word(mark of the beast)
This is my first blog post, so I’ll start with disclaimers. I’m not going to be good at writing or explaining, and my process is awful. You’ve been warned.
The process of starting this mark began by immersing myself in clipping.’s music. After listening to multiple albums what must’ve been a hundred times each, I noticed a number of clipping. traits that I wanted to capture within this single wordmark that are different from other rap groups:
1) The music is unsettling. Lyrically, it can be gory, gruesome, and grotesque. Musically: see lyrically. I mean, they made a beat by knocking on a coffin door. That’s chilling, right? However, it can also feel unsettling because underneath all of that horror are messages that confront things that can be uncomfortable to deal with, such as racism and the patriarchy.
2) The music keeps you off balance. It takes paths that are completely unexpected and there’s hardly ever a moment of easy listening. In fact, there are moments that are literally difficult to listen to.
3) The music morphs. This band changes time signature often, and what’s so impressive is that Daveed Diggs rolls with it effortlessly. It’s astonishing. Once you think you’ve found comfort and familiarity in a song, it moves to something that can’t be anticipated. It’s not that they don’t have a sound, it’s just that they’re not going to stick to the rigidity of how one makes a song slap.
4) They love them some retro horror.
I’m not going to put much effort here to talk about early sketches and explain why each of them didn’t work. Spoiler alert: they were just the worst. And to be honest, even after the initial sketches, I chose to explore this direction without having confidence it’d embody almost any of the things I wanted. It was not a great sketch. But there was just something there I wanted to push further…
In the sketch I wanted to make sure that the vertical lines within each letter look like they’re cowering in fear, as if they’re anticipating the horror to come. This is why the letters bend less the farther they get from the “G”. This, combined with the lack of alignment, is what I hoped would help achieve the off-balance look. I also wanted the design to morph. I made sure to change the way the “G” looked in comparison with the “C”. By the end, we’re not just finishing what was started. We’ve been through some shit, homie, and it’s changed us. Another note: the differing sizes of these 2 bookend characters also allude to clipping.’s oft-used change in time signature within a song. To get to the same part of the “G” takes much longer. This is also shown in the tittles and the period.
Then it was time to stylize the sketch to capture the gory & unsettling vibe, along with a nod to retro horror. When I think of retro horror it can range from the era of Swamp Thing to Halloween, or even Scream. I liked the idea of stylizing this lettering like super old school movie posters did. The typography would straight-up tell you what to expect when you watched the movie. Yet here, it’s still vague enough that it could be werewolf fur, oozing blood, slime, guts, etc. And trust me, clipping. covers it all!
Aaaand that about covers it. If you have questions or want to see anything in particular in regards to how it was done, drop it in the comments. I’m a closed book for sure, but I’ll open up for you if you need help or want to see more. Team Introvert - out!
