How to draw metal logo

How to Make a Death Metal Logo

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make a death metal logo. We’ll go into other metal band logos and use this to show you how to create your own custom metal logo.

Every few months, I take the time to draw a new logotype for myself. It’s an easy way to show clients the kind of work I can do and the variety of styles I can tackle. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to draw a death metal logo. If you’ve ever come across one, you can easily see the amount of skill and detail involved. They’re truly on another level and live in their own unique world. Well, today I’m going to kill two birds with one stone and draw myself my very own death metal logotype.

Metal CD mockup made using Placeit’s CD mockup generator

This design is based on hand-lettering practices which you can learn in my free hand-lettering course over on the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

1. Where Metal Logos Began

We first and foremost have to thank Black Sabbath for being the pioneers of heavy metal, which led on to death metal. It’s interesting to consider the origins of metal being rooted in more of a psychedelic approach (and even inspiration from Art Nouveau) before it evolved into what we see today. Metal band logotypes may be difficult to read, but they sure are full of personality.

2. Research Into Metal Band Logo Design

Metal music is a very unique subculture, characterized by some gnarly heavy guitar riffs, aggressive and intense drums, and of course, loud screaming vocals. There are a number of subgenres of metal as well: Thrash Metal (Slayer, Megadeath, Metallica), Metalcore (Architects, While She Sleeps, August Burns Red), Deathmetal (Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Obituary), Alternate Metal (System of a Down, Killswitch Engage, Tool), and even Baby Metal! Those are just a few, but listening to any metal music, you’ll easily understand how that translated into the look and feel you see today. Keep this in the back of your head as you design your logotype because the subgenres of metal can be rather diverse.

Step 1

It will be extremely beneficial to view existing logotypes in this space for a better idea of the look and feel we’re trying to achieve. This handy dandy website is a perfect place to explore.

Step 2

First and foremost, the metal band logo expert Christophe Szpajdel has key advice to break down the basics of a metal logo in a WIRED interview:

I think the lettering should be sharp, inspired by gothic/old English fonts. First and last letters should be bigger than the middle ones. Unlike most people who think a black metal logo should contain symbols like pentagrams, inverted crosses. I think this is overdone.

3. Sketch a Custom Metal Logotype

Step 1

As we talked about previously, we first need to understand the client and what kind of metal should influence the overall look and feel. For this particular project, I’ll be drawing a custom logotype for me, myself and I. Additionally, being a huge fan of the «Metalcore» genre, I am going to explore that idea with this particular logotype. Metalcore bands oddly enough tend to be a bit on the «cleaner» side, so we’ll keep that in mind going forward. Let’s get to work!

Step 2

Since metal logotypes are incredibly detailed and complex works of art, let’s try and break it down to the bare minimum first. I’ll be using Procreate for this entire process, but feel free to use Photoshop or even do things the analog way with pencil and paper!

Begin by exploring the overall color (or visual weight) that your letterforms have. Is it super wide and bold? Maybe thin and wispy? Somewhere in between? Does the logotype have multiple words? That’s something to consider as you go deeper into this process. Is it not looking how you’ve envisioned it? That’s perfectly fine! This is a building up process, so be patient with yourself as you proceed.

Through our research, we can easily derive that one of the key elements of a metal logo is the symmetrical shape it takes on. Now, the logotype doesn’t necessarily have to be symmetrical—you could attempt something similar to Black Sabbath or Slayer, with angular, cleaner forms. However, for my logotype, I’ll be exploring the symmetry.

Step 3

Consider additional illustrative elements. Does the logo have an upside-down cross? Maybe a sword or an axe? How can we show something dark, evil, or heavy through the use of illustration? This is where you explore spiders’ webs, dripping blood, or the branch-like features you see in existing metal logos.

4. Refine & Finesse a Metal Band Logo

Step 1

After you’re done exploring, it’s time to select one concept to push onward to the final logo design. The concept you see below is the one I selected. While it may be very rough, it still shows the overall idea of what we’re going for.

Step 2

With your composition set, it’s now time to flesh things out a bit further. I’m beginning to refine the details of my blackletter letterforms, as you can see below. Again, this is still very rough to get the overall idea finalized, and we’ll continue the clean-up process as we go along. You can see I’m paying attention to the symmetry as we progress.

Step 3

At this stage, I knew the composition was heading in the right direction. But I knew it still needed something else. I then warped the perspective of the letterforms to add a bit of visual depth and interest to the piece. Feel free to explore various types of warping here to achieve different results. You could arc, arch, bulge, etc.

Step 4

The clean-up process continues! With the warp now in place, it’s time to clean up the letterforms and perfect the visual weight across the entire logotype. The goal here is to have everything feel visually equal.

Step 5

A minor but very important step: refine the spacing. Later on down the line, I will be adding additional texture, drips, branches, etc. to bring it further into the heavy metal realm. With that said, I’m opening up the spacing to make it easier to read even after the additional detail is added in. I individually selected each letterform in Procreate/Photoshop and nudged them outward from the left/right.

Step 6

Now for the fun part! This is where you begin to add all the messy details to your logotype. Since this logotype will eventually be living on my portfolio website at a small scale, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t too detailed. I drew minor cuts and divots to help the logotype feel more eroded and evil.

Step 7

Plenty more fun to be had! Continue pushing your drips, branches, etc. on your logotype to really drive it home. Again, since my logotype will be used at smaller scales, I kept the additional detail to a minimum while still achieving the overall «heavy metal band» look and feel.

5. Vector Your Custom Metal Logo

With your logotype complete, you now have the option of vectoring! If you’re interested in using this logotype at large scales or maybe need it in vector format for ease of printing, feel free to use Adobe Illustrator’s Auto Trace feature. Most heavy metal band logotypes are grungy enough that the Auto Trace feature will do a perfect job rather than spending time placing all of your anchor points manually.

You can learn more about vectoring your death metal logo, or any lettering, in my tutorial here on Envato Tuts+:

Rock On, Your Custom Metal Logo Is Complete!

There we have it! We finally have ourselves a custom metal logotype. This truly is a building-up process, and it can take a great deal of time to properly achieve a well-balanced, symmetrical piece. While the upside-down cross may be overused and overdone, I still couldn’t pass up the chance since the «I» was perfectly placed! Best of luck on your heavy metal endeavors.

Turn your band logo into a stylish album cover design, thanks to Placeit’s many mockup generators.

Then you can see what your design looks like on a CD and CD case. After using the same album cover design generator, and moving the death metal band logo to the top and the album name to the middle, I was able to create a realistic CD and jewel case mockup.

Want to learn more about hand lettering? Check out my previous tutorials.

Metal logo design

Metal templates by Turbologo

How To Make Your Own Metal Logo

Metal online logo generator creates a metal logo for free. Here is how it works:

1. Choose a Metal Logo Template

Explore our professional metal logo templates to start creating a logo.

2. Customize Your Metal Logo Design

Edit your design with our easy-to-use metal logo design service. You can change icons, colors, and fonts and whatever you want.

3. Download Your Metal Logo Files

Once you’ve finalized the logo that you would be proud of, download your custom metal vector logo image.

Design tips on creating a good metal logo

A great logo communicates your values and helps people remember you. It also helps potential customers decide if your product is right. All of this is communicated through the use of color, shape, and other design elements. Learn how using metal logo generator make your logo tell the story.

Types of logos

The right style may illustrate the company’s image and is one of the main ways to differentiate from competitors

Logo colors

Deciding upon the proper colors can emphasize your business strengths and enable you to attract the ideal clients

Logo shapes

Logo shapes can tell a lot about you and your business. Logo shapes have meanings and we will help you understand them

Metal logo does not match your company? Explore top logo ideas:

Make a metal logo with Turbologo online logo creator

Lots of templates and an easy-to-use interface. Create an outstanding brand image right here and now.

Turbologo is the online logo maker tool. You can create your own logo in few minutes and only pay if you’re pleased satisfied. Our online logo creator helps business owners, start-ups, and freelancers make a logo design that’s both professional and high quality.
© 2022 Turbologo

I have been creating extreme metal logos for over 4 years now for many bands all over the world. Being an extreme metal fan and a logo designer, it was only natural for me to start creating logos for the metal scene. The demand for these logos were more popular than I expected and I managed to get quite a lot of work from it alongside my studies.

Now that I am focusing on different area’s of work I have decided to write a tutorial to explain in detail how I went about creating the most popular of all my logos; the death metal logo. This will be a symmetrical, hand rendered, vector logo.

Step 1

First of all, it is important to know a lot about the band the logo is for. What sub genre do they fit in? (technical death metal/progressive death metal/old school death metal) What are the lyrics about? (politics/urban life/religion) What type of audience are they trying to attract? (mainstream/underground).

Once you have collected enough information about the band, you can then start researching the relevant visuals. If you are not so familiar to death metal then its a good idea to find as many logos you can to use for inspiration. To make the logo more unique its a good idea to find inspiration elsewhere including religious/medieval/occult symbols, typography, non-metal logos etc.

The logo I am using for this tutorial was for an old school death metal band. They had influences from hardcore punk and the lyrics were about politics and society. I took inspiration from death metal logos, punk logos, gothic architecture, the Book of Kells, Blackletter fonts and ambigrams.

Step 2

You should now start drawing the logo straight onto paper. Start drawing the letters from your influences, if you lack experience in working with typography pay careful attention to the fonts. They dont need to be perfectly drawn or measured, we will use Illustrator to do all of that. Spend a lot of time on the sketches, creating at least 3 or 4 that you are happy with as these sketches will determine how good the logo is.

Some letters are more difficult to make symmetrical than others, use backwards letters if necessary or make 2 thin letters symmetrical to one wider letter. You might want to just keep the first and last letter symmetrical if you want it very legible. Try to keep the widths of the letters as consistent as possible. It helps to understand the basics of typography.

Some letters a more tricky than others to make symmetrical. It is sometimes a good idea to start with the most complex letter, then draw a flipped version of the to use as a template. You can then try to fit the other letter inside the template as best as possible. Sometimes the first letter will still need to modified to get a balance between the 2.

Here are some examples of sketches where I have had to make 2 letters symmetrical with each other. The green area’s are where the template was drawn from the other letter. Once you have drawn around that it should then be erased.

Once you have some sketches you are happy with, scan it in, get the band to pick their favorite.

Step 3

Open up a new Illustrator document at any size/mode. Import > Place the sketches in. Go to View > Rulers. Then drag down rulers wherever things need to be on the same level and wherever you want straight lines.

Step 4

Lock the layer with the sketch on and open up a new layer. Make the fill color transparent and the stroke color a bright red. Select the Ellipse tool and draw circles wherever there are curves in the logo. The more thorough you are, the smoother your logo will look.

Step 5

Open up a new layer, drag this layer under the layer with the circles on and lock the layer with the circles on. Select the pen tool, change the fill color to black and make the stroke transparent. Now start to draw in the shapes, using the guides and circles to help you. Just do it shape by shape, don’t worry about making everything join.

Zoom in and use the anchor points to get it as smooth as possible. If you have trouble seeing the sketch underneath, go to Window > Transparency and select 50%.

Step 6

Use this opportunity to change any parts of the letters to make them look better. Make sure any symmetrical letters are perfectly symmetrical by drawing one side, duplicating it (alt+mouse) and using the selection tool to flip it over.

Step 7

Now you have half of the logo complete, create another new layer. Copy and paste all the letters onto the new layer, make the Fill transparent and the Stroke blue. Flip them so they are completely symmetrical to the other half of the logo. Place each letter over the closest matching part of the other side. Lock that layer, go back to the main penning layer. Now draw in all of the other letters using the blue outlines as a guide. Compromise between the 2, this can be tricky, just find a balance of keeping it symmetrical and legible. Keep working at this until you get all the letters the way you want them.

Step 8

Go to View > Grid and use the rulers to give the logo consistent spacing and alignment. If everything looks exactly how you want save the file and go to Export and save as JPG just to show the band and so you can view it outside of Illustrator. Make any changes before continuing.

Step 9

Although the logo is now finished in black and white vector form, bands usually want the logo in different colors and textures. This could be achieved in Illustrator but I find Photoshop is easier to use, although it will no longer be scalable.

Select all the letter Shift+Drag the logo out until the width is at least over 1000 pixels (about three times the width of an A4 page). Select Edit > Copy, open up Photoshop. Open up a new document and paste as a Vector Smart Object. I find that the best ways of creating textures is using textures from photos (www.imageafter.com) to fit inside the letters. Grunge brushes are also useful. Then play around with the layer styles until you have something you and the band are pleased with.

You should now have a professional looking symmetrical death metal logo. If it did not turn out as well as you had hoped, don’t worry, just keep practicing. Learning about typography and really paying attention to detail will help a lot.

How to Draw Metal

Metal is very fun to draw because you can achieve amazing results with just a few tricks. In this tutorial I will show you how to draw shiny metal (polished silver, chrome), and old/used metal (weapons, armor). I will use a silver goblet and an axe as an example, but you can use the same techniques to draw a metal texture on any object.

What You Will Need

Before you start drawing, take a look at some references of metal, to get an idea of what you’re trying to achieve:

1. How to Draw Shiny Metal

Step 1

You can draw shiny metal texture on any object, but let me show you how to draw a metal goblet in a few steps.

Start by drawing the upper part: draw two ellipses and connect them with straight lines. Use the HB pencil and the ruler if necessary. Try to draw lightly, keeping the lines barely visible.

Step 2

Imagine the stem of the goblet and draw some gradually smaller ellipses to create a gentle transition.

Step 3

Connect the ellipses with lines, creating an outline of the goblet.

Step 4

Draw the base of the goblet. I added some bulging in this area—a metal texture looks the best on detailed surfaces.

Step 5

Draw lines along the goblet to see the perspective better. It’s really important to see the goblet as a 3D object!

Step 6

Take the eraser and gently clean the redundant lines.

Step 7

Add some more details—again, this will give the metal texture a chance to shine.

Step 8

Time for shading! Tilt your pencil and fill the inside of the goblet with shadow.

Step 9

Take the blending stump and carefully blend the shadow to make it uniform.

Step 10

Look at your object as if it were standing in front of you, and decide where the light source is. Then shade the parts that are not directly illuminated. Use the blending stump all the time.

Step 11

Metal is all about that shine, and shine is created by contrast. Gently shade a side of the goblet to create a side of the «shine band».

Step 12

Shade the other side as well, but this time don’t create a sharp edge of the shine band. Instead, gently blend into it.

Step 13

The basic shading is done, and now we just need to increase the contrast. Take the 2B pencil, tilt it, and shade the inside of the goblet some more. Use the blending stump again.

Step 14

Use the same pencil to shade the very edge of the goblet’s side. Make it sharp on the edge and then blend it toward the body of the goblet.

Step 15

Do the same with the other side.

Step 16

Use the same pencil to accentuate the sharp side of the shine band. Give it a sharp edge and a soft one.

Step 17

Darken the other shadows to level the contrast.

Step 18

Take the 4B pencil and darken the sides of the inside of the goblet to make it look 3D.

Step 19

Take the 8B pencil and darken this area even more, blending it as softly as possible. This will be our point of reference for the darkest shade.

Step 20

«Metallic» means reflecting in high contrast. Let’s give the surface something to reflect to show it. Sketch an outline of a dark band on the other side.

. and fill it with the 8B pencil.

Step 21

It looks very shiny already! Let’s just add some minor details. The inside of the goblet is as shiny as the outside, so it reflects itself. Use this fact to create some interesting details. You don’t need to be perfectly accurate, just make it look as if it’s reflecting «something».

Step 22

Because metal is so reflective, it also reflects. itself. That’s what we needed all these bulges for—they take some shine from the surfaces around and reflect it in the shadows.

Step 23

Use all the pencils to level the contrast in the whole goblet.

2. How to Draw Old, Scratched, Rusty Metal

Step 1

Shiny metal is pretty, but a shiny sword looks unused and untested! Let’s see how to make metal look more practical by looking at the example of a battle axe.

Draw the base of the blade—this part is attached to the handle. Draw one side of it, then the other, and connect them with lines. Use the HB pencil and the ruler.

Step 2

Elongate the base to create a space for the blade and a spike on the back.

Step 3

Draw the blade and the spike.

Step 4

Add some details on the base. They will be useful in a few steps.

Step 5

Take the eraser and clean the drawing.

Step 6

Even old metal is reflective, so let’s plan the reflections first. They will look the best on the edges of the angular base.

Step 7

Tilt the pencil and shade the whole object, leaving white only in the highlight areas.

Step 8

Take the blending stump and blend the shading. We don’t need any bit of white outside of the shiny areas.

Step 9

Take the 2B pencil and add some shadows on the base to accentuate its 3D form.

Step 10

Shade the blade some more, too, staying away from the shine band.

Step 11

Level the contrast in the base, making it uniformly dark.

Step 12

Take the HB pencil again (make sure it’s well sharpened) and draw quick scratches on the edge of the shine band. Give each of them a slightly different direction—these scratches come mostly from cleaning and sharpening.

Step 13

Old metal tends to gather some dirt in the places that are hard to clean (details, deeper scratches). Use this effect to make your used weapons more realistic.

Step 14

Old metal, especially neglected, will not be perfectly smooth—give it some slightly concave spots.

Step 15

If you want to add rust, take the 4B and 8B pencils, and draw clusters of irregular shapes.

Shiny! Beautiful!

Today you learned how to draw a realistic metal texture, both new and shiny, and old and scratched. If you want to keep learning, check out other tutorials from this series:

How to Make a Metal Logo

Introduction: How to Make a Metal Logo

In this tutorial you will learn how to make a metal logo to help unleash your inner rage and score a sick record deal for your band.

Supplies

Something to draw on

A passion for the antichrist

Step 1: Start With a Simple Word

In this case I was making a logo for my friend Mishka. Keep the text super simple so you can add to it. Try not to spend too long on this step cause I can already feel the norse gods mocking us.

Step 2: Make It a Little Spooky

You want the font to be hard to read, and the word to take some sort of shape. Ideally the logo illegible so the better the shape of the word is, the better the logo is. This is looking pretty decent so far, so let’s check with our friends.

Step 3: Check With a Friend

Uh oh! It only took Torbjørn 5 minutes to figure out what it says! Let’s head back and add some detail.

Step 4: Add More Detail

Remember: logos that people can read are for losers and nerds, so add more unnecessary detail!

Step 5: Color It!

While metal logos are traditionally only black and white, if your logo is badass enough people will be too scared to criticize some colors.

Step 6: Unleash the Fury of Your Nordic Ancestors

This logo was the last step to opening the gates of hell. Sorry mom.

Be the First to Share

Did you make this project? Share it with us!