XOXO runs intimate live-music events, and wanted a mark that put both halves of that idea — closeness and sound — into a single icon, not a lips logo with a music note bolted on.
The brief was specific: portray a kiss and music together, so the mark reads as an intimate music experience rather than either idea on its own. That ruled out the obvious move — lips next to a note icon — in favor of finding one shape that could carry both at once.
Instead of pairing a lip icon with a separate music symbol, this direction built the lips entirely out of layered sound-line strokes — the shape only reads as a mouth once you step back from it.
The final mark keeps the lip shape immediately readable while cutting a row of equalizer bars into the mouth — close enough to feel intimate, musical enough to feel like a gig.
Tell us what you're building and we'll get back to you.