After fifteen years of use the current “tower” Comedy Central logo is being put out to pasture. The replacement, a “C” surrounded by a reverse “C” and flanked by the channel’s name (with “Central” flipped) was announced today, and will replace the current logo early next year.
Here’s a little perspective: the last time Comedy Central made a significant branding change, neither The Daily Show nor South Park had premiered on its airwaves. The new logo will accompany a complete overhaul of the channel’s graphics and advertising. The new mark bears an unmistakable likeness to the “©” copyright symbol, used in the United States and around the world to delineate a registered copyright. Coincidentally, it also bears a resemblance to the logo for the Federal Communications Commission, an organization that hasn’t exactly seen eye-to-eye with Comedy Central in the past.
The network hopes to “brand” its various old and new properties with its new mark, illustrated in a two-minute into video juxtaposing Comedy Central shows with the new logo, typography and graphics. Headliners South Park, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are featured prominently, along with newer properties like Tosh.0, Ugly Americans and the newly revived Futurama. The flat, bold color scheme jives with many web 2.0 and mobile interfaces, which makes sense as the network tries to expand its presence in social networks and video-on-demand services.
So is the new logo good? In a word, no.
An iconic logo needs to be three things: unique, versatile, and relevant. Uniqueness is obvious – hardly anyone on Earth would confuse the Nike, Coca Cola or Apple logos with another brand. You can’t say the same about the new Comedy Central logo, which is derivative not only of the copyright logo, but could be easily confused with other long-standing brands such as the Creative Commons or even the Chicago Cubs. It’s not versatile, because it only works well as a one-color design.
That might be fine for the network’s simple new branding, but putting it on top of the overly saturated and colorful logos for The Daily Show or Futurama would be awkward – not to mention the confusion with a standard copyright or trademark symbol. A lack of enclosure doesn’t help. Is the new logo relevant? Not when compared with the current branding – though an effective advertising push would help change that, and Comedy Central seems more than ready to invest time on its own channel and in web and traditional advertising.
In my opinion, one of the best TV branding changes in recent years has been the new USA Network logo, introduced in 2005. It’s unique, memorable, and the use of positive and negative space is incredibly effective. The new Comedy Central is overly simplistic and forgettable in comparison.
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Look for Comedy Central’s new branding in January.
Source: Comedy Central [via: Deadline Hollywood]
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I agree, that is pretty bad. Did they not want to hire outside help and just have an intern do it?
that is sooo not funny
You aren’t getting the joke. All of you.
Here, let me explain why this is brilliant:
It’s the anti-logo.
Simple, no creativity nor inspiration put into it. They took off a part of the Copyright symbol and that’s that. And I think it’s awesome that their logo is just on big joke.
I’ve noticed that a lot of companies are starting this “simple” trend with their logos; Gatorade, the Nickelodeon Networks, Cartoon Network, “SyFy”, Myspace, and Gap just to name a few. And what’s more simple than just taking off the piece of another logo. I think it’s implying that companies are starting to get lazy with logos, and just decided to try it out for themselves. And it worked.
It’ll be remembered for how unoriginal it is.
I don’t give comedy central that much credit. This is the same channel that gave carlos mencia his own show, I don’t think they poses the subtlety
If they flip the big C around, it’s the Capsule Corp symbol from Dragon Ball Z
I’m really digging it.
It looks so damn perfunctory and inconsequential, but it’s not anything of the sort. The upsidedown “Central” adds that little touch of, “Aw damn, that’s a terrible joke,” that I love in modern comedy.
A much welcomed change. Can’t wait to see all of the new advertising!
yeah it’s a great logo. Its also already someone Else’s intellectual property. http://hb3.info/cosmos/gfx/1_caldarilogo.jpg That’s from the game Eve online
If one is to speak of design, shouldn’t you have a readable website? The type knocked out of black here is giving me a headache.
have to second that. amazing how many people still haven’t grasped one of the basics of online readability. in the present context it’s inexcusable.
Double Plus Good!
Lame,,,,,,,, :/
I remember when it was called “HA!”
Bring back MST3K!
Wow I would be fired for designing something like that.. “yea we just took the ‘copyright’ logo and put a smal gap in the back.. its funny.. like our channel”.. no its sad, depressing and had to have been designed by the same idiot that designed the new GAP logo.. now everyone take a shot of jack and lets get this party rolling
hmm
Reminds me of SciFi dieing and turning into SyFy
You get what you pay for.
http://www.horriblelogos.com/comedy-central/
Am I the only person who looked at this and thought “Target?”
Another horror….. Comedy Central also changed it’s logo! To a bland and unemotional C, that looks like a copyright symbol. Way to go guys! I wonder
what is the marketing strategy behind that one?
Ok, so they decided to get a new logo. I was shocked when I saw it! This logo might be very slightly clever having the “c” centered within another “c”, but that it! at first glance, it seems that not much thought and creativity was put into this logo, but on the other hand, I don’t have the data and new possible marketing direction that they are seemingly now trying to pursue.
Ok, so they decided to get a new logo. I was shocked when I saw it! This logo might be very slightly clever having the “c” centered within another “c”, but that it! at first glance, it seems that not much thought and creativity was put into this logo, but on the other hand, I don’t have the data and new possible marketing direction that they are seemingly now trying to pursue. In other words, I’m trying to somehow give a little credit since a personally feel a little sorry for them on the voice of their new logo. I frankly don’t get the choice. The new logo has no value to me as a customer, since it lacks any relevance in visual tone. Visually, it’s quite silent and lacks the attitude that you would expect from a comedy tv station. To me it’s sort of like going to a Mexican restaurant that is known for using flavorful and spicy ingredients in their dishes, yet they just revamped their menu and took out all the spices and flavors. It’s just bland and is not what I would expect from a Mexican restaurant to ever do. Now, a lot of smart marketing can help the comedy central and the new logo will eventually be accepted by the public. Much like Pepsi and their new logo, but don’t get me started on that one!
wow. seriously? the tower was awesome. this is as bad as the NBCUniversal crap.
I’m getting a strong mac-power-button vibe.
That was my old logo but they stole it in a night of drunken poker! Seriously.
http://www.colossusofclout.com/joshs_blog/colossus-of-clout-vs-comedy-central/