Tag: newsblur starred stories
Veni Vidi Selfi – DORK TOWER 27.10.14
30th October 2014 20:22Marvel Movie Logos, A New Trend?
20:22Recently Comicraft logo designer JG Roshell sent me a link to this image promoting six future Marvel films with the excited message, “Looks like they’re using my Inhumans logo and your Dr. Strange!” We were both happily surprised by this. Even though there’s no guarantee these logos will continue to be used going forward, it was cool to see.
For many years most films based on comics have been promoted with logos that stay far away from the look of the comics themselves, like this 2011 Thor logo which uses the extremely popular and over-used font Trajan. Lately Marvel is really cranking up their film plans, and the newer logos give evidence that the company is looking to their comics logos more than they ever have before. Of course, many past Marvel films have been licensed out to other studios, where decisions about logos and promotion are made, so film
films franchises like Spider-Man and X-Men may not have had much input from Marvel itself.
For about the past 25 years, most action movie logos have included at least some of the following qualities: 1) metallic with glistening highlights, 2) three-dimensional, 3) distressed, 4) glowing, 5) must look good on a black background. You’ll see many of those qualities above.
But over the past year or two, Marvel movie logos have been getting more varied and more interesting.
While it doesn’t look like any of the logos on the comics, this one has, for me at least, the feel of a comics logo, or at least is in the same neighborhood. I like this trend, and really, it makes sense to avoid following the crowd of Trajan and Helvetica lovers and make Marvel movie logos more distinctive and memorable. So, let’s take a closer look at the new ones.
The new Captain America film uses the logo style from the very first comic on the character’s name:
It was designed by Joe Simon, and the movie logo follows it closely, if not exactly. For “Civil War” they’re using tall but undistinguished block letters that actually are an improvement on the comics logo…
…which is the font Trajan again. The previous Captain America film used another early Joe Simon logo as starting point, too.
The Avengers movie logo, like the previous one, is based on this…
…a design by Gaspar Saladino that first appeared on issue 96 cover dated Feb. 1972. It’s been modernized, but the idea is clearly the same. The rest of the movie logo looks like horizontally stretched Trajan, but this one gets high marks from me, and I think most comics fans.
The Thor movie logos have gotten much more interesting since the first one, and while not based on any comics logo, it’s quite appealing to me, especially what looks like an elaborate decorative design inside the Thor letters.
The Captain Marvel movie logo is the least metallic of the group, though it does have the distressed and three-dimensional check points.
It’s also appearing on a new comics series that began this year. As Tom Muller has pointed out in the comments below,
I don’t know who designed it, or whether it was designed by Jared K. Fletcher for the comic, for the comic first or the film, but it looks pretty good to me on both. Marvel’s Captain Marvel (as opposed to the Fawcett one) has had many logos over the years, and this is far from the worst.
We’re looking pretty far into the future for this Inhumans release, which means there’s plenty of time to rethink the logo, but I really like this one, based on the 1998 design of Comicraft’s JG Roshell:
Even with all the movie logo gimmicks, it still works great for me.
Finally there’s Doctor Strange, based on a 1988 design of mine:
There are some strange things about the movie logo, though. By leaving off the drop shadow, and just tracing the inner open shape of the letters, they’ve made some parts look too short: the right leg of the R and N, the left leg of the A and all of the G. I admit that was true in my design, but it’s less obvious. This logo may well be just a place holder, there are several other Doctor Strange movie logos out there on the web already, so I suspect they’re still working on it. Cool to see it promoting the film, all the same. A first for me.
JG also found this recent movie logo, which is again based on his design:
Not an exact match but very close, and isn’t this much more interesting than the average action movie logo these days? JG and I sure think so! Good going, Marvel.
JG also commented,“Would be nice if we could get paid again…” Now that’s a real Hollywood fantasy, Mr. Roshell!
Exciting news from Lyminge Project HQ
28th October 2014 08:10As promised, the blog does not sleep after the excavation is completed! We are extremely pleased to be able to share with you all a film commissioned by the Arts and Humanities Research Council who have been funding our excavations in Lyminge since 2012. Many of you may have already seen this on social media, but we couldn’t leave it out of the blog! The short film examines what we have been doing on Tayne Field since 2012 and if you volunteered with us this summer you might even be able to spot yourself in the background.
The AHRC Website have featured this film and the project prominently on their own news site, which we’re incredibly pleased about. It’s fantasic to have the significance of the excavations at Lyminge recognised through funding and dissemination such as this. We’ve also made the video available here on our project website where you can find other videos and media that have been made about the project.
Lyminge featured on the front page of the Arts and Humanties Research Council website – with the incredible Saxon glass assemblage at the forefront
We’re also incredibly pleased to have found a new home for the Lyminge Project exhibition that has been travelling around important Kentish Anglo-Saxon sites since November 2012. We updated the exhibition with finds and a new exhibition panel in May 2014 while it was at Maidstone Museum and the whole exhibit has now found a new home for the next six months. If you were unable to get to any of the venues in Kent over the past two years, the Lyminge travelling exhibition is now being housed at the CSI: Sittingbourne exhibition space in the Forum Shopping centre, Sittingbourne, Kent, and a grand opening is being held on 28th October 2014 at 6.15pm. CSI: Sittingbourne is an important community training scheme, training volunteers in artefact conservation techniques, which can only stay open with adequate funding. Please do go along to the Lyminge exhibition and have a look at what CSI: Sittingbourne engages in and support the project if you can.
Finally, I want to let you all know that the Lyminge Archaeological Project will be featured in the new series of ‘Digging For Britain’, in the episode about the east of England, presented by Professor Alice Roberts and Matt Williams. The date and channel hasn’t yet been confirmed, but it’s likely to be on BBC4 some time in November. I will of course update all social media and the blog when we have a confirmed airing date. We hope you’re all enjoying seeing the project on film this autumn!
The Gates of Wrath – DORK TOWER 24.10.14
27th October 2014 11:04Formation flight Sunday. Two Ka-50 flying in formation.
11:04Formation flight Sunday. Two Ka-50 flying in formation.
Episode 1108: Han Over Fist
11:04Pye Parr – Bato Logo
11:04“I also changed the ‘AD’ bit on these, as Jason felt the original A looked like an R. At the time I thought that was rubbish, but looking back he was right – as the AD is sideways it needs to be as legible as possible.”
The Gates of Wrath – DORK TOWER 24.10.14
10:18Formation flight Sunday. Two Ka-50 flying in formation.
10:18Formation flight Sunday. Two Ka-50 flying in formation.