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Disney’s logo and branding are a tale as old as time—but even classic stories need a new chapter every now and again.
In March, Disney+ unveiled its full Hulu integration for bundle subscribers, combining the Disney+ and Hulu libraries in one application. This came with refreshed branding, an opening orchestral mnemonic created by Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson and a new greenish-blue color, which inspired theories across the internet about color science and the reasoning for the change.
Now, we’re getting a peek at the real magic behind the scenes.
“We always talked about the color, even before we had the opportunity to evolve that color,” Jackson George, svp of creative advertising at Disney Entertainment, told ADWEEK. “We talked about what the opportunity of Hulu coming to Disney+ was.”
For George, an exec behind campaigns for everything from Star Wars to Avatar 2, that opportunity was a chance to “evolve the platform” and “play with the sophistication.”
Though some online sleuths have suggested the new color, which the company calls Aurora, is simply the green from Hulu’s logo mixed with the blue from Disney+’s, the real answer isn’t so simple. Rather, the night sky was one of the biggest inspirations for the new branding.
“The night sky was always a part of what we did and what we thought about. And when you look at the Disney logo at night, it’s got that aurora borealis color,” George said. “It felt like a slightly different time of night.”
Getting started: The wonderful world of branding
The branding change was an eight- to nine-month process from start to finish, with the company ultimately working with agency Loyalkaspar on the final design. The agency had a way of “telling the story in the design,” George said, and Disney wasn’t looking to play it safe.
“We put everything out on the table. We looked at a million different things,” George said. “Some things are completely zany and radical. And a lot of those things are clearly not going to work but have a little piece of inspiration or something in them.”
Whatever zany ideas there were, it all went back to one of the main directions: Hulu content integrating with Disney+ is a different experience.
“We’re not making something that reflects what we have been or necessarily what we are right now,” George said. “This is something that reflects what we’re going to be.”
