Logo-a-gogo: Branding Pop Culture

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James Bond Dynamite Comics/Ian Fleming Publications Limited Comic book series 2015 In a deal set in motion by Mike Lake, Dynamite commissioned Warren Ellis to pen a new James Bond comic series based on the novels — the Bond of literature, rather than the Bond of the movies. Mike asked if I would like to create the logo, cover template and interior page templates that would be used each issue

by Dynamite’s in-house designers.

I felt the logo needed to be elegant, sleek and masculine, like a bespoke gentleman’s outfitter or high-end automobile livery. Early roughs (not shown) played around with a Bond signature.

Having emailed over the concepts, Mike and I had a meeting with the Fleming Estate at The Society Club, a bookshop/ café in Soho. We spoke for an hour about the films, the books — in fact, everything except my designs. Then, in passing, it was mentioned that they liked the logo, and that it was approved. And then we didn’t talk about it again.

The chosen design manages to be sophisticated without being feminine, hard-edged without looking like a Fast and Furious franchise. Understated but selfassured, just like Bond.

The art was intended to occupy a square area below the logo; unfortunately, as several covers for the first issue had

already been commissioned before the design was approved, I had to crop and extend some of them to fit. Where I could, I involved the artists concerned to make the process as painless for them as possible.

The colour touch in the logo serves to differentiate ‘007’ from the name, and was keyed to the art each time. The credits, ‘Ian Fleming’ strapline and indicia are all set in Clique, one of my own Device designs.

The first issue of James Bond: Vargr had more than twenty variant ‘retailer incentive’ covers. Warren Ellis followed up with a sequel, Eidolon, and Andy Diggle with the four-issue mini-series Hammerhead for which the logo was reversed, white on black.

I also designed the inside front cover and inside back cover (usually given over to advertisements in Marvel and DC Comics titles) which enabled me to make sure the design was consistently applied throughout the whole package, and drew some dramatic black and white silhouettes that served to frame the comic itself. Note the removal of the gun and bow tie for the final printed version (overleaf).

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IAN F L E M I N G ’S

VA R G R

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Challengers of the Unknown DC Comics Comic book mini-series 2004 A kind of proto-Fantastic Four, the Challengers of the Unknown debuted in DC Comics’ Showcase #6 in 1957 in an uncredited story drawn by Jack Kirby.

For Howard Chaykin’s 2004 six-issue mini-series, a new Challengers team becomes embroiled in the modern world of shadowy power politics — “the usual Chaykin mix of paranoia, geopolitics, fear and innuendo”.

From the outset Howard wanted me to direct the design, rather than handing me a finished drawing that I’d then work around. Having been a fan of his stylised and stylish work since American Flagg!, I was more than happy to oblige.

The most conceptually sound and graphically cohesive comic covers come about when the entire package is conceived as a whole — right down to the smallest line of type — rather than the logo and art being created in isolation and then brought together.

From Howard’s full-length character studies I created five silhouettes. I then arranged them for each issue, pushing the featured character to the fore and the supporting characters into the background. Each character has an icon on his or her costume that I used as a small repeat pattern. For the sixth issue, the three survivors come together in equal billing, with silhouettes replacing the two that don’t make it through the story alive.

I used a very tight crop — so tight we cut off the characters’ faces, which I hope suggested the undercover, black ops incognito slant to the story. As with many series where I’ve taken a strong design aesthetic across several issues, I differentiated them with colour, the last being a funereal black. I was apprehensive that my drastic interventions to Howard’s drawings might be a step too far, but he loved the result.

The trade paperback collection, designed in-house, uses my logo but is otherwise different. A version of the lettering was released as the Device font Data 90.

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Journey into the Improbable Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Peculiar Encounters Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

It’s a Way-Out Love In Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Appointment with Weirdness Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Bizarre Art Mystery Tales Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Odd Stories Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

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Shocking Suspense Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Tales to Flabbergast Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

SUSPENSE Tales of the Anomalistic Observer Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Science Amok!

Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Stranger Than You Think Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

Preposterous Stories Image Comics Tales from Beyond Science graphic novel 2013

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Batman: The Return DC Comics Comic book 2010

For this one-shot comic taking place after the Return of Bruce Wayne storyline and leading directly into Batman Incorporated, I first revisited some unused designs 1 I had originally created for Batwoman.

The colon presented an unusual opportunity to place the ‘M’ centrally in the design, forming the lower part of the cowl. I favoured the more angular type style 5, 6 and above, but the more readable version 4 was ultimately used.

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The bat itself was subtly modelled in three dimensions to mimic the recently redesigned style of Batman’s chest emblem.

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The Batman/The Spirit DC Comics Comic book one-shot 2000

Will Eisner’s legendary hero The Spirit was folded into the DC Universe in this oneshot by Jeph Loeb and Darwyn Cooke. I approached this with some trepidation — I had read many of The Spirit collections as a teenager, and from both a storytelling and design perspective it’s rightly

considered to be a high-water mark in the artform.

Here, The Spirit’s iconic cyan suit is treated as a graphic silhouette, the mask and hat band in black, while Batman is in black with his lower face in blue shadow, his eyes in white..

The design, though one of my favourites, didn’t work so well in context on the actual cover, for which Darwyn had drawn the two butting heads. In the end, a simplified treatment using just the type was used.

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Since 1999, The Chap has been championing the rights of that increasingly marginalised species of Englishman — the gentleman. The Chap believes that a society without courteous behaviour and proper headwear is a society on the brink of moral and sartorial collapse, and seeks to reinstate such indispensable practices as hat doffing, giving up one’s seat to a lady and the regular use of the trouser press.

The Chap also holds the annual Chap Olympiad, featuring Cad Slapping, Umbrella Jousting, Not-Playing-Tennis and Moustache Tug-of-War. For my bespoke redressing of the magazine, betweeded editor Gustav Temple sent me a selection of post-war ‘make do and mend’ posters, Pifco logos

and knitting patterns featuring men in cableknit jumpers for inspiration. At our first meeting in Lewes, The Chap’s home town, I was recovering after an extended stag weekend in Brighton. I fear I may have looked somewhat bedraggled, and not Chap material at all.

The type is adapted from the Device font Capitol, which I also used for the coverlines each issue. Katie Moorman designed the interiors. The pipe-smoking mascot was retained with a subtle polish, and later appeared on Chap cufflinks and hand-made brogues 2, 3.

Early concepts toyed with a script ‘the’, oversized logos and bold illustrations suggested by the work of Edward Hynes for the covers of the pocket-sized postwar Men Only magazine 1.

We ended up using black and white photographs, but I did draw Oscar Wilde for the ‘Dandy Descendants’ issue. The Steve McQueen and Patrick Macnee covers were my favourites.

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The Chap The Chap magazine Magazine masthead 2010

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A JOURNAL FOR THE MODERN GENTLEMAN

£2.65

O C T / N OV 2 0 1 0

Nº66

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Forbidden Planet Comics, fantasy and science fiction retail chain 1985

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Named after the 1956 film, Forbidden Planet is a chain of shops with branches across the UK, Ireland and the US. The first small shop opened in 1978 in London’s Denmark Street, where I first discovered its trove of imported US SF books, magazines and comics during the school holidays.

As the scope of the store expanded to embrace film and television, a second store was opened around the corner on St Giles High Street. Titan Books started their publishing business in the cramped basement, where I delivered early book cover designs for Mark Cox and Leigh Baulch.

In 1986 the shop relocated to a ‘megastore’ in New Oxford Street, at which point Jon Harrison, Forbidden Planet’s manager, suggested it might be time to design a new logo to replace the straight Compacta that had been used previously. Early design concepts 5, 6 incorporated Forbidden Planet’s iconic 2 56

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Robbie the Robot, who had featured in Brian Bolland’s original artwork for the shop’s bags.

One concept involved different icons that would brand each subsection: SF, comics, horror, etc., but in the end just the rocket was used.

The extended type style of the final logo (here marked “my fave” on the original rough 7) owes much to Aldo Novarese’s Microgramma, a typeface that I remember from Gerry Anderson’s TV shows and Countdown comic. Its ‘obround’ extended design projects a modernist futurism that, at the time I designed the logo, was very much at odds with the prevailing letterspaced and condensed styles.

I’m happy to find that it has weathered well, and still looks good all these years later.

8 is the letterhead; 1 a vinyl toy by Matt ‘Lunartik’ Jones. 9 and 10 are my designs for two anthologies by writers and artists who had signed books at the shop; 11 is the embossed slipcased limited edition.

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Gorillas in ya Midst Device T-shirt motif 2005

LOGO-A-GOGO: BRANDING POP CULTURE Hardback Size: 225 mm x 225 mm 576 pages ISBN: 9780993337420 Available from all good bookshops and online at:

www.koreropress.com

For all the latest news and events follow us on social media To open a trade account or for more details email: info@koreropress.com

Branding Pop Culture Featuring iconic characters and brands such as Batman, Hed Kandi, Spider-Man, James Bond, The Avengers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this comprehensive retrospective collects Rian Hughes’ logo designs for comics, music, toys, television, book covers, magazines and more.

Each logo is shown alongside previously unpublished concepts and applications, with a case-by-case commentary by the designer himself.

A unique insight into the creative process of “the man who’s done more for comic book design than anybody else, ever.”

With an introduction by Eisner award-winning comics writer and collaborator Grant Morrison.

“Rian Hughes has been the gold standard in pop culture design for thirty years.”

— Warren Ellis “Rian Hughes is a luminescent pop culture demon.”

— David Quantick “One of the most successful and prolific designer/illustrators of the past twenty years.”

— Roger Sabin, Eye magazine “Rian Hughes has been credited with doing more than anyone else to elevate the sophistication level of comic book design.”

— Michael Dooley, AIGA “The Hughes-O-Matic droid’s logo designs are as scrotnig as ever.

This beautiful collection comes with a guaranteed Betelgeusian stamp of zarjazosity!”

— Tharg the Mighty

ISBN 9780993337420

54500

US $45.00 CAN $58.95

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