Logos

Praying Skeleton logo

The praying skeleton logo is our own design, dating back to around 1977.

– Greg Lindstrom

The “praying skeleton” is one page of the book Osteographia – The anatomy of the bones by the author William Cheselden (19 Oct 1688 – 10 Apr 1752). This image is called plate 36 (XXXVI).

Eternal Flames: Who drew the praying skeletons?

They were something Greg came up with. We liked them and they stayed as our logo

– Robert Garven

Draft logo

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New logo I created. I spent hours trying to replicate the amazing etching detail of William Cheselden for the typeface and trying to replicate the contours of the bones! Let me know what you think!

I recently found a super high resolution version of the original skeleton and wanted to create an updated logo, not sure if anyone in the band or fans would accept it. I have to be honest his original etching had to do some skeletal gyrations to get them bones to match the same angle and pose of the one we adopted so many years ago. Thanks to modern technology this was possible although a modern Yogi would have been impressed. I am most proud of the work I did on the lettering with the texture, shaping, and spacing of each letter.
Of course this was just an exercise in creativity and I thought I would run it up the flagpole to see if anyone would salute it! I guess this is the ultimate tattoo challenge!

Many don’t know the true history of how our logo came about. Greg‘s family ran a print shop at one time and found the clip art of William Cheselden‘s famous praying skeleton, about the time the band was getting started. We liked the look, copied and flipped one around. I found a type face that I had been using called Stonehenge (at the time) to create our name, and our logo was born. The history of William Cheselden’s book was similar to our first album, when it first came out it wasn’t financially successful and much of his etchings became copyright free over the years. That is why you’ll see them in various locations, although our logo was one of the first to use some commercially. (Twitter, 13 Feb 2021)

This is the most common logo since 2003. It has been adapted by Falcon.

Dig the cool reverse “Cirith Falcon” logo!

Perry Grayson, 09 Nov 2003

See also Similar to Praying Skeleton.

Chaos Star, Chaos Symbol, Wheel of Fate, Symbol of Chaos

Next to the praying skeletons CU use the symbol of the chaos star. What’s behind that? Can you tell us anything about this symbol? Nowhere at all we found any information about the sign of the chaos star … (Other bands we found using the sign of the chaos stars on their LPs/logos etc. are Bolt Thrower and Sepultura…)

Eternal Flame

In the Moorcock books the CHAOS sign is described as a symbol with many arrows pointing in all directions symbolizing the many possibilities of CHAOS!  The symbol of LAW was one arrow pointing up.  We liked the idea of CHAOS and I designed the logo based on my readings of the book.

Robert Garven

We had a gigantic praying skeleton logo backdrop and sometimes the glowing Wheel of Fate logo off our album.

Robert Garven

Wheel of Fate logo and Chaos Star, is the same or different? Here is Symbol of Chaos.

“The origin of the Chaos Symbol was me doodling sitting at the kitchen table and wondering what to tell Jim Cawthorn the arms of Chaos looked like. I drew a straightforward geographical quadrant (which often has arrows, too!) N.S.E.W.and then added another four directions and that was that — eight arrows representing all possibilities, one arrow representing the single, certain road of Law. I have since been told to my face that it is an ‘ancient symbol of Chaos’ and if it is then it confirms a lot of theories about the race mind…As far as I know the symbol, drawn by Jim Cawthorn, first appeared on an Elric cover of Science Fantasy in 1962, then later appeared in his first comic version of Stormbringer done by Savoy.

– Michael Moorcock

Controversy: there is no mention at all of “Michael Moorcock” after the year 1986.

See also Similar to Chaos Star.

Cirith Ungol

They took their name from the place Cirith Ungol in J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The name Cirith Ungol is Elvish and means “Pass of the Spider”.

The “Cirith Ungol” is name of three alternatives:

1. Cirith Ungol, the Elvish and means “Pass of the Spider”.
2. Cirith Ungol, the Metal band.
3. Cirith Ungol, the Metal song.

See the further song with Cirith Ungol and J.R.R. Tolkien. 

Typeface (font)

NB! What is the original typeface (fonts) on some or all fonts? Font identifiers are likely similar fonts, and not the actual font. Also have confusion between typeface and font with various styles. Curious if CU have copyright free or commercially from many of the sources.

The early serif font 1 (at least from Fri 23 Feb 1973 or earlier) or early serif font 2 (at least from Sat 22 May 1976 or earlier) was designed by Rob Garven, who was a graphic illustrator. The pictures are part of one of the posters and flyers that had the original Cirith Ungol logo.

It has been used on some of posters, flyers and possibly other merch from the beginning.

The original sans-serif(?) font is unknown, possibly influenced by the font Herkules (2004).

It has been used on some of posters, flyers and possibly other merch (at least from Sat 21 Feb 1981 or earlier) and One Foot In Hell.

Most likely the typeface has been used on Elric on DAW Books. The font is probably Charleston (1967) from Ludwig & Mayer influenced by Marshall (2004) and Radius FG (2022). Maybe nothing on CU, but Charleston (1997) is influenced by Paradise Lost (1991).

The serif font is maybe Kingston Pro (1974) or ITC Korinna Heavy and influenced by the font Corrigan (2011).

It has been used on Frost and Fire (1981) and some of the posters, flyers and possibly other merch (at least from Sat 17 Apr 1982 or earlier).

The original serif font is unknown, possibly influenced by the font omnia (1990).

It has been used on the One Foot In Hell (1986) CD and possibly some of the posters, flyers and other merch.

The original serif font is unknown, possibly influenced by the font Charleston (1997) and EFN Posters Jasny Regular (2000). The font Charleston (1967) has been used on Elric on DAW Books.

It has been used on Paradise Lost (1991) and possibly some of the posters, flyers and other merch.

The typeface serif Quadrata II by Paul Hayden Duensing (1929-2006). He was typographer, type designer, cut and cast for his Private Press and Type foundry. Typeface Quadrata (1970) and Quadrata II (1974).

The typeface serif Stonehenge (1978) is formatt’s copy by Albie Fiore (1946-2009) published by Graphic Products Corporation, seen on Citadel Miniatures Logo (1979), subsidiaries of Games Workshop (1975) and TSR | Gygax | Classic Warfare (1975). Adopted by Formatt for dry-transfer lettering and shown in their 1974 catalog as Stonehenge. Inspired to the books The Lord of the Rings.

Nb! These are mixed with Quadrata II and Stonehenge now, but it is most likely the typeface Stonehenge, maybe Quadrata II. Influenced by the font Satans Minions by Mickey Rossi (2000) and Moria Citadel (2002).

It has been used used on some of posters, flyers and other merch (at least from 1977 or earlier), The Orange Album, King Of The Dead and reunited from 2015 until now .

Pictogram

Or paintings, emotions, emoji, ideogram, Necronomicon, etc. What is the originally source? And who is the illustrator?

It has been used on some of posters, flyers and other merch and The Orange Album and One Foot in Hell.

Hook and Cross

Hook and Cross (character map)

See

Blue Öyster Cult

Pentagram

The inverted pentagram ⛧ is used on at least for poster on the gig:

Also see this:

The Heaviest Metal Known To Man @ Cirith Ungol

Pentagram

Anton Szandor LaVey

Tarot

Tarot Card.

Garven: Halvar [The Planet Of Doom], he’s the protagonist guy in the movie. He’s kind of like a viking biker guy that travels through time to go back to kill the guy that murdered his wife. I can’t pronounce the monster’s name or whatever but anyway his name was Halvar. That’s the guy. So in our part of the thing he gets to like a cave and he goes in there meeting a witch. She reads his tarot cards, and while reading the tarot…

Baker: All you need to do is read the lyrics to “Witch’s Game.”

Garven: But yeah, he goes inside… I’m just telling you, that he goes inside each tarot card and he fights the monster.

Summary

Pyramid, castle and mountain

See Pyramid, castle and mountain.

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