Black Sabbath Logo

Black Sabbath Logo PNG

The emblem emerges from the shadows like a ghost. The Black Sabbath logo carries the message of the frailty of earthly existence. The time will come, and the surrounding world will dissolve, turning into non-existence. Until this happens, the sign calls for listening to the band’s music and getting ready.

Meaning and History

In 2017, the band embarked on their last tour, The End, which marked their departure from the stage. Thus ended an era of heavy metal, as the members of Black Sabbath set new standards for the genre. Their rock style influenced the worldview of the 1970s when the hippie and folk movement was in vogue. The satanic images of the songs invaded the public consciousness, built on the ideals of universal love, and at first scared away the listeners. But then the occult lyrics, gloomy manner of performance, and ominous guitar riffs did their job: fans began to buy millions of records and attend all the band’s concerts.

To become the musical analog of horror films, the band created a very dark image for themselves. This manifested itself not only in the lyrics but also in the iconic covers. In the early 1970s, English photographer and artist Keith Macmillan worked on them; however, only his pseudonym Keef was indicated on the first four albums. During the release of his debut Black Sabbath compilation, he discovered surrealism, so he decided to use it as a basis. And the typography was done by his friend Sandy Field, who also designed the lettering for the second Paranoid record.

The band had almost as many logos as there were albums because each cover featured its unique design. The evolution of the visual style ended in 2017 when the musicians disbanded Black Sabbath. The last character was featured on a compilation released in 2013.

1969 – 1970

Photographer Keith Macmillan was involved in creating the first logo, which was involved in the concept of the cover. He asked a fellow student at the Royal College of Art to create a recognizable signature for the group. Sandy Field responded to the call for help and developed music-like typography. Each letter in the phrase “BLACK SABBATH” had twisted spiral elements, like a treble clef. Red curly symbols were arranged in two lines, outlined in white, and placed on a black background. The thickness of the lines varied to give dynamics.

1971 – 1972

In 1971, the group’s third album, Master of Reality, was released. Macmillan also did the cover art, but he was assisted by the design company Bloomsbury Group this time. This is how the jagged black “BLACK SABBATH” lettering was born, waving like a flag in the wind. In the British version, it was embossed, while it was made flat in the American version. The developers used bold geometric grotesque and rounded off some of the corners. The width of the strokes was the same everywhere. On the logo, the words were one below the other, centered.

1972 – 1973

The fourth disc, titled Vol. 4, was published in 1972. Cover artist Keith Macmillan again collaborated with the Bloomsbury Group on the typography. It was important for him that the typeface echoed the abstract Ozzy Osbourne image in the center. The result is a white inscription, for which individual glyphs were used. The letters were very bold – so much so that the intra-letter gaps turned into small dots, and adjacent lines merged with each other. Another distinguishing feature of the logo was the disproportionality: the strokes were cut at unusual angles.

1975 – 1976

Keith Macmillan and the Bloomsbury Group ended their partnership with Black Sabbath after releasing their fourth album. But this did not stop the musicians from experimenting with the design of the logo. The 1975 Sabotage LP featured a new inscription in red. The letters looked typical of a bold, geometric sans-serif, except for the white “S” at the beginning of the second word that looked like an inverted lightning bolt zigzag. On the cover, this logo was combined with an image designed by the design team Cream (Netherlands).

1989 – 1990

The front side of the 14th studio album was adorned with the phrase “BLACK SABBATH,” written in an old English serif script. It echoed the Celtic cross that occupied most of the cover in style. A black version of the inscription was used for the logo. The words were split into two lines and centered.

1992 – 1994

In 1992, the band released Dehumanizer, which is considered one of the heaviest albums in their work. The new logo contained sharp-angled, vertically elongated letters. The protruding triangles at the ends of the first “B” and the last “h” resembled the electric shocks that were depicted on the cover.

The phrase “Black Sabbath” occupied one line, while the interval between words was practically absent. The middle of the text was underlined by two horizontal lines placed in parallel. The “S” was exactly in the center and looked like it had fallen down. The side parts of the inscription sagged, forming an arch.

2013 – 2017

The group’s latest, the nineteenth album, debuted in April 2013. The cover design was created by Zip Design staff, and the logo had to be combined with it. The developers have made the text white to stand out against a dark background. For letters, a font was used with short and sharp serifs located at the ends of all strokes. Gray shadows created the effect of three-dimensional volume.

Font and Colors

Wordmarks Black Sabbath changed along with the release of new albums. Each version was radically different from the previous one, even though the content of the inscription always coincided. The group had only one unchanging emblem depicting a winged demon named Henry. This image personified the satanic and occult mood of the music.

The Black Sabbath logos use many custom-designed fonts. More precisely, individual glyphs are not arranged in a system of characters. The latest version features bold capital letters with miniature triangular serifs. The colors are also very different. In most cases, black and white predominate, sometimes with the addition of red. This is classic heavy metal.

Black Sabbath color codes