Top 10 Band Logos
Top 10 Band Logos
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These bands sure know how to leave their mark. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 band logos. For this list, we’ll be looking exclusively at logos and symbols used by bands or musical collectives. Symbols or logos associated with solo artists will be omitted as they are a list for another day. Our apologies to “The Artist.”
#10: “Steal Your Face Skull” Grateful Dead
Kicking off our list is the icon known to Deadheads all over. While the Grateful Dead have numerous associated images, the Skull - or Stealie as it has come to be known - is perhaps the one most identified with the band. The logo was designed by Owsley Stanley - the band's sound engineer - and Bob Thomas, a graphic artist. Entrenched in the festival circuit, Stanley wanted a simple but readily identifiable symbol to put on the band's equipment and settled on a circle of blue and red before having Thomas jazz it up with the now-familiar skull.
#9: “Star of Affinity” or “Star of Infinity” Red Hot Chili Peppers
Described as “random and meaningless” by designer and band frontman Anthony Kiedis, the Chili Peppers’ logo came about when the band's label wanted one to use for promotional reasons. Kiedis quickly drew out the 8-point asterisk, which has since been said to represent passion, courage, elegance, purity and charm due to its color pallet - or more colorfully, a butt hole. Regardless of what it may or may not mean, the Chili Peppers’ star has served them throughout their career and is a tattoo of choice for their legions of fans.
#8: “Sex Pistols” Sex Pistols
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The blueprint for the punk esthetic, the Pistols’ logo was designed by Jamie Reid, who - with manager Malcom McClaren - did much to cement the band's early image. Meanwhile, the ripped and torn style letters were cut by McLaren’s friend Helen Wellington-Lloyd. The so-called anti-logo has gone through slight alterations, including splitting the words Sex Pistols and changing the colors, depending on what country the image is produced in. But it remains iconic and inseparable from the band decades after their demise.
#7: “Fiend Skull” Misfits
Known to many as that face on the IT guy's t-shirt and to everyone else as the Fiend Skull, this ghostly vision has been in use by the band since 1979. First debuting on the cover of their “Horror Business” single, it was inspired by film serial posters from the mid-‘40s. Mad Marc Rude is credited with the design, while the rest of the Misfits’ iconic logo is said to have been made from a font lifted from “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine.
#6: “Guns N’ Roses” Guns N' Roses
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While there is a flicker of debate, most agree that it was the Les Paul-slinging top hatted Slash that created the revolver and thorns of the Guns N's Roses logo. The guitarist drew the logo by hand, taking inspiration from a Guns & Ammo magazine while he was working at a newsstand. Disagreeing with this, as is his way, Axl Rose claims the logo was in fact designed by tattoo artist Bill White. Regardless of its origin, the killer image has been linked to the band for over 20 years and is completely unforgettable.
#5: “AC/DC” AC/DC
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Although the band already had several albums out and a strong following in their native Australia by the mid-‘70s, a move to American label Atlantic Records resulted in the need for a logo that was as strong as the rest of the band's image. Commissioned by Bob Defrin and designed by Gerald Huerta, the new logo made use of Gothic font inspired by Gutenberg's Bible for a metallic flavor. With a hard-edged lightning bolt for power, it debuted on international copies of AC/DC’s fourth LP, Let There Be Rock, and it’s been associated with them ever since.
#4: “W” Wu-Tang Clan
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With a name that badass, you need a logo to match. While the group's name was lifted from the martial arts movie “Shaolin and Wu Tang,” designing duties for the logo fell to DJ and kinsman Mathematics. A former graffiti artist, Mathematics “drew” inspiration (see what we did there) from what appears to be the comic book hero known as Batman, as well as (rumor has it) a 40ozer and an off-market herbal jazz cigarette. The resulting logo is a badge and brand worthy of the hip-hop legends that serve under it.
#3: “KISS” Kiss
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Following a name change and the addition of guitarist Ace Frehley, the Kiss logo first appeared, hand-drawn, on a show poster masking the band's old name, Wicked Lester. Frehley, who designed the logo, stylized the dual S's after lightning bolts. However, not everyone saw it that way. Due to the all-caps presentation, many in the American south took the name as an acronym for “Knights in Satan's Service,” while in Germany, many linked the S shape to the Nazi SS. This has led the band to create an alternate logo for that country, replacing the stylized Ss for two backward Zs – but that hasn’t taken away from the logo’s power and recognition.
#2: “The Ramones Seal” Ramones
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Designed by band friend Arturo Vega, who also served as their lighting director in addition to producing the band's t-shirts, this logo has been a punk seal of approval since the ‘70s. Following a visit to Washington, D.C., Vega used the Presidential seal as the basis of the logo, adding arrows of strength, replacing the olive branch with an all-American apple tree, and adding a baseball bat for... baseball. The seal's scroll, which reads “Hey ho let's go,” is a nod to the Ramones’ first single “Blitzkrieg Bop.” Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. - Iron Maiden - Metallica - Aerosmith - Daft Punk - Queen - Led Zeppelin - Van Halen - The Doors - The Who - Nine Inch Nails - Black Flag - Bad Religion
#1: “The Tongue and Lips” The Rolling Stones
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Created by John Pasche, the most famous logo in rock and roll was intended to honor Kali, the Hindu goddess of everlasting energy. But, it's also clearly an homage to Stones frontman Mick Jagger. The red lips first appeared on the Rolling Stones 1971 album Sticky Fingers and went unaltered until 2012, when it was given a mild update by artist Shepard Fairey to reflect the band's 50th Anniversary. With its lapping tongue and suggestive nature, it’s the perfect image to capture the Stones’ and one of the most famous logos in rock and roll ever. Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite band logo? For more iconic Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
