Last night I saw the new DC Comics and DC Entertainment logos via Bleeding Cool, shown above. I spent the next hour or so scrutinizing this revised mark from top to bottom trying to formulate some kind of response, or just trying to make sense of it in my head. Instead, I just put out a tweet to see what my followers might have to say on the topic.
I was asked quite a bit last night what my thoughts were on this revision, so I decided to form it into a blog post because it seems the conversation is pretty heated, and ultimately 1-sided. The typical knee-jerk reaction to a big logo redesign is almost always negative, especially on the internet. Everyone thinks their opinion/idea is better than the one executed, so it quickly becomes a pissing match to see who can hate it the most using the most profanity. While at the same time, accomplishing nothing. I refer you to the Bleeding Cool comments.
My first reaction was confusion as I didn’t feel DC really needed to pursue an identity redesign considering they launched their previous logo only in 2005. It was met with mixed reviews, I dished out a few myself, but ultimately the logo did a great job of capturing youthful excitement (we ARE talking comic books here) and the animated version in their movie intro credits looked great. I was completely blindsided by yesterday’s launch, and woke up today with the same confused feeling. In short, why the redesign and the departure from their established legacy? Here’s the DC Comics logo history:
The new logo is quite nice. Combination of the D unveiling the C is pretty clever. The page-turn looks a little bit like a sticker being peeled away, but I can see what they were going for and an animated version for their movies might look pretty good. I would love to see a process piece written to show how they arrived at this conclusion, and what designs may have went unused.
I was recently having a cold one with my pal Dave Howlett who works at Strange Adventures, and he knows more about (and loves) comics more than anyone I know. He brought up that DC was looking to add more adult material to their comics because their audience had gotten older, ie. our generation of 30-somethings. But there are two problems here: 1) they would be completely disregarding the youth market who had supported them for decades, plus 2) they are turning off the longtime fans with all these sweeping changes to their beloved and familiar characters. This idea echoes in the new logo … the kids aren’t going to notice it, and the old-school fans might feel abandoned.
It’s a confusing move that has left me scratching my head. What do you think?
Addition: DC hasn’t made it clear exactly where this logo will be used. Of all my reading today, details have been a bit scarce. If anyone has any info, feel free to post.
