Everybody loves a good TV show, from characters and themes to dialogues. Even the critics pointing out costume and screenplay mistakes enjoy watching them. We remember the main characters of our favorite shows and try to know every detail about them. Some shows even become so dependent on the celebrity they become the face of the show, like Mr. Bean.
However, TV shows are the same as any other business, which requires branding, promotions, and engagement backed by powerful logo designs. TV shows’ story, message, and design elements play a subtle yet significant role in their likability. We are pleased to share their logo design insights for design inspiration and its appeal to the target audience.
Find inspiration in the logos of TV shows and the design elements contributing to their success.
The most-watched TV show with a global audience has an animated logo sequence. Its final appearance portrays a flaming light in the background, a round badge, and a rectangular banner on the front. The badge displays a design feature with four animal heads pointing to the screen corner. The animals represent the families around whom the iron-age fiction story revolves.
Moreover, the banner at the front, horizontally passing over the badge, hosts the series name. It uses a Roman-inspired Trajan Pro font with a smaller ‘OF’ in between, middle size of letters, and bigger G and T. The right bar of the T stretches out over lining the ‘Thrones’ word. The design was a joint venture of three design firms; Elastic, a52, and Rock Paper Scissors.
In the 1980s, residents of a small town started experiencing paranormal activities centered around some secret experiments and one strange girl. No, we are not talking about the drowning of Natalie Wood but the popular TV series Stranger Things. Jacob Boghosian (famous for using inspiration from Stephen King’s book cover) designed the logo using the ITC Benguiat font.
The design team later modified the logotype, giving it a creative touch. The word Stranger rests over the word Things with thick, transparent lettering and a red glowing outline. The first and last letters of the former word are somewhat bigger and underlined by short lines. Another horizontal line appears over the logotype resembling the font styling and color.
One of the most shared, recognized, and talked about logos is of the 90s TV series Friends. The logo uses a novel idea of separating the letters with colorful red, blue, and yellow small circles or dots. The circles represent the show’s six main characters and cover their lives together.
The logo is a wonderful balance of fonts, design, and colors, making it unique and attractive. The letters employ a friendly soft custom font by Gabriel Weiss (GWFF). The letters carry a black and bold weight with unsystematic styling. Consider that the circle colors are not used in a pattern even when they could, as there are two dots of each color. Every detail matters in logos.
The most amazing tactic adopted by this series breaks the bounds of logo design for good. The wordmark decays further with each season airing, a wonderfully unique creation. The Sans-Serif typeface “Dead Kansas” is perfect with the series’ theme and reflects its feel. The bold, thick, capital letters filled with a cracking, fungus-ridden white wall portray the zombie apocalypse.
What happens when a chemistry teacher cannot afford his cancer treatment expenses? He uses his knowledge to make and supply drugs; it did occur in this popular TV show. The incredible twist is not in the series but in its logotype. Breaking Bad uses symbols ‘Ba’ (Barium) and ‘Br’ (Bromine) from the periodic table in place of the first two letters of each word in its name.
Many have credited the designer Jeremy Loyd for his creativity, while only a few know the reality. Bromine and Barium were traced in methamphetamine production as catalysts. The logo’s perfect tiled look, font choices, and contrasting green and white colors are brilliant.
Another drug lord, Pablo Escobar’s real life inspired the series Narcos, gaining global fame and viewership. The Akzidenz Grotesk Condensed font is used in this logotype with delicate curves on the letter R, representing the fun and joyful side of the notorious drug kingpin. The bold capital letters have a broad distance and murky fill, portraying suspense, power, and dominance.
The workplace-theme comedy show has a plain and simple wordmark as a logo. It uses soft small letter fonts (a combination of fonts) written in a single color. The typeface appears somewhat similar to a typewriter’s typeface indicating the show’s theme. However, the letters’ soft appeal portrays coworkers’ relationships and the show’s joyful essence.
Money Heist is another famous TV show that gained popularity for its heinous criminal acts, intelligent main characters, and thrill. The logo is a wordmark that uses Compacta fonts to display the name in two parts. The first word contains a White color bold lettering, and the second one appears over a red rectangle in black color with bold letters. The logo employs a full black background, and the unique selection of color contrasts makes the simple logo vibrant.
If any Korean show is worldwide popular after K-Pop fame, it’s Squid Game. The concept behind the plot, the symbols of the show, and the logo gained massive viewership. The survival theme employs a unique logo with distinctive design elements. The typeface consists of extended edges of letters, geometric curves and shapes, and a pink color fill in three letters. It represents the three levels of the game, with symbols, circle, triangle, and square. Using inspiration from the Nintendo games, the typeface uses letters similar to the first-generation video games.
One of the most famous logos from the 1990s is of the TV show Full House. It’s another wordmark with simple yet attractive fonts with a white color palette written over an indigo quadrant banner. The fonts use capital lettering with enlarged initials and a custom typeface designed by John Manjiro. It perfectly depicts the diverse personalities of the show’s characters.
It is another medieval theme show with a rich design in its logo. The letters use a capital case with unique upper edge cuts distant from each other. The middle letter I is placed between an intricate V design, making it an attractive combination logo. Its left slope resembles a sword’s hilt with a claw-like guard, while the right slope is a plain blade with some blood. The logo perfectly describes the wars and violence of the era while portraying strength and valor.
Using Human silhouettes in a logo was once trendy after the hit of James Bond 007. In recent days, the Mad Men TV series uses a sitting human backside silhouette with a cigarette in hand. Below the image, the bold text in capital letters features a red fill in the first word and white in the second. The bold letters appear over a blurred-out nighttime image of window lights from buildings. Its image depicts Don Draper, the lead role, and the red, black, and white colors reflect the story.
Many people can relate to the story of a teenager facing social and personal issues, which is why Lizzie McGuire show is popular. The logo utilizes an exclusive cloud shape with a mascot and a joyful combination of upper and lower case letters. Its mascot logo depicts a cartoon avatar of its lead character, while the show’s name uses a bold and medium-weight tone. The pink background reflects the feminine story with a thick blue border and a grey outline.
Piper Chapman faces prison for carrying drug money, but the real prison is the moral conflict she’s been facing. Welcome to the series Orange is the New Black as it hovers around the book inspired by the author’s experiences in imprisonment. The logo is as amusing as the story itself, using a chalk mark text with capital letters for Orange (in black) and Black (in orange). The middle text is in small letters in the lower left corner. What further enhances the logo’s beauty is the vertical side bars depicting the confinement of a prison. While the inverted colors of color names portray the dilemmas, the main lead faces in her mind.
For most people growing up in the 90s, The X Files show has been the first source of paranormal mysteries. The chills it induced in our spines through its mysterious logo and music are still unforgettable. Its iconic logo uses Industria font in distant letters with a circle around the X. It features a large X in FF Trixie font in black color with a faint oval light reflecting paranormal activities. The letters in the show’s name appear in white tone except the F and I in black color.
There are numerous sources of inspiration for designers and graphic design students. TV show logos, most expensive brand logos, and even book covers are some sources, as in the case of Stranger Things. The list of famous logos from the most viewed TV shows can increase your design capabilities. Logo design experts enhance the appeal and influence of a logo, adding creativity.
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