Design and illustration studio of Nathan McDonald: branding specialist and Certified StoryBrand Guide
Design and illustration studio of Nathan McDonald: branding specialist and Certified StoryBrand Guide
Logo design and visual identity system for The Music Box in Rockford, Illinois. Collaboration by Paxcurio Studio and Aaron Branding.
The owners of The Music Box, Kelly Steward and Miles Nielsen, felt unsure how to brand their first venue to attract a serious listening audience. My team helped them identify potential directions that aligned with their business goals and guided them through an iterative process to create a logo and visual identity that signaled to the right patrons they had found their musical home. As a result, their venue quickly gained a following of true music listeners, regularly packing the house within a few months of opening. Some super fans have even gotten tattoos of their logo!
This project was created in partnership with my talented friend, Aaron Johnson.
Modern brands need flexible design systems to apply their visual identity consistently at various sizes. We created primary and alternative versions of The Music Box logo to meet that need.
Along with the logo design, we provided concepts to guide their in-house team in designing collateral such as menus and the website.
The core colors for The Music Box were based on Kelly's interior design vision of "emerald and gold" to evoke many of the iconic venues she's performed at over the years. From there, the rest of the colors developed naturally to support a consistent experience across all their touch points—physically and digitally.
Miles Nielsen and me at The Music Box soft launch. You gotta check out this place if you're ever in Rockford.