The Real Story of Why Disney+ Changed Its Logo: A ‘Different Time of Night’


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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.”

Inside the color

Though the company was up for radical ideas, that didn’t mean it was suddenly going to use neons and pinks. Instead, George said it was a “winding path” to the final color of Aurora.

“Reds, yellows, none of those things were really [considered]. It was just finding our way here,” George said. “We wound through greener blues, bluer blues, midnight blues—I would say about as much range as you can see in the night sky is what we thought about and considered.”

Regardless of theories about the color balance and the science behind arriving at the final hue, the final decision came down to a feeling, according to George. “The experience of seeing a color can evoke all kinds of emotions. What I would say is I think everyone here is aligned with what we were doing.”

The directive was to introduce Hulu’s more general entertainment to Disney+. It was an evolution of the platform. The refreshed logo needed to change viewer perception, keep Disney’s brand equity and showcase how the new experience brought “more.”

“It went around the block several times. Each time we got closer—notes, ideas and thoughts would move in degrees either way—but there’s something inevitable or undeniable about where we ended up.”

Plus, it didn’t hurt that the new logo isn’t a straight blue anymore like Max or Paramount+.

“I can’t say we didn’t notice,” George said. “But I think that the greater idea was always more about distinguishing ourselves for ourselves rather than distinguishing ourselves in reference to others.”

It’s also not a coincidence that the color shares its name with Sleeping Beauty’s Princess Aurora. After all, the 1959 animated feature helped turn Disney into what it is today, with George calling Sleeping Beauty a “watershed moment” for the company.

“It’s one of our most iconic characters. [Aurora] means sunrise in Greek, and it references the most magical thing that happens in the night sky,” George said. “It’s a wonderful place where things come together, which is a great little metaphor for Disney+ itself.”

the old Disney+ logo
Disney+’s previous blue branding.Disney+

Inside the arc

Part of the newfound sophistication comes down to the arc.

In the previous branding, a semi-transparent arc would shoot across the top of the Disney logo, landing on the plus symbol with a click. However, George said the transparency of the arc made it harder to work with, and irregularities in the logo—such as the thickness of the plus symbol and the spacing between the plus symbol and the Y in Disney—also needed to be updated.

In the refreshed version, the arc no longer shoots across the top. Instead, it’s a still image, and light moves across the arc, landing with the same click on the plus.

Though previous versions had the arc feeling like it was drawn on, according to George, the new version is “all a trick of light, shadow and direction.”

“We didn’t want the arc to feel like an afterthought or a whimsical flourish. We wanted it to feel like our brand identity,” George said. “You’ll notice now the lock-up [between the arc and the plus] is always there. It does not draw on. It has a more always-existing quality to it.”

Disney showcased variations of the new branding during its TV upfront presentation earlier this month, with different brand lighting for various properties. For instance, the trailer for The Acolyte ends with a red light revealing the Disney+ logo.

Inside the mnemonic

The company eventually arrived at a logo, a color and had an “evolved” mnemonic in place, George said. But two months out, the music was reconsidered.

It’s not that the music was terrible: “We went, ‘Is that the best possible thing?’” George said.

George reached out to Tom MacDougall, president of Walt Disney Music, and within 24 hours, they were on the phone with Göransson, whom George had worked with previously.

“We probably went through 40 or so different compositions and versions,” George said. “There are at least 12 or 13 that are recorded by a 60-person orchestra at the Warner Brothers soundstage.”

If we were another company, could we do this? Then it’s not good enough.

Jackson George of Disney Entertainment on making branding unique

Of those 40 compositions, some had tech-heavy feels, and others were more orchestral with flurries and flourishes. It was all in an effort to make the five-second mnemonic iconic. Feelings of “wonder,” “energy” and “sophistication” were all in the earliest conversations with Göransson.

“We ended up in the place where we were trying to find the balance between the magic of Disney and the possibility of walking through a doorway and seeing a lot of things that you don’t expect,” George said. “That was the direction in the beginning: This is an entrance; this is a precipice; this is a liminal space. What’s the feeling we want people to have in their heads or minds or emotionally walking into that door?”

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All in the details

The project all comes down to the tiniest of tweaks, all involving extensive conversations.

Even elements that were also part of the original branding, including the click when the light meets the plus symbol, have their own adjustments to bring them into the new era of Disney+. For instance, though the click sound remains because the company felt it had emotional resonance with viewers, there’s a new “aurora borealis magic” when it lands, according to George.

There were no focus groups involved in the final product, with the company keeping decisions internal: “In some way, we did go on feel and what we wanted to feel,” George said.

In addition to that feeling, the company set out to do something uniquely Disney. “If we were another company, could we do this? Then it’s not good enough,” George said.

The mission wasn’t about confidence but more about reverence for the brand and its history.

“I think that all of the things in this logo feel ultimately like little things that only we could do,” George said. “That feels like a true representation of the promise of Disney.”

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