UK Metal band Hellfire were recently featured in the premiere Metal magazine - Metal Hammer. A few emails were exchanged. A brief of “make it evil” was obtained and I was pretty much left to my own devices to come up with some concepts to present to the band. Along with a website, the guys are also after a logo and some t-shirt designs.
Pictured above is a rough draft I prepared today. I wanted something with minimal colors so I chose 3 (red, white & black) and went to town. I didn’t have much in the way of source materials but this particular photo of the band struck a chord with me so I decided to use that as the basis for this early mock-up. You can see the original photo below and the extent of the manipulation it went through is evident in the mock-up.
I wanted the site to have that somewhat “evil” look the guys were after but also a more stylish and urban flavour to it which I believe it achieves with the colors and layout.
The menu still needs some work and the logo is not finalized as yet as at this early stage I am not sure that will be the logo. On doing a Hellfire search in google, I stumbled upon this totally unrelated site which has the same colors and simillar font to what I used. My jaw dropped to the floor as the similarities are uncanny. “Holy Fuck!” were the words I believe I uttered! The makers of whatever that site is would rightfully have a case against me that I ripped them off but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I’ll be working further on this over the next few days and I will post my progress on this blog. Comments, feedback, suggestions welcome. What would you do different? Talk it up peeps!
I am a big fan of clean designs so this already works for me but they said they wanted evil, I think you need to amp it up a bit in that department. I see the star and the cool abstract flames but I don’t see it as being something that will make parents running out of fear when they see it on their kid’s computer.
I’m not a design pro like you but I think it’s all the white space and for a band that wants to have an evil look, it doesn’t work for me. Your old Dogmatic headers were darker and more evil than this and I think it’s because they were so dark that they felt claustrophpbic. Your current one has a similar effect, like one a Doom videogame, where you’re walking down a dark tunnel.
it’s a cool design, and it’s somewhat evil but it ain’t scary. Marilyn Manson’s website is evil and frightening and Slayer’s website is evil and bloody if you want a reference.
I think it also depends on the band musical themes. Slayer and blood obviously work well but it won’t fit for everyone.
Hey there outburst. Thanks for the constructive commentary there. Have definetly taken your suggestions on board.
I can do ‘evil’ reeeeeal easy. If you were privvy to some of my previous works, you could attest to that too.
What I am trying to achieve with this design is a more commercial ‘evil’ if you will. Something that would also work in the band’s merchandising with strong basic/primal colors that emote that sense of shock… attentiveness.
Ideally, and in a perfect world, I would love to photograph the band in a suitable surrounds… say a candle-lit table etc. But alas, their in the UK and I am in Australia so I am limited with what the guys do provide me.
Again, I welcome your comments and truly appreciate your contribution to this post.
Cheers bro!
I like it and if the band doesn’t - could you design my band a site like that? Check your email for more. Very cool design JR
I’m really enjoying this behind the scenes look and it makes me appreciate the creative design process a whole lot more. You’ve managed to make a dull looking band that much more exciting with your used of color and atmosphere. I like it a lot.
Too much whitespace.
I think the whitespace is cool. You could always add more content there such as photos, downloads etcetc
Nice! Looks like that other site you linked to is down, anyhow…it just loads a “welcome” page with a logo.
I like the whitespace, there’s potential there…as Sporn noted.
Hi.. cool blog.. I was wondering if you would consider allowing me to add your blog feed to my news section on my webmaster website . I realise that not all of your posts are strictly webmaster related but ive written a script to only show posts containing certain keywords so theres no need to worry. Anyway, like i said.. cool blog.. some interesting stuff.. thanks
Sure. Knock yourself out!
Hi Guru, I fell blessed that I found your post while searching for ripped shirt. I agree with you on the subject ing the Hellfire Website at Dogmatic. I was just thinking about this matter last Monday.