Why are studio logos important?
Studio logos show the identity and familiarity of the production or the studio. Usually, through the studio logos, we can already know the genre of the film since most studios specialize in certain genres.
Which production companies, and studios, are ‘known’ for making Thriller films?
Warner Bro's
Warner Bro's Entertainment Inc. is an American multi-media company that was founded on April 4, 1923, in L.A, California. They are one of the biggest successful media companies now, they do different genres of movies but their known thrillers are Inception (2010), the Dark Knight (2008), and the Shining (1980).
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures is an American film production media company founded in 1912. It is one of the biggest successful media companies worldwide along with Disney, Warner Bro's, Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox, etc. For thriller films, Universal Pictures is famous for Jaws (the first film was in 1975, as of 2022, they have three movies) and the Jurassic Park franchise (the first film was in 1993, as of 2022, they have six films; two short films, and one animated film).
Hammer Film Productions
Known for their gothic films and thrillers, Hammer Film Productions is a British company based in London and founded in 1934. During its peak years, they were known for Dracula and Frankenstein.
Do the logos suggest anything about the thriller genre?
Studio Logos usually change their design to the theme of the film, this is accompanied by background music that fits the genre of the film. Sometimes they also change the color, font to establish the genre more.
For example in the movie Inception, they changed the colors of the traditional logo of Warner Bro's. The color scheme gives off dark feelings similar to what inception's theme is which is about dreams and manipulating people's subconscious.
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DETAILED LOGO INVESTIGATION
The Walt Disney Company is a multi-media entertainment company founded by brothers, Walt and Roy Disney in 1923. Their first logo debuted in 1937, and it features signature-like handwriting. The company wasn't really successful as how it is now, they started working for Laugh-o-gram Studios that went bankrupt in 1923. Trying to start his own, Disney heads to Hollywood with the help of his brother. They began to produce two cartoon shorts,
Alice and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. These shorts were successful, but, unfortunately, Walt Disney failed to protect his legal copyright on the characters, and he lost the contract to them in February of 1928. Disney came up with the idea of a cartoon called Steamboat Willie that featured a mouse character that would later be known as Mickey Mouse. The Steamboat Willie cartoon was a hit, and in 1929 Walt Disney Productions was formed around its success.
The first Disney logo has Mickey Mouse in it because they rose to popularity with this character. However, in 1985, the logo underwent a transformation into what would be the basis for the Disney logo we see today, featuring a light blue castle with the text “Walt Disney Pictures” displayed across it. This logo was used until 2006 when Disney adopted the logo we now see today. The current Walt Disney logo is incredibly impressive in its detail, displaying Disney Princess Cinderella’s castle, its design is also intricate as we can see it with balconies, towers, windows, and a moat. Although they did change the logo by having a castle, they kept the famous "Disney" font that most people recognize because it's iconic, In both its animated, unanimated and simplified forms, Disney has made their logo a critical part of their marketing and branding efforts.
Disney has variations of its logo depending on the movies. For example, in the movie "Incredibles 2", the Castle animation's colors are distinct from the usual animation.
Another one is the live remake of Disney Princess Belle's movie, "Beauty & the Beast". The colors of the animation are saturated and the castle also resembles the castle of the beast in the movie.
The logo's animation for Tomorrowland features a flying item presumably inventions that might be shown in the movie, this foreshadows the story of Tomorrowland.
They also match the color palette of the movie posters, like the logo animation of Tron: Legacy and Frankenweenie
Below is the evolution of Walt Disney's logos.
Create your production logo
It was challenging for me to make my logo because I am not the best with drawing and animation. However, I know that I want my logo to be simple and I had several ideas in mind.
I want my studio to be named "Dawn Studios", I don't really have any big reason why I chose the name "Dawn" but when I was brainstorming for names, the word Dawn just seemed fitting. As I was thinking of my logo, I wanted to incorporate a crescent moon on the logo. I also thought of having both sun and moon in the logo since the word dawn means "the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise". Using my iPad and apple's built-in Notes app, I tried drawing ideas.
The first one is just the crescent as the letter D of dawn and the rest is my handwriting. Another element I added are sunrays, This first design seemed empty because there's a lot of space inside the middle so I tried changing the handwriting and I tried filling in the whole middle with the word "Dawn". Another idea I had is looking for free to use images and using it to make my logo, however, when I did it, I wasn't really satisfied with my result.
As I was still stuck with thinking what logo style I should go for, I thought about stars and lens focus, it's not my initial idea, however, it still falls under the theme. I added a fire flick sound effect and layered it with some free-to-use foley sounds.
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