JKR

“Why so serious?” was my initial reaction to the Cartoon Network’s new identity at first glance. “It has the visual authority of a news network – where’s the play?”. Further immersion in the new scheme revealed that the simplicity and neutrality of the core logo is a trapdoor into a visually rich and engaging world that could be watched for ages before it gets dull:

Alternatively, click here to watch.

I kicked myself for judging a book by its cover. As someone who has learned the hard way that when presenting identity it’s wise to skip past the logo and dive into the applications which bring it to life, I should have known better.

Anyway, it’s good sometimes to see the world as a client might (eg “Is that it?”) and realise that often it’s not what you do, but what you do with it that makes the difference between a design being perceived as average or excellent. The new design draws on the brand’s earlier checkerboard equity (below) but brings it to life in a way which sidesteps aping the look and feel of the cartoons themselves. Just hope nobody thinks watching it leads to kids getting “square eyes”.

The info for today’s blog was drawn from Brand New – consistently in-depth and excellent. Read the original here.