A new hope for the Star Wars logo
Not only is the new intro for The Mandalorian excellent with it’s emphasis on the legendary costume and mask design from the past 5 decades, but there is also special evidence of a high-midi-chlorian artisan working in a new logotype refinement.
When logotype updates are done well, it keeps fans from striking back and instead freshen’s the original concept. To do it well often requires research to know how many vectors and nuances can be adjusted without destroying the brand equity. The new Star Wars logo is tactfully updated and fully operational.
It takes the this version of the artwork designed by Suzy Rice in [1976] and finds the very best attributes to keep and then improves legibility and enjoyability for the eyes. I applaud whomever worked on this. If you know who did the update, please share it in the comment section.
To compare the before and after, examine the artwork found in the new intro video and compare it to the best source for the vector logo available. Beware, there’s SO many unattractive attempts and clones of a bad drawing of the original vector — they should all be thrown to the trash compactor because they don’t do Rice’s work any justice. The best drawing of the glyphs I could find was found here.
Let’s start with the most obvious. The lovely parallel terminal on the /T to match the upstroke of the /A. It’s the first thing that stood out to me that something had changed in the logo and it’s such a nice and simple refinement that helps all the letters feel unified in to a single logo mark instead of a few letters feeling defiantly independent.
The highly stylized /R follows the same adjustment.
Each angled glyph received more aperture and counter space to improve legibility, balance weight and color balance. Previously the /W was the dark side of the letters and now it matches the other letters quite nicely. The /T had horizontal bar lightened to account for optical weighting.
Notice how much wider the /S is than the original /S. This helps to match the width of other similarly spaced letters within the logotype. The /A is naturally and appropriately narrower than most glyphs and the /W is characteristically and eponymously occupying almost double the space as other glyphs.
Widening the /S also gives the beginning and end of the Star Wars logotype more energy in the horizontality.
While most of the adjustments to the logotype have been praiseworthy, the /R feels like a mistake. Mainly in where the leg of the /R joins the bowl. The /R feels too much like a P lazily resting on a horizontal bar instead of maintaining a clear angled leg from the original.
Before
After
