DC Comics Logo Refurbishment

Rebranding or revamping a corporate logo is a daunting task. It’s never easy to change the visual identity of an established and old company especially when a lot of hearts and emotions are involved. DC Comics have been the heartbeat of many comic lovers for the past 80 years since its creation. However, recently their logo has gone under refurbishment, which in fact disappointed a lot of fans.

The Old DC Logo – Loved by fans

This old DC logo is famously known as the “DC Bullet.” Graphic designer Milton Glaser designed this famous logo which has been capturing hearts of millions of DC Comic book fans over the years till its revamping.

The new DC logo and its versions

The grayscale version was met with massive unpopularity amongst comic lovers. The lack of excitement, colors and most importantly branding didn’t give the new revamped logo the heights of achievement it set out. Therefore the company immediately disclosed new rebranding plans. However the layout and the design were very well made.

The new refurbished logo with colors screamed COLORS! It portrayed versatility and uniqueness making it a successful rebranding plan. The ability to adapt to any comic book character was the standout feature of this new logo, the perfect way to forge DC Comics in the contemporary era.

Examples!

With great power comes great responsibility. That was said by Spiderman by the way. However here you can see how perfectly the new logo fits in with every comic character, this is just Superman. Batman and others are also very appealing!

The Concept

Let’s now talk about the design itself. The “peel effect” was used in this logo where the alphabet “D” was carefully placed over the letter “C” and the right portion of the “D” was peeled off so that the hidden “C” could be evident.

Opinions and Reviews

There were various opinions amongst the DC Entertainment management and the Landor Associates (the one who created this new design) about this logo design and some of them are as follows.

John Rood, EVP of Sales, Marketing and Business at DC Entertainment explained that “the icon symbolizes the duality of the iconic characters that are present within DC Entertainment’s portfolio.”

“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 multimedia business we set out to build with the formation of DC Entertainment,” said Amit Desai, SVP of Franchise Management for DC Entertainment.”

Comic book fans and graphic design professional are sure in for a treat when they see the new design on the new editions of DC Comic Books.

Points to consider for a logo redesign:

Business without a corporate logo is like an entity with no unique identity. Logos deserve particular attention and before a logo is redesigned, one should know why the redesign is needed. Following things should be considered before redesigning corporate logos:

• Analyze what the existing company logos lack.
• Remove unnecessary features from the previous logo design.
• Try to single out a striking feature of the logo to work on.
• Fill in the gaps left by the previous logo design with creative thoughts.

Over the years, we have witnessed many famous brands who have tried to refresh their corporate identity with a logo redesign. Today, I have selected 22 of the most famous logo redesigns of 2009 that came under immense limelight.

Segd

Movistar

City of Melbourne

Master Card

Audi

Good Humor Ice Cream

Toys Rus

Play Station 3

Skittles

UEFA EURO

Peugot

Missile Defense Agency

British Petroleum

Quicktime

Argos

Blackwater

Msn

Kraft Foods

Telecom

AOL:

FireFox

1 ) About the Blackwater Logo Designs – Old and New:

The company’s infamous bear-paw and crosshairs logo design became an icon within the private-security industry, to the extent that some Blackwater guards had it tattooed on themselves. After the September 2007 shooting, the company attempted to soften the look of their company logo and changed its name from Blackwater to Xe Services LLC. The new logo design is a stylish black "X" on a white background, with a small "e" superimposed on it. Many believe that this new logo design is a bizarre cross between the old Xerox corporate logo and the brand mark for Xena: Warrior Princess.

2 ) Why the sudden redesign?

Interestingly, the executive board of Blackwater has indirectly confessed that it had to change Blackwater’s name and corporate logo due to massive criticism it faced. Blackwater’s President Gary Jackson has said that,

The former name and company logo “Blackwater” has also been removed from its various business units.

3 ) Experts’ opinion on the new corporate logo:

                  The MTV-owned cable channel, Nickelodeon has come a long way to be on the list of world famous brands, with big fan following from territories including Europe, the Middle-East, Russia and Asia. The channel aims to entertain children of ages 6 to 20 and is an important part of the golden memories of our childhood and teenage. Since its launch December 1, 1977 the Nickelodeon team thinks it’s high time that 30-year-old identity should be changed.

1) The memorable old “Nickelodeon Logo":

2) The New “Nickelodeon” Logo:

3) Why “Nick” wanted a new Corporate Identity?

Armin (from under consideration) inquired the reason of this change from Russell Hicks (executive vice president and creative director of Nickelodeon), who explained that internet has made kids very fast. They enjoy innovative and trendy stuff. Therefore, the 30-year-old identity had to change.

Nickelodeon today is a media enterprise that consists of multiple channels that air in 175 countries, a motion picture production company, an ever-growing online presence, and outlets of numerous consumer products. Therefore, the team working on the redesign was briefed how the new logo should compliment different upcoming projects (channels and divisions.)

4) Will you miss the old logo:( ?

         Hey friends…today I have another big and high-budget logo redesign to share with you all. However, this time it is not any soft drink or Software company logos which is redesigned. The city of Melbourne, Australia revealed their new corporate identity last week. The identity design was developed by the Sydney office of Landor, who were paid $A91, 000 (US$74,000) in “preliminary research for the new brand” and $A148, 000 (US$120,000) for the design itself.

Last week when Melbourne’s new logo was announced, the fat block of “M” costing for $240,000 was highly criticized.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle unveiled the new logo for the city, saying:

“Old logo was "a bit daggy" and Melbourne needed a new design to reflect its cool sophistication on the world stage.”

To defend the claim of extra cost, he explains that the new logo would save the council money in the long run by gradually replacing about 50 different logos the city now uses for its various services. Furthermore, on the Melbourne’s website, Dr Kathy Alexander lists the benefits the City will be earning from this redesign.

• Consolidation of multiple logos into a single, strong, cutting-edge design
• Better identification of services City of Melbourne is delivering
• Greater brand impact and flexibility
• More cost and time-effective in-house design and brand management

Where, majority people find the new logo to be a disaster, some design experts find it quiet sensible, saying:

"It’s certainly not a disaster and considering the amounts some companies spend on rebranding, it might even turn out to be a bargain,”

says the managing director of  Brand Behavior, Karl Treacher.

Further, Mr Treacher quotes:

"Of course, when you’re a government or public body people will say the money could have been spent elsewhere or possibly better. But in the scale of logos $240,000 isn’t over the odds.”

The main grounds, government is using to avoid facing criticism is that of “London Olympic Logo 2012” They think it is less of a disaster than London’s logo for the 2012 Olympic Games as within hours of its launch in 2007,  30,000 Britons signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped.

Here, I will drop my opinion and would like to know yours…don’t you think, it is utterly unethical of government to support their wrong decision by referring to any old blunder. If they have ended up with something foolish, at least they should have the guts to accept it.

So guys, how do you see this redesigned logo of Melbourne city…. a waste of money or a step towards progress?