Every Hollywood production studio is recognized by its symbolic icon. Studio logos have evolved through the ages and created on digital; formats but there was a time when the big names like MGM even used live subjects like a real lion. Have you ever wondered though, how studio logos came into being? The Greek type goddess of Columbia or the white horse of Tri-Star all have their own special stories and secrets behind them,. Here are 10 secrets behind Hollywood studio logos none of us really knew.
Among secrets behind Hollywood studio logos, this is a nice one. The playful desk lamp which is the logo if Pixar productions was made to honor one of the company’s first projects, Luxor Jr. It was written and directed by Pixar’s chief creative officer John Lasseter.
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Luxor Jr gave Pixar its first Academy Award nomination for short film and was also the first CGI film nominated for one. The memorable character of the short was featured as the “I” in the logo.
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The Paramount logo has been reworked several times over the years. However, the signature mountain design has remained the same and is incidentally the oldest surviving logo in Hollywood. The logo first had 24 stars which represented all the stars signed on by Paramount at the time.
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The logo’s mountain is based on a drawing by W.W.Hodkinson who was known as the man who invented Hollywood. He drew the design while at a meeting and was inspired by childhood memories in Utah. The mountain itself is believed to be Utah’s Ben Lomond.
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Columbia’s imagery of a torch-bearing woman underwent five major revisions since its inception in 1924. The latest one was created in 1992 and based on a model who agreed to do a shoot when she was on her lunch break.
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The Artist behind the iconic logo was Michael Deas settled on one of his co-workers Jenny Joseph after interviewing several models for the job. Joseph was even pregnant at the time and Deas painted her in the famous Columbia pose with a makeshift blanket and light bulb in place of a torch.
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As secrets behind Hollywood logos, this isn’t hard to guess when you know who its founders were. The founders of this American-Australian film studio, Icon Productions, were Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey. The name was inspired by a book of Russian icons Gibson had in his den.
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Mel Gibson is known as a spiritual man and thus it is no surprise that the logo features a mother’s cropped left eye from a painting named the Theotokos of Vladimir, an Eastern orthodox icon of Mary the mother of Jesus.
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This popular logo of DreamWorks studio co founded by Steven Spielberg featured a young boy fishing while sitting on a crescent moon. The initial idea was to have a man suiting on the moon.
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The illustrator chosen for the job was Robert Hunt who actually created two versions where one featured a boy sitting on the moon instead of a man. He even used with his son as a model and it was this version that ended up being chosen.
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One of the film industry’s most respected studios MGM‘s roaring Lion is the most popular and recognized icon in Hollywood. Leo the lion was first used as the company’s mascot but since then, 7 different lions have been used for the famous roar.
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The idea for the lion mascot came from the chief publicist of MGM, Howard Dietz. His idea was based on the logo of his alma mater’s mascot, the Columbia University’s lion.
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Warner Brothers’ logo has been updated several times since inception. The main concept of the initials of the four brothers embedded in a shield named the “Brain Shield” has always remained.
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The last name of the Brothers wasn’t exactly their original name. The four brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack were born to immigrant parents from Russia whose last name was Wonskolaser prior to Anglicization.
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The fairy tale castle has always been the consistent logo of Walt Disney studios. But! Before 2006, the company actually featured a white sleeping Beauty castle inspired by the Neuschwasntein castle in Germany.
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The logo was updated in 2006 and made its first appearance in Pirates of the Caribbean, dead Man’s Chest. The updated design incorporated elements from the Sleeping Beauty Castle and the Cinderella Castle.
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The name for this entertainment studio was inspired by the fictional town that author Stephen King uses as a setting for many of his novels. Castlerock has adapted several of King’s books into films.
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The logo features a lighthouse used in the 1933 horror film based on King’s novel of the same name “needful Things”.
Castle Rock
The Pegasus Unicorn adorning the Tri-Star logo has become a cultural icon . The logo was inspired by Executive Victor Kaufman’s family who loved horse riding. The first logo also featured the same horse used kin Sydney Pollack’s 1979 western romance, “The electric Horseman”.
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The white stallion in the latest logo was filmed at an airport in Santa Monica. The feathers were a combination of CGIO and actual footage. The background was incorporated from film footage shot in the Haleakala Crater in Maui.
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