The decision to rebrand came as the network expands beyond entertainment and reality shows into wider content including sports. The team at the CW tasked DixonBaxi to create branding that expressed its personality and position in the market as “scrappy underdogs”.

Rather than starting from scratch, DixonBaxi refined the existing logo with more typographic weight and balance, and neatened it by dropping ‘The’ from the logo, where it previously sat above ‘CW’. The rebrand includes a new network signature called ‘the stage’, a flexible device that can expand or contract depending on usage.

DixonBaxi has also created a suite of motion principles that allow the brand to interact with the network’s content in a range of ways, including transforming the stage device into a clapperboard, a navigation tool, and a lens; or using it to direct the audience’s focus to certain content.

The brand’s signature typeface is F37 Bolton by UK-based type studio F37 Foundry, and its hero colour is Hot Sauce, a vibrant and energetic orange. This is accompanied by secondary colours all named after ingredients: Pepper, a green-tinted black; Salt, a clean white; Icing, a light pink; and Mint, a soft green. Accompanying the visuals is a sonic identity, intended to be “fresh, bright and uplifting”, created in partnership with We Are Audio.

Overall the branding has been sharpened and made more consistent, and, accompanied by sharp copy, has been given a cheeky and irreverent tone. “Harnessing a premium, deadpan aesthetic, we have created a brand that is bold, confident and truly unmissable,” says Charlie Greenslade, senior designer at DixonBaxi.

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