DJ Mastamind
A brain in headphones, built from the client's own sketch
DJ Mastamind came to Thrive with a notebook sketch and a name. Thrive turned it into a full identity: a logo with a mark, badge and wordmark, a repeat pattern, stickers, social posts and event posters.
Overview
DJ Mastamind is a DJ who needed a brand to carry across flyers, social posts and events. The name plays on “mastermind,” and the client already had a picture of the logo in mind.
The project covered the logo and everything around it: colors, a repeat pattern, stickers, an Instagram look and posters for events.
Mood-board directions presented
Logo versions: lockup, mark, two badges, wordmark
Event posters
The challenge
The client's sketch had the right idea: a brain, a cord and a wordmark. The job was to keep that idea and turn it into a logo that works small and large, on a phone screen, a sticker or a poster.
Keep the client's idea
The brain and the cord came from the client's sketch, so they had to stay at the center of the logo.
Read at a glance
Nightlife flyers and social posts are seen fast and often small. The logo needed bold shapes and high contrast.
Work as a system
One mark had to stretch across a lockup, a badge, a pattern and posters without losing what makes it recognizable.
The approach
The work moved from mood boards to concepts to a finished identity in about a month.
- 01
The client's sketch
The starting point was a notebook drawing from the client: a brain under two spotlights, the name in record-like lettering and an aux cord running out of the brain.
- 02
Three mood boards
Thrive presented three directions, each with its own palette and a short note. One pulled from old-school hip-hop, house parties and streetwear in deep navy and brick red. One went for an intense late-night club feel in red, gray and black. One leaned trippy and after-hours in dark purple, black and white.
- 03
Early concepts
Two first drafts tested the idea in black and dark red: a brain wearing headphones, and a head silhouette filled with gears. Both carried the cord down into a rounded MASTAMIND wordmark.
- 04
The final identity
The brain won. It became bright red with white folds, wearing headphones with “MM” in the ear cup. The cord drops through a heavy navy-purple wordmark with a red outline and ends in a plug. The palette follows the navy-and-red mood board.
- 05
Applications
The logo was built into round badges, a repeat pattern, sticker and Instagram mockups, and posters, including one for the client's first annual event, Brainwave.
The work
From sketch to logo
The client's drawing, the two early concepts and the final lockup. The brain, the headphones and the cord made it all the way through.
Logo system
The mark works on its own, inside a navy badge, or in a white badge with the wordmark. Each keeps the same thick black-and-white outline, so it holds up small.
Pattern
The mark repeated in staggered rows on navy-purple. It fills social posts, sits behind the poster type and gives the brand a texture of its own.
Social and stickers
An Instagram look that mixes the pattern with party and DJ photos, each stamped with the logo, plus stickers in both badge styles.
Event posters
“Brainwave,” DJ Mastamind's first annual event, set in giant black letters cut over a grainy crowd photo. A second poster stacks the name in three lines with the brain breaking through the type.
Design system
Bold, flat and high-contrast, built to stand out on dark flyers and small screens. Every shape gets a heavy outline, and the red brain is always the loudest thing on the page.
#D42027#2D1560#000000#4D4E4E#FFFFFFType
A heavy, wide, all-caps wordmark in navy-purple with a white inner line and a red outer outline, like a varsity jersey.
The cord
The headphone cord drops from the brain through the wordmark and ends in a plug, an idea carried over from the aux cord in the client's sketch.
MM in the ear cup
The ear cup holds the client's initials, so even the smallest version of the mark carries the name.
Sticker outlines
A thick black line and a white inner line around every shape make the logo read like a sticker on any background.
Timeline
Apr 2025
Mood boards and first concepts
Three mood-board directions and two early logo concepts, built from the client's sketch.
May 2025
Final logo and applications
The final lockup, mark, badges and pattern, with sticker and Instagram mockups and the Brainwave poster.
Nov 2025
Ongoing work
The stacked-name Mastamind poster, set over the brain pattern.
The outcome
DJ Mastamind went from a notebook sketch to a complete brand: a logo in five versions, a color palette, a repeat pattern and ready-made layouts for stickers, Instagram and posters.
The client's own idea is still at the center of it. The brain, the headphones and the cord all came from that first drawing.
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