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The design community erupted earlier this May when DC Comics unveiled its new logo, informally titled the "DC Spin." Designed by JoshBeatman of Brainchild Studio in New York, it replaces the 30-year-old "DC Bullet," designed by the legendary Milton Glaser, who is probably best known for his "I (heart) NY" logo, now omnipresent in the Big Apple.
Why the hullaballoo? Well as DC, which is a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company (TWX), speeds into the vertically integrated world of tomorrow, its considerable array of characters must perform not just in the pulpy rags of its past but in the movies, TV, merchandising, and games of today.
When designers start on an identity project, there's often something called a "creative brief," which outlines what the company needs from the new design. In reading DC's various public statements about the outfit's motivations, the brief in this case seems to be a reactive one: The folks at DC wanted a logo that looked more like newer logos by companies started well after 1937, and without founding characters like British detective Cosmo, Phantom of Disguise. In short, rather than a logo that leverages the past, DC's new logo liquidates it.
FAREWELL, SWEET PRINTS. By contrast, Marvel, in asking motion-graphics guru Kyle Cooper to animate its mark for Marvel Films, displayed a great deal more wisdom. The letters, which bear the hand-drawn feel of comics lettering from the '50s, are filled with a "flip book" of Marvel characters reproduced in the coarse Ben Day dots of early color printing. Everything feels old, loved, warm. The motion is created in a precinematic way. The characters are rendered in a predigital form. There is the stuff of legacy and legends here.
DC senior vice-president and creative director, Richard Burning, had different ideas for DC's update. In a Newsarama.com interview, he observes: "Due to the computerization of design work, embossed and three-dimensionalized company marks have become very prevalent." So, instead of highlighting the role of printing in the production of the product, the Spin highlights the role of computers.
In so doing, the Spin pulls a Clark Kent, since it's disguised to fit in with the logos of competitors like Rockstar Games and allies like Electronic Arts (ERTS). EA just released a Batman Begins game and is working on a Superman title nother for the folks at WB.
SLAP SHOT. These gaming logos draw from those of professional sports teams. Not only do sports-related games routinely generate the biggest profits, but the visual reference to "gaming" helps clue consumers to what they're buying. As one reader of Burning's interview quipped, "Doesn't this new logo look like it would really fit as the band for a professional hockey team?" From the mouths of babes.
Sure, they kept the circle and a star. But they added a "glow" effect! The only time we've ever seen that work is when the Green Lantern was hurtling through space. Diagnosis? Come back to earth, DC. They don't make 'em like they used to.
Giampietro and Smith are the founding partners of Giampietro+Smith, a design studio in New York City that focuses on editorial and strategic design for cultural, nonprofit, and corporate clients. The studio also produces critical writing about design. Visit their studio at www.studio-gs.com. The Doctors will be "in" every other week at
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