Tamerlan

Washington D.C. and Marseille based DJ and musician Yuriy Ogaltsew goes by the name Tamerlan. He produces and spins an upbeat form of techno with diverse influences such as pop, house, and other forms of electronic music. Before he moved to D.C. he lived in his home country of Uzbekistan, a place with a strong cultural heritage which affects his music to this day.

This project began when I was approached by Tamerlan's artistic manager, Shane Castillini-Sjtorm (a longtime client and friend), with the project's brief, and I quote, "Dark interior. Footsteps down alley. Gradually lighter, walk to storefront, peer inside, then music starts." It was to be an identity system including a logo, business cards, digital and social media applications. The client wanted to appeal to club and festival owners and promotors.

As with all my identity work, the project started with quick yet intense research, and I discovered that Timur–also known as Tamerlane–was a powerful warlord and military leader who conquered much of South, Central and Western Asia during the 15th century.

During this early phase of research and development I also learned about a form of chess known as Tamerlan Chess. In addition to the 64 squares that appear on the standard chess board, there are 2 additional spaces, that can be used as a way of protecting the king. This unique version of the chessboard was chosen as the starting point for the graphic identity.

The first version of the logo had each of the units in perfect proportions with the rest, based on a 64 unit grid. However, this felt rather static, so together with the client's approval, I chose to create a slight change in the proportions, which you can see clearly in the image above right. The client was happy with this approach, and felt it would communicate the desired message to the audience.

Typography

Once the squares of the chess board were defined as the central element of the identity, it was just a short step to use the pixel as the typographic unit of the project. After testing several pixel based fonts, the choice was made to create a custom pixel based typographic font, which would allow to play with the units in a way that a preexisting font would not. After experimenting with several grids, a standard 5 x 5 grid was chosen and the character set was created in one weight. This font was then applied to digital promotional materials which can be seen below.

These banners were created for Facebook and Soundcloud applications.

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Process

Testing Colors/Images — **Testing** **Colors/Images**

Date completed: 2013
Client: Tamerlan Productions
Location: Washington, D.C./Marseille