Fantasyland Records. Creative Brief

Designer: Andrew Woods
Client: Fantasyland Records
Objective: Create a graphic identity in order to enhance company recognition and success


Fantasyland Records, located in the heart of Atlanta, has been the premiere source for high-quality vinyls since the early 1970’s. Despite the store’s impressive repertoire, Fantasyland does not currently have any sort of graphic identity. It is my goal to design and produce a complete brand identity for Fantasyland Records. This includes creating a logo and producing stationery, advertisements, brochures, postcards, specialty items and motion graphics.


Since Fantasyland’s main attraction is that of an enormous collection of records, I wanted the logo to graphically promote this facet of the business. In order to graphically portray this, I used circles of various scales and colors within the silhouette of a single record shape which ascends from the horizontal typography of the company name, much like an actual record being pulled from a sleeve. The record shape can immediately be recognized as the product the company sells, and the various circles within this main shape contain more than one purpose for the overall concept of the logo. Historically speaking, the circular patterns are characteristic of retrospective design and give nod to not only the store’s long-standing existence over several decades, but also the aged products the company sells. On a purely literal level, the various circles represent the variety and numerosity of records the store offers. On an abstract level, the circles seem to contain a cosmic quality, the bubbling of infinite possibilities or perhaps even the motion of sound. It is this abstract perception which relates directly to the ‘Fantasy’ aspect of the company’s name. The typeface I chose also contains circular characteristics, seen as a perfect circle in ‘A’, and has a hybrid modern-retro feel which serves to establish the company’s products and the logo itself as timeless. Circles are also attached to the descenders of three letter forms and may be portrayed as records descending from the image above, representing the records leaving the store, thus, going home with the consumer. More apparent here, though, is the reference to music notes, as I aligned the circle’s heights using a music staff so that each “note” lies within a space or directly even with a line on a staff. This could make for interesting application in advertisements or animations where I apply the logo elements to a musical staff or audible music notes in a motion graphic. The colors I chose were a few among many colors which I found while researching popular colors of the 1970’s, the era from which the business was born.


The purpose of the logo is to attract potential consumers to Fantasyland by establishing the company as a long-standing haven for unique, classic records. The logo should spark a nostalgic recognition with those of an older generation and a sense of wonder and discovery with those of a younger generation.


The target audience for this campaign is record collectors of all ages. While the older generations who grew up listening to records are the more likely target for advertising, it is important to also advertise to the younger generations as a resurgence of vinyl production for current bands has recently come about and the generations of the past have begun to pass down their old collection of vinyls to their youth.


The stationery I have created directly relates to the physicality and structure of actual record albums. The envelope mirrors the structure of a record sleeve, the letterhead, in conjunction with the envelope, represents a record label, and the business cards are cut directly from actual album covers of the past. Elements from the logo are carried throughout each piece of the stationery, such as the circular pattern on the back of the letterhead and the descending music ‘notes’ on the sticker which encloses the envelope.