With any company the need to refresh your image is always constantly on your mind. When the rumors started to circulate with DC Comics registering a new logo, it caught the eyes of many fans. Disbelief was in full swing and the reactions given to the new logo were mixed to reactions I can’t say on here. Then the official announcement came this week, with DC Comics debuting the new logo for everyone to see, while showing what this has in store for the future of DC Comics and in turn DC Entertainment. The reasoning behind the logo is revealed in the official press release which I have posted down below. Opinions and pictures taken from the official release to follow afterwards.
Official Press Release
DC Entertainment, a Warner Bros. Entertainment company and home to iconic brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD, revealed today a new brand identity. The new identity is reflective of the company’s mission to fully realize the value of a rich portfolio of brands, stories and characters, distinguished by incredible breadth and depth across publishing, media and merchandise. A new logo for DC Comics was also introduced, closely aligning with DC Entertainment’s new mark.
“It’s a new era at DC Entertainment and the new look reflects a dynamic, bold approach while at the same time celebrates the company’s rich heritage and robust portfolio of characters,” stated John Rood, EVP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for DC Entertainment. “It was just a few months ago that Superman, Batman and many of our other Super Heroes were updated when we launched DC Comics – The New 52 and now it’s time to do the same for the company’s identity while remaining true to the power of storytelling which is still at the heart of DC Entertainment.”
DC Entertainment worked with Landor Associates, one of the world’s leading brand consulting and design firms, to develop an identity that creates a visual connection among the company, its three brands DC Comics, Vertigo and MAD and its vast array of properties as well as celebrates the power of the company’s stories and characters. The design of the new DC Entertainment identity uses a “peel” effect – the D is strategically placed over the C with the upper right-hand portion of the D peeling back to unveil the hidden C – symbolizing the duality of the iconic characters that are present within DC Entertainment’s portfolio.
“It was our goal to capture DC Entertainment in a dynamic and provocative identity. Our solution is a living expression which changes and adapts to the characters, story lines and the ways fans are consuming content,” explains Nicolas Aparicio, Executive Creative Director at Landor’s San Francisco office. “The new identity is built for the digital age, and can easily be animated and customized to take full advantage of the interactivity offered across all media platforms.”
The new brand identity will come to life across all consumer touch points in order to create a clear and consistent message in support of DC Entertainment. The new identity will begin to appear on comic books and graphic novels as well as new websites in March. Consumers will also see the new identity rolled out over time on other DC Entertainment products from Warner Bros. including film, television, interactive games and merchandise.
“We believe our new brand identity will strongly resonate with our loyal fans who will want to proudly express their affinity for DC Entertainment and their passion for their favorite stories and characters, this new look allows them to easily do this. In addition we were excited to update our identity, it’s not often a company gets to revisit something as important as its brand and we took the opportunity to make sure it represented the multi-media business we set out to build with the formation of DC Entertainment,” said Amit Desai, SVP of Franchise Management for DC Entertainment.
These images taken from the official release give you an idea of the multiple concepts behind what DC Entertainment has in mind. DC Comics gets a fresh new logo in the process. The above image shows an idea of what the logo will look like animated. I like the concept of the animated logo and revealing the character. Emulating you flipping the page of a comic book. I do want to see a clip of this logo animated so I can judge it on that merit. As a logo on it’s own though it doesn’t entirely work for me. It feels static and it takes you a minute to realize the D and the C together in the logo. That’s the part that bothers me about this logo design. The concept is great but the actual logo judged on it’s own merit doesn’t entirely work for me, take a look below at the image below of what the logo will look like on the DC Comics line.
When I first looked at the logo on the comics, it left me underwhelmed. As noted earlier the D and C in DC Comics doesn’t fully mesh together in my eyes. I do appreciate though what DC Comics is trying to do. You can play with this logo more than you could with any of the others. As you flip the page of the logo so to speak, you can see the many different identities within DC Comics. I note below the different examples of what DC Comics is planning to do with their logo. Which show further examples of what they want to do with the logo as time goes on, take note of the Watchmen logo design.
Now I like what the designs look like above me, which is why I don’t entirely trash the entire logo. I feel weird on this one, this is where you can see the intent with what DC Comics wants to do with this logo. The creativity is there I agree, this is where the logo starts to intrigue me in the possibilities behind me. I don’t entirely know what the mass market is going to think about the logo, this could be a logo that could work in the larger marketplace. Since I know fan reaction is mixed. Yes I’m still being polite, but it’s true fan reaction is all over the place with this logo. Though I still don’t think it fits as a static logo but it still seems March is going to be an interesting month in reactions that’s for sure.
DC Entertainment and in turn DC Comics are going to have to deal with the long term in how this logo will be received. I’m not huge on the logo but I’m willing to give it a chance to grow on me. In a weird way I feel as if this logo is symbolic in their recent New 52 relaunch. Always remember DC Comics has a habit of eventually changing their logo so if the reaction is bad to it you never know, they could change it again. Though give the new design a chance. I’m keeping open minded on it, since as I think further even from my own initial reaction, I start to think that it could grow on me. Love the logo or hate the logo, welcome to the new DC Comics.
I know I discussed this with you last night, but I think it’s really underwhelming as a logo, and looking again at the mock ups, it doesn’t always work… The Wonder Woman one looks ok, but the Green Lantern doesn’t mesh so well, IMO.
It’s so bland that I don’t think it really does much to make them stand out as a brand, but equally it’s not so offensively bad that I can’t justify buying their comics any more… Completely mediocre, like most of DC’s latest decisions.
This new logo is one of the worst logos ive seen. the 3d aspect looks like an origami experiment gone wrong