Blood Gushing Records
Blood Gushing Records was founded by two Des Moines musicians with a shared and specific obsession: horror in all its forms. Movies, music, whatever. The label only releases during October or on Friday the 13th. That's not a marketing decision. That's a philosophy. The design had to match it.
The visual north star was the VHS era. Not as a trend borrowed from elsewhere, but as a genuine generational reference. These were people who grew up in video stores, who associate horror with the specific visual language of those covers: garish, urgent, slightly dangerous. The logo needed to live in that world while standing on its own.
The lettering is completely custom, because a label this committed to its philosophy deserved a mark that was too. Every stroke drawn from scratch. Jagged, thorny, textured in a way that feels like something sharp passed through it. The result is a mark that doesn't look designed so much as it looks discovered, like it was always the only possible name for this label. Two colorways: red on white, white on black, gave the brand flexibility without diluting the identity. Both work independently. Together, they cover every surface the label would ever need.
The initial package was complete from day one: t-shirts, a coffee mug, and a 7-inch sampler, all carrying the mark into the physical world. For a label built on the tactile nostalgia of vinyl and VHS, the format choices weren't incidental. They were the point. Blood Gushing Records wasn't just a name on a website. It was something you could hold.
Client
Blood Gushing Records
Year
2018
Project Details
Creative Direction
Art Direction
Logo Design
Graphic Design
Website Design
T-Shirt Designs
Coffee Mug Design
7-inch Sampler
© Jeremy Burns 2025