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Cartoon Network is keeping things fresh after 30 years.
The company is rolling out its first brand refresh in a decade, updating its color palette, breaking down the logo, enlisting new talent and leaning into split-screen.
Former CMO Tricia Melton spearheaded the overall refresh, with Jacob Escobedo, svp of creative and design at Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, and creative design directors Candice House and Craig Gordon.
In years past, the network has chosen stylistic interpretations of characters as packaging, but the company hasn’t done a total top to bottom rebrand in 10 years.
“We decided to peel back all the layers of our branding,” Escobedo said. “We were up against a lot of strange press saying Cartoon Network was dying or that it was dead. With this new packaging and the content that we’re rolling out in 2023, it shows that we’re very much alive and that we’re a vibrant, fun brand that has a lot going on.”
Cartoon Network also partnered with creative agency Buck to help develop the package, and the next step will be to go out to the network’s audience and other collaborators to further the refresh.
Elements of the campaign have begun running across linear, digital and social, with more to come.
Leaning into the logo
Though Escobedo and his team decided not to revamp the logo completely, they did play with animations and shapes for new elements.
The team looked at the classic Cartoon Network logo and viewed it as a “containing device,” utilizing the two black and white squares as a split-screen to provide multiple opportunities for new creative while taking advantage of classic Warner Bros. Discovery IP.
“We tried to play with the relationship of that and figure out how these shapes exist together and what is their relationship?” Escobedo said.
The circle and square are the foundation of the visual brand language, and the logo animation is designed to be the “essence” of the CN brand.
Split-screen creative was a natural fit for Cartoon Network, with Escobedo pointing to popular social media formats on platforms like TikTok to utilize duetting.
“While trying to expand all our content, it brings new challenges,” Escobedo said. “How does Harry Potter fit with Teen Titans? How does this content live together? This split-screen was a fun device for us to mess around with.”
The network hadn’t used the split screen as a marketing tool before, but it believes it’s ownable from a band perspective and described it as a “living logo.”
Fresh color
Cartoon Network’s color palette has historically been CMYK, but Escobedo saw an opportunity to open the aperture and include an expanding audience.
“We’re going after a wider audience,” he said. “We’re going after girls, we’re going after family, a much broader fanbase.”
Looking at the CMYK color palette, the team used color theory to signify a shift. The new secondary color palette is built out of naturally overlapping original colors, designed to create the effect of a prism. Overlapping cyan, magenta and yellow bring a new look to CN, which Escobedo said was designed to feel “vibrant, fun and exciting.”
“We wanted the palette to just feel inclusive,” Escobedo said. “Signifying inclusivity.”
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