Comedy Central Unveils A Cool Yet Vaguely Sterile New Logo

by Hillary Busis | 2:47 pm, December 9th, 2010

» 13 comments

Skewed urban cityscape, out—slick nested “C”s, in. Comedy Central just announced that it’s replacing its old logo with the new one at left, starting January 1. The shift is the cable network’s first major revamp in 10 years, according to Alex Weprin at FishbowlNY.

The logo also features an upside-down “Central,” which Comedy Central senior vice president and creative director of brand creative Bob Salazar says is meant to represent “the irreverent wink of Comedy Central.” Salazar tells Weprin that the new logo is his channel’s attempt to stay relevant in the fast-changing world of media: “If you think of social media, videogames, and the conventional competition, it has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Even though the brand has never been as strong, we felt that refreshing it in our promotion and our branding, was something that we felt this moment in the network’s history would be the perfect time for,” he says.

Deadline Hollywood’s Nellie Andreeva notes that this rebranding effort is coming just in time, since Comedy Central is going to be busy in 2011:

The new logo launches a big year for the network, one that will feature a months-long celebration of South Park’s 15th anniversary, a celebrity roast that a network rep teases will be as good as (if not more outrageous than) David Hasselhoff’s, the Jan. 11 premiere of Onion SportsDome, and the April premiere of The Comedy Awards (fka The American Comedy Awards)

Additionally, CC has put together a “vibe reel”—a promotional video chock full of scatological humor—that previews the network’s new promos. That’s right, this is a promo for other promos. Watch the video, which is stamped all over by those spiffy double Cs, below.

Comedy Central Press

Comedy Central: Refreshed and Rededicated

www.comedycentral.com

Funny Jokes

Ugly Americans

The Benson Interruption

Comedy Central, Deadline Hollywood, FishbowlNY, Logo, New Logo

Arkansas Steve

WOW, what a terrible logo. Somebody over there has a really super-sized ego.

Maybe the same guy who came up with “Lean Forward”.
Albert

Now this is NEWS!!
tatboy

Arkansas Steve said:
WOW, what a terrible logo. Somebody over there has a really super-sized ego. Maybe the same guy who came up with “Lean Forward”.

Or the Dems new logo…
Moderate

tatboy says:
“Or the Dems new logo…”

Darn, you beat me to that one. First thing that crossed my mind.
Jon Bershad

I also thought the Dem logo first of all. This honestly looks more like an upscale clothing brand then anything funny.
Robert Quigley

Haters gonna hate; I like it
marcus.lewis

I was gonna be a hater and hate it; but I watched the promo and how it will be used for branding–I like it. The branding that we saw in the picture up top I hate. But the video is much more pleasant and now.
Erebys

The logo also features an upside-down “Central,” which Comedy Central senior vice president and creative director of brand creative Bob Salazar says is meant to represent “the irreverent wink of Comedy Central.”

No, it’s stupid. The inverted “central” should be righted. There’s something incredibly displeasing about the asymmetry of the “comedy” and the inverted “central.” I mean, if you put your finger over the “central,” just “comedy” and their nested Cs is not that bad. Likewise, if you put your finger over “comedy,” it also isn’t that bad. But, left to stand it is simply sensually displeasing to the eye.

Other than that, it works. It’s clean and simple. Either way, I don’t think the new logo was meant to be a slam dunk. I think all they were really trying to do was to disassociate themselves from the image of ” that channel with the stand-up from New York comedy clubs.”
Kitsune

It seems like everyone is going for the “Linear” style logos these days. Something that can scroll about on a screen more effortlessly and still be legible to most people.

I don’t have a degree, so my opinion doesn’t mean s***, but still, I feel that the ad agents have managed to tie the “Linear” style into the “Metropolitan” image, somehow.
Arkansas Steve

Robert Quigley said:
Haters gonna hate; I like it

Robert, I don’t hate Comedy Central, I usually like them & admire their management.
But this LOGO SUCKS. I am not a hater, and usually don’t call others haters,
But this LOGO SUCKS. Maybe you’re the hater,
But this LOGO SUCKS.
Comedy Central C

Of course, there’s already a parody Twitter account: http://twitter.com/ComedyCentralC
WHarropson

Ohh Mann! I was hoping the’d adopt my suggestion. “Profanity Central”. I guess it’s just to edgy to have that discriptive a name. I know the subject is the LOGO but really, the name needs updating.
Anonymous

Their new logo IS my old logo! I’m not sure if I lost it in a poker match or how they got their hands on it!

http://www.colossusofclout.com/joshs_blog/colossus-of-clout-vs-comedy-central/