Saga Logos of the Star Wars saga

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the logos for the various eras in the Star Wars saga and what the underlying intent or implication might have been for them.

Let's start with the OT era:

Spoiler

Alternate logo for Jedi:

What I see in these logos as a whole is an emphasis on the unique title for each film. The first one was simply called "Star Wars". The latter two, although they still contain "Star Wars" on their logo, display their sub-title way more prominently. It's as if to say "Yes, this movie is the followup to Star Wars but make no mistake, it has its own unique identity and is known as The Empire Strikes Back". It was personally my favorite set of logos because it gave off the sense that each film was its own thing, despite still being part of the same trilogy.

Then we get to the prequel era:

Spoiler

Here, "Star Wars" is again not the focus, but this time, neither is the sub-title. Instead, the focus is on the episode number. It's as if to say "Yes, each entry is different, but they are all deeply interconnected. And each one is really just 2 hours in the larger 12 hour film". From a marketing standpoint, it was probably a good idea to emphasize the episode number because while everyone knew that there had already been Star Wars movies in the past, the episode numbers might reassure newcomers that they didn't need to worry about those other movies, since this was "Episode I" so they could easily start there without feeling like they'd be lost without the other movies. Personally, while I liked these logos, I preferred the OT logos' emphasis on the sub-title because it made each one stand out.

Now we get to the ST era, but I'm also going to group Rogue One here:

Spoiler

In the ST movie logos, for the first time since the original movie, the focus is on "Star Wars". There's no episode number, and the sub-title is in a much smaller size. On the other hand, the Rogue One logo seems to take a cue from the OT with its emphasis on the unique title, with Star Wars in a smaller size. Taken in the context of the Anthology movies coming out concurrently with these ST movies, one possible takeaway is that they're trying to differentiate the two. It's as if they're saying "These are the main Star Wars movies (as you can see by the words Star Wars), and these other movies are their own unique thing but still part of the Star Wars universe." From a marketing standpoint, the lack of episode numbers in the ST movies also makes sense because marketing a movie as "Episode VII" is way more intimidating for a newcomer than marketing it as "Episode I". But focusing on "Star Wars" seems like a better approach for getting those newcomers to watch. Personally, I find the ST logos kind of boring (though the red lettering for TLJ is cool), even though I somewhat understand why.

What do you guys think? What was your favorite era of Star Wars logos? What do you think was the artistic/business intent behind them?

 

The OT era logos for me. They had character IMO.

 

The OT logos easily. Each one is unique and stands out from the others, as opposed to the logos of the PT and ST. I also feel they pop out more.

 

The Original Trilogy logos. They each had a uniqueness to them that makes each individual movie stands out as it's own entity

 

Wow I totally screwed up that poll. Would a moderator be able to add an option for "Sequel Trilogy logos"?
anakinfansince1983 Bazinga'd

 

The OT, because of the reasons already expressed, even though the prequel logos are quite interesting.
(Funny story, I clicked this thinking logos as in the Greek word.)

 

They're all my favorites!!!

Seriously, though, I prefer the old school emphasis on individual titles.

 

I much prefer the titles without episode numbers in them, it looks too wordy and too clunky, I like that they've now gone back to no episoide number with the ST.

The old logos are defintiely more striking though in that regard, but maybe that was a sign of the times in term of design and I wonder if all the anthology films will follow that same convention like RO has, with reference to Star Wars being much smaller and a bit more understated

The emphasis in the ST logos is about it being immediately recognisable as SW with the big logo but aethestically the film title (TFA or TLJ) is quite low key it seems.

 

I never liked this 'episode' stuff, it somewhat reduced the OT to just being the middle or last part of something.

Each time I hear a friend referring to Star Wars (A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi by its episode number I shudder, it's even worse for me when somebody at Lucasfilm does that.

 

Wasn't the episode number starting from IV always the point? It was a homage to the Flash Gordon serials, which used a similar text crawl at the start, and were episodic. Lucas clearly intended to use it to imply that ANH was part of continuing story.

 

They were never referred to at all by their episode number back then though. It's only since TPM came along that they started to be marketed more as their episode number.

 

OT is my favorite set. I feel like all but the ST represent each movie well, especially TESB and ROTJ. TESB's logo is "adventurous" and fits the scale of the journey. ROTJ uses Times New Roman, one of the most common typefaces, and has a "mature" logo that fits Luke and Vader/Anakin's development throughout the OT. The original SW logo and crawl logo are iconic and great sci-fi action-adventure logos.

The PT logos used the same design to distinguish it from the OT, emphasize the fact that they're prequels, and to encourage new fans that they start with the PT. I always associate them with the incredible Drew Struzan posters. Yes, they're plain if you compare them to the OT, but it doesn't bother me. Whether you like it or not, it's because of these logos that you can simply call any trilogy movie "Episode __".

The ST logos are simple and show that Star Wars is back. After seeing the old Serif Gothic in the TFA logo, I wanted it to be used for the ST but was hoping each logo would have a different design. TFA being a simple and bold welcome back to the saga works (would've like something else though); however, only changing the color of SW for TLJ and IX doesn't appeal to me. I don't hate it; I just wanted something different for each one.

The RO logo is directly influenced from the PT. The "A Star Wars Story" distinguishes it as part of the anthology series; however, it uses a slightly modified Trajan, the same typeface as the "EPISODE __" in the PT logos. And this makes sense since RO is a prequel. I like it. I wonder if the Han movie will be similar to RO or mix it up.

Here's a cool article https://www.fontshop.com/content/star-wars-may-the-fonts-be-with-you?utm_source=digg

 

The OT logos look good. As Lucas made SW in the old Flash Gordon style, they made logos for those movies in the same manner. But they're too different for my taste.

The PT logos are superb. In the top right corner there's SW, giant letters and roman numbers in the middle, and the title at the bottom. They perfectly fit their posters and are in the thirties-manner, as Lucas wanted the PT to be. They win because enough of them changes for each movie to be interesting, and enough stays the same so we know that it's the same series we're watching.

The ST logos are average. The big SW remains the same, the short movie titles can't really make the difference the logos of the movies need. They are quite simple, but I feel they lack the passon of the OT logos and the grace of the PT logos.

Rogue One is on a good track.

 

Prequel logos for me. I like the emphasis on the episode number. Always struck me as a very regal design.

 

I really can't decide which one is the best logo. To me they are all somehow unique. Btw, not all versions of the prequel logos include the episode number. Some are pretty "old-school":


This includes some foreign versions:





No episode numbers in the Chinese titles. Maybe in mainland China people were less familiar with the OT, so they often/sometimes didn't include numbers for the PT to avoid confusion. For TPM it just says "Star Wars prequel", then the actual title. Of course "prequel" itself is an English word. Here it says something like "back story" or "before story".

 

That is just a grossly inaccurate statement. As a matter of fact, each and every Star Wars film was referred to by an episode number since 1978.

 

Are you sure? As early as 1978? The earliest memory I have of an episode number is when ESB came out, or at least shortly before. Wasn't ANH renamed AFTER ESB was released as "Episode V"?

 

Not inaccurate at all, its 100% correct. Show me where in the films logos and marketing where they were ever referred to by their episode number. Its only since TPM came out that the episode number started to appear in the logos for all the old films on the home video / DVD releases.

You do realise we're not talking about the opening crawl?

 

You are right. The misunderstanding is between the titles in the actual films and logos as appeared on posters, toys etc. I don't remember a single OT logo that had the episode number.

 

OT > PT > ST logos

The OT are so much more stylish and memorable. Each has its own distinct flair. While the PT went for a more uniform look, they still have that regal charm to them that fits tje style of the PT films. I don't care much for the ST logos honestly. They just seem the most generic and don't make me feel anything. Since I grew up with the prequels I've been used to the movies being referred to with their episode numbers. So when the TFA kept its number out of the logo it seemed like something was missing. As well I had a couple friends and family members get confused as to where in the story the new movies take place, partially due to this.

 

I like the Rogue One logo, but I hate how the 'Rogue One' part is textured while the rest is smooth. Bugs me.

 

The OT & PT ones are great. RO is decent, the ST ones are pretty bad. Looks like someone spent hardly anytime on them.