Rebrand a Band, Round 9: Blitzen Trapper

This week on Rebrand a Band, we’re taking a closer look at Blitzen Trapper: the rugged, cooing quintet from Portland, Ore. They’re labeled as more of an experimental folk/country group, and you can indeed hear strange electronic notes blended in with a soft guitar strumming. They’re trying new things (while flirting with that classic Dylan-esque vocal vibe)—and we commend that.

To be fair, Blitzen Trapper already has a logo, that you can see on the cover of their 2008 album Furr:

This logo has been with them for years, and it’s recognizable. But does it really line up with their brand? Blitzen Trapper’s music is known for banjos, harmonicas and bird whistles, but when you remove the wooden background, this logo harkens more to the look of metal bands, like these below:

We’d like to give them a look that separates their music from screaming death metal.

For some background, let’s take a look/listen at the track that shot them up the charts, into indie legend:

You can see the strong DIY-aesthetic taking place, as it’s a very literal interpretation of the song, as told in stop-motion paper cutouts. At 1:59, you’ll see two bears high-fiving, which is a reference to (or the inspiration for) their classic tees:

Our rebrand does away with this design and brings them back to their Portland roots. In the gallery above, you’ll see a redesigned circular logo that’s still rugged and spontaneous, but a little more refined for the sound they produce. We see it being turned into a stamp and added to albums, posters, anything physical they can get their hands on.

The colors chosen are foresty, warm but slightly muted to evoke that moody, brooding sense. We kept the howling woof present in many of their designs and contined with the wooden, DIY feel. We’ve also come up with a pattern and a few mockups of merch we’d like to see in their stores.

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