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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.
So the logo is meant to be more than a static, monochromatic representation of a turning page. While it will take fans a while to get used to the new look, I’m happy to say my opinion is changed. DC Comics has decided to update their logo to a more modern look, and they’ve done a good job. In addition to making a customizable logo that can fit any character or event, they managed to make something that can be used in conjunction with digital comics, which are gaining popularity with each passing day.
Below are a few images showing off the new logo and different ways in which it can be utilized. What do you think of the real new look? Let us know in the comments, or over in the forums.
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Now this is an improvement on the preliminary version they showed last week. I like the Watchmen version.
It demonstrates versatility, but maintains a brand.
Looking good, looking good!! Much better, it all makes sense now!
Soooooooo much better. I was so worried when that other piece of crap hit the internet. I can breathe easy now.
I still don't like it. But it's better.
I like it a lot. Sure, I grew up seeing something different but this is reflective of their brand but allows for cool variations.
Definitely an improvement over the leaked version. Still not enamoured with it but I've always disliked the cheesy 'swoosh and star' logo they currently use. At least it looks contemporary.
When I saw the Watchmen 'variant' of the logo I couldn't help but imagine what Alan Moore's face might look like when he inevitably sees it: a solitary salty tear slowly running down his weathered features, eventually losing itself in the beardiverse beneath his craggy nose… he sighs deeply then turns to the window and gazes out upon the ocean of grey that is January in Northampton.
A haunting image that's now indelibly inked on to my brain.
I'm still a bit wary. While it is good for DC to be adding more to the logo, it seems to be poor form to have a logo that constantly requires additional contextual information in order to make it identifiable with your product.
Some of those "variations" are great (Watchmen and Flash in particular, although I don't know how the Flash one would look in print). But some feel too much like a college student's graphic arts assignment when she finally understands Adobe and is gleefully playing with layers and filters for funsies.
This is no better–the basic design is still boring–even with the bells and whistles. No, sir. Don't like it. Don't like it at all.
Grem-
Hmm, still not a fan, but I do like the Lantern and Flash designs.
Doesn't say "DC Comics" and certainly doesn't look like a logo I'd want to see on my comic covers no matter what color you make it.
Just another reason I'm glad I'm not a DC fan.
While I generally dislike the new logo, I can see why they are trying to do something new with it.
On that note, why wait until January instead of using the new logo back in September when they rebooted everything else?
A way to pick up some good press, that's for sure. Causing quite the buzz out there.