Firefly’s main logo is designed to appeal to girls ages 8-18. Pretty and gold like a fairytale princess would sign her name. The web domain is also their LLC name. Both logos are used by promoters and event organizers when creating advertisements for upcoming appearances.
Melanie, McKenzie, and Madelyn Merchant are the oldest of 7 musical siblings from Gilbert, Arizona entertaining audiences from Arizona to New York. By 2006, Melanie had become a featured singer-songwriter and opened with an original song for a benefit event honoring the legendary Wynonna Judd. In the Summer of 2007, they formed their country-bluegrass band Melanie and Firefly to perform during Writer’s Night at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. They went on to share the stage with The Gin Blossoms, Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband, and Benton Paul later that year.
As they developed their sound, they were influenced by artists Michelle Branch, Martina McBride, Taylor Swift, and John Mayer and quickly moved from Bluegrass inspired Country to Country-Pop and they shortened their name to just Firefly. This sound coupled with lyrics of fairytales, hope, love, and light became known as the Firefly sound.
In October 2009, they set their goals to raise funds to further their music careers and they asked me to produce a concert for private investors. We held it in the backyard of a very influential Phoenix philanthropist. In organizing the event, my roles were vocal coach, event designer, graphic designer, and publicist.
Unfortunately, I lost several hard drives a few years ago due to heat and I have no pictures of the evening. However, I have pieced together files from my email attachments of the graphic design elements. I created a new visual brand (here’s the old one) to tell the story of their message as a group sharing light to a world in twilight.
Visual Brand Components:
The three fair and blue-eyed, auburn beauties Melanie, McKenzie, and Madelyn Merchant began performing at an early age in children’s choirs and a family band known as Red Haired Boy. As sisters they have shared the stage with legendary artists such as Marie Osmond and Wynonna Judd.
In 2007, Melanie auditioned at the Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. A few weeks after playing Bluebird, Melanie and her sisters found themselves collaborating on music under the stars on a Mississippi River bank. The glimmer of little “lights” fluttering about in the summer night sky inspired an new sound and shared dreams as sisters. At this time they began to be known as Melanie and Firefly.
Melanie was asked to return to perform at the Bluebird Cafe again the following summer and this time she could bring McKenzie and Madelyn to perform with her. When they returned they wanted to begin recording music to distribute and asked me to produce it. I also designed the artwork for it. Here is what I created to help them tell create their visual message. (Click on images to enlarge.)
CD Artwork:
CD Envelope:
I can’t remember why but this was a limited run of CDs and a rush job, meaning I had to design, print and assemble the CDs in about 4 days. Additionally, I made business cards and a website for them in a similar design. Each CD was labeled by hand and the envelopes were folded and glued by hand.