Fuck off. The band was so huge they could've made pretty much anything work in 1991 and people would've bought the t-shirt. Proof: the inexplicable ubiquity of this blackout drunk smiley face, which proves the old axiom that you shouldn't get your design ideas from a local strip club at 3:00 a.m.
Foo Fighters
When I see two F's together like this I think Fast Forward. Which is coincidentally what I do whenever a Foo Fighters song comes on the radio.
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi just isn't tough enough to pull off a modern traditional tattoo like this. Perhaps they can handle a temporary tat from a cereal box, but that's where I draw the line. Clearly, that didn't stop them from putting every tattoo parlor trope into it just to be sure: angel's wings, purple flowers, sword-pierced heart, dripping blood, and a banner where "Mom" normally goes. What a bunch of twits. They should've put their name on a can of Aqua Net, made a patch out of it, and. had their mom sew it onto their distressed jean jackets. Instead we got this feeble attempt at making them seem somewhat dangerous. What a farce. That's it, boys. Machines down. No more ink.
Aphex Twin
I don't outright dislike this undefinable shape that loosely represents the letter "A" in some kind of futuristic computer alphabet, but I've stared at it for a long time today and it does absolutely nothing for me despite that. Is it possibly a three-sided dildo? Please advise.
Weezer
I don't like to shit on bands, but I really hate Weezer almost as much as I hate their ripoff of the invincible Van Halen logo. How clever you are, you overrated fucks.
________________________________________
Alright. Clearly that got out of hand at the end. All I'll say is beware of the projects you undertake. They could take on a life of their own.
Cheers,
The Priest