Defining My Visual Aesthetic

I decided to create music after I bought my first ever electric guitar while living in the Australian Bush. Every day I would sit outside of the shack I was staying in and practice guitar before going to work. From time to time, a lizard would emerge from the undergrowth near the shack and stare at me while I played. I have decided to name my project after that lizard: The Lizard Of Oz.

With the name alluding to The Wizard Of Oz, I have taken inspiration for my visual aesthetic from the 1939 film. The film famously juxtaposed black and white with colour, and I am going to use this idea to juxtapose my classic rock influence with my DNB influence, establishing the fusion of old and new as a defining motif of my brand.

Exploring this motif further, I have decided that the visual effects I will create for my video content will be inspired by folklore and myths. This ties the visual aesthetic with the classic rock influence of my project; Many classic rock songs’ lyrics reference folklore.

I constructed the following mood-board based on these themes: https://pin.it/5rVVt3d

I also mocked up a logo. While the correct acronym for The Lizard Of Oz is TLOO, I do not find that visually or sonically pleasing. I came up with a few alternatives, such as LOFOZ, LOO (no way), LOOZ and LOZ. I asked a number of my peers which one they thought most represented The Lizard Of Oz, was the most recognisable, and sounded the best. LOZ was the favourite, with LOFOZ in second. Personally, I thought LOFOZ was too long for a logo and the first O could be pronounced in different ways. LOZ has only one reasonable pronunciation, and it sounds most like a verbal abbreviation of Lizard Of Oz.

I decided that the logo would include yellow bricks, referencing The Wizard Of Oz. I also wanted to include a stylised reptilian/lizard head in the design. I came up with the following:

I wanted the letters to join together, like a snake spelling LOZ. In order to achieve this, I inverted the Z. I was concerned that this could be confused for an S, so I asked peers that I had not told anything about this project to tell me what it said. Most people said that they could tell it was a Z by the sharp angles, and some did not even notice that the Z was reversed. I counted this as a great success, I am very happy with this logo.