CR Blog
Peel slowly and see
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 23 January 2012, 13:22 Permalink Comments (19)
After relaunching its entire line of comics last year, publishers DC has unveiled a new identity, its second since Milton Glaser's classic stamp design was replaced in 2005. Almost immediately, Landor's new design met with the power of comics nostalgia...
'The New 52' was how DC referred to its restart of 52 monthly stories from issue #1 in an attempt to attract new readers, introducing new characters and freshening up some old favourites along the way. It also saw the launch of same day publishing for both its printed comics and their digital versions. And last week DC revealed a brand new identity design created by Landor. This being the world of plugged-in comics fans, blogs and forums across the internet quickly lit up.
Landor's vast flexible 'system' is of course a long way from the look of the Detective Comics series that launched in 1937 and carried Batman's debut two years later. The founding of DC Comics Inc – off the back of National Allied Publications – took the series title as the company name, later reducing it to DC. Now DC is the publishing wing of DC Entertainment and is owned by Warner Bros., itself part of Time Warner (DC's rival, Marvel, is a Disney brand).
So at face value DC's new identity reflects its current standing within American corporate culture. But perhaps it points further to the inherent differences between a "comics" publisher and an "entertainment" company. Indeed, Landor's design looks less like it belongs on a printed front cover than it does on screen, or in motion. The hint of 'reveal' certainly suggests the latter. (Armin over at Brand New makes some good observations about various "formal deficiencies" within this potentially exciting identity system.)
And this is no doubt the point. Comics have always enjoyed a life outside of print, particularly in film, online and, much more recently, in app form. But the 'culture' of comics still seems bound up with strong feelings of nostalgia. With a particularly fervent core readership, any changes to a title's key elements – like plot development or artwork – are bound to generate a reaction. Likewise for a logo that marks out a particular comic series as coming from the famous DC stable.
Someone who managed to do that perfectly was Milton Glaser. In the mid-1970s he was approached to create a new identity for DC. His design (above, left), a shield of four stars inlaid with the company's initials – known as the 'DC Bullet' – was in use from 1977 until 2005 when it was reworked (above, right) by Brainchild Studios.
While I have fond memories of Glaser's design, it was the logo used at the time that I first encountered comics. So whether I 'liked' it in late 1980s doesn't particularly matter: it's the design I recall when I think about the dark inks of Batman comics, or the vivid yellow of the Watchmen (see top image). It's embedded itself and now has a resonance that, I imagine, many others feel similarly attached to.
Will Landor's design, with its clever nod to the superhero's twin identity and the 'peeling back' of the mask, remain as fondly remembered in another thirty years? The logo exists in a completely different world to the one in which I bought comics: the way we experience it – and later recall it – will of course be different too.
More details on the new DC identity can be found here on the DC Comics blog.
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19 Comments
The execution of the new logo is certainly growing on me, but I'm still annoyed by the Redundant Acronym Syndrome issue (as ranted about here: http://www.danielgray.com/journal/from-the-makers-of-detective-comics-comics-detective-comics.html).
2012-01-23 14:14:31
At first glance the logo / new identity seems a bit too corporate but is that because it's too modern for a comic that has been around for a long time. When they first released this new identity they failed to show how it could be altered to represent each comic under DC. Yes, it was modern and plain. But, now seeing how the logo can be altered to fit each comic under DC this logo is a good change for the DC identity.
Certainly comics aren't going away. If anything they are increasing in popularity because of the movies and people realizing how cool of a past time it creates.
Whomever was behind this new identity that offers creative alterations deserves a pat on the back or a high five. Creating a new identity in a very cultured brand like DC Comics is hard. But like I've said before the community so far is liking how the logo can be altered to fit each comic. The community of reference here is the one at Brand New. There they liked the improvements from the first post that had no alterations displayed.
2012-01-23 14:37:16
Page curl?! Really?! While I recognize the thought process behind it, a page curl has to be the most kitsch design technique ever. This ability to fill a logo with different items is very similar to the MTV logo. Also the text "DC Comics" does not fit well under the icon. The negative space after the DC totally throws off the balance. We can all guess it was design by consensus. While it modernizes the DC logo, it's certainly not an award winning design. Sorry, to be critical but as I work in the same field as Landor, I feel it's appropriate to give them the same level of criticism I and my colleagues receive every day.
2012-01-23 14:37:44
I enjoy the simplicity of the mark, and I think the 'peel' makes for a wonderfully economic symbol of both the turning of the comic book page and the reveal of the secret identity.
On another point I wonder if the absence of stars and stripes is a conscious effort to avoid an overly American feel to this new brand?
2012-01-23 14:47:48
I like the reveal and how it can change for each comic title.
I do however think they should ahve been confident in the page turn mark itself and not ad the very pedestrian DC COMICS. As far as I'm aware the previous two didn't have it and I don't think this mark needed it.
Nice idea though
2012-01-23 15:02:54
I like the individuality of each variant to relate to the different superhero, and the Hidden Identity Ideas as well as the comic book page turn , but i think the strength of the 1976 DC "bullet" logo has been lost here. The classic american style of the bullet was seemingly too outdated for the 2005 audiences, but i still maintain that it was one of the main attractions to the comic book world.
2012-01-23 16:05:18
Curious to see this in black and white, or sewn on a ball cap.
Any other versions released yet?
2012-01-23 17:13:56
@Rob
Hi. There are a few more iterations here http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2012/01/19/new-brand-identity/
Mark Sinclair
2012-01-23 17:53:02
hmm?
2012-01-23 22:40:11
I think assuming that the initial grey scale logo was to be the final design was a bit premature. There was obviously more to come. Having now seen the logo in colour and in context I think that it works well. It’s an economic but versatile design. I think that DC have created a modern looking brand for their new modern product line. And the font is Gotham Bold. Could it be anything else?
2012-01-23 22:54:27
I think the new logo design is awesome very cleaver and great for the brand as they can alter and change depending on the franchise and even depending on how dark and edition is. Much in the same way that many of the film houses have been doing for a few years now at the start of a blockbuster film.
2012-01-24 10:28:13
Big fan of the font used, good choice considering other rebrands of recent.
2012-01-24 11:37:35
I love it more and more every time I see it - the promotional uses for this are absolutely endless.
2012-01-24 12:32:18
Too long to post in full in the comments, but here are my thoughts on the rebrand which I wrote last week:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/112006155321588203400/posts/QrBbQQacWRG
And here is Moving Brands' contribution to the discussion:
http://www.movingbrands.com/?p=9226
2012-01-24 13:58:47
Tom, perhaps you would like to spend the time and contribute here rather than promote your own Goolge+ page.
2012-01-24 14:41:16
It just had to be Gotham didn't it?
2012-01-24 19:24:11
Re: DC's new logo...
Here's the thing - a comic book logo has got to fulfill two quite different criteria that often pull the design in different directions.
It has to represent a forward-looking professional and modern company.
... It also has to communicate what the comics are all about.
My main comment on the last DC Comics logo reboot was that it looked too... well, a bit too *comicy*. Outside of the comic ghetto, in the wider real world of design, it looks distinctly cheesy.
This one I applaud for taking a more clean and modern approach. More legitimate and, well, more *designed*.
What I would say, however, is that it's not the most iconic and memorable logo I've ever seen. It's OK. Not bad. But not "YES! Perfect!", which is what one aims for in an identity mark.
I also question how well it'll work in context on covers, where it may jar uncomfortably with the art styles.
The perfect logo, I believe, would have two things:
First, a sense of punchy dynamism and excitement - a reference to the action/adventure core values of comics, WITHOUT being a derivative pastiche of some kind of so-called *comic style* (read: no dot screens, sound effect style lettering, speech balloons, explosions).
Secondly, it should work on screen and print, be relevant to comics in the iPad digital realm, and able to stand next to other high-end publisher's logos without embarrassment. Legitimate, modern, clean, without being too dull and corporate.
I think DC has tried to move the logo from the first category (the swoosh one) to the second category (this Landor version). The swoosh version was too comicy, this one just looks too corporate. Dull, Lacking in dynamism and punch. On the covers, it reminds me of a logo from a blander umbrella corporation that just happens to have a comics division. What we really need is a mark that somehow covers *both* categories.
The variations - the versions with the imagery in - lift the design, but I know that in practice these versions, nice as they are, rarely get used. The fall-back logo - the basic, no-frills version we'll see on spines, and covers - has to stand on it's own without these fancy polishes.
A logo has to work "bare", as it were, stripped of colour, stripped of fancy Photoshop effects. That's the measure of an iconic logo. This one fails in that respect.
Not an easy brief, I know.
So, an interesting effort that I can understand the reasoning behind, but feel it's not iconic and punchy enough to hit the mark. Two steps forward, one step back.
2012-01-27 14:11:11
I wonder if anyone saw this one: http://stocklogos.com/topic/discovery-historys-brand-new-look in the process of designing the DC comics logo?
2012-01-30 16:11:12
Nice modern look. The page curl logo is making a comeback. I wonder how it will look on a screen printed hoody after a few washes?
2012-02-01 10:59:27
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