Cartoon Community is protecting issues recent after 30 years.
The corporate is rolling out its first model refresh in a decade, updating its colour palette, breaking down the emblem, enlisting new expertise and leaning into split-screen.
Former CMO Tricia Melton spearheaded the general refresh, with Jacob Escobedo, svp of artistic and design at Cartoon Community and Grownup Swim, and artistic design administrators Candice Home and Craig Gordon.
In years previous, the community has chosen stylistic interpretations of characters as packaging, however the firm hasn’t carried out a complete prime to backside rebrand in 10 years.
“We determined to peel again all of the layers of our branding,” Escobedo stated. “We have been up towards loads of unusual press saying Cartoon Community was dying or that it was lifeless. With this new packaging and the content material that we’re rolling out in 2023, it reveals that we’re very a lot alive and that we’re a vibrant, enjoyable model that has so much occurring.”
Cartoon Community additionally partnered with artistic company Buck to assist develop the package deal, and the subsequent step will probably be to exit to the community’s viewers and different collaborators to additional the refresh.
Parts of the marketing campaign have begun operating throughout linear, digital and social, with extra to come back.
Leaning into the emblem
Although Escobedo and his crew determined to not revamp the emblem fully, they did play with animations and shapes for brand new parts.
The crew seemed on the basic Cartoon Community emblem and seen it as a “containing system,” using the 2 black and white squares as a split-screen to offer a number of alternatives for brand new artistic whereas making the most of basic Warner Bros. Discovery IP.
“We tried to play with the connection of that and determine how these shapes exist collectively and what’s their relationship?” Escobedo stated.
The circle and sq. are the muse of the visible model language, and the emblem animation is designed to be the “essence” of the CN model.
Cut up-screen artistic was a pure match for Cartoon Community, with Escobedo pointing to common social media codecs on platforms like TikTok to make the most of duetting.
“Whereas attempting to broaden all our content material, it brings new challenges,” Escobedo stated. “How does Harry Potter match with Teen Titans? How does this content material dwell collectively? This split-screen was a enjoyable system for us to fiddle with.”
The community hadn’t used the break up display as a advertising and marketing instrument earlier than, nevertheless it believes it’s ownable from a band perspective and described it as a “dwelling emblem.”
Contemporary colour
Cartoon Community’s colour palette has traditionally been CMYK, however Escobedo noticed a chance to open the aperture and embody an increasing viewers.
“We’re going after a wider viewers,” he stated. “We’re going after women, we’re going after household, a wider fanbase.”
Wanting on the CMYK colour palette, the crew used colour principle to indicate a shift. The brand new secondary colour palette is constructed out of naturally overlapping authentic colours, designed to create the impact of a prism. Overlapping cyan, magenta and yellow carry a brand new look to CN, which Escobedo stated was designed to really feel “vibrant, enjoyable and thrilling.”
“We wished the palette to only really feel inclusive,” Escobedo stated. “Signifying inclusivity.”
