LogoShop Part 7: Green Lantern
Crafting a distinctive mark for the Green Lantern Corps and its members.
This is part of a blog series on logo design. Read additional articles on DC Comics, the Justice League, Superman, LexCorp, Nightwing, Wonder Woman, the Punisher, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Adidas.
Even though the first Green Lantern, Alan Scott, debuted in 1940, things got a lot more interesting when his successor, Hal Jordan arrived in 1959. While Scott was a solo hero with a power ring, Jordan was a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.
Such a dramatic reimagining was one of several reboots in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, as the Golden Age of comic books gave way to the Silver Age. And with this switch, both in backstory and in protagonist, the Green Lantern brand pivoted from a single character to entire organization.
And shouldn’t every organization have a distinct brand identity? I think so.
Welcome back to LogoShop, where I update and refine pop culture logos as a tribute to my favorite brands.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with DC Comics or any of its properties. This series is purely speculative, created for insights into the branding process.
The Background
The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, made his first appearance in the Golden Age of comic books. He was a railroad engineer who came into possession of a magic lantern, from which he crafted a ring that gave him a wide range of powers. Naturally, he used said powers to fight crime in his hometown of New York City.
Scott’s self-styled costume was gaudy, mixing a red shirt with green pants, and a purple and green cape. The logo on his chest was simple: A picture of a green lantern within a yellow circle.
Scott fought crime for about a decade before his title was cancelled, just around the time most superheroes went out of style.
In 1959, DC reinvented Green Lantern as a space cop, a single member of a much larger peace-keeping agency called the Green Lantern Corps. Alan Scott was replaced with Hal Jordan, test pilot and Man Without Fear. Jordan’s costume was dramatically different too, styled as a black and green bodysuit without a cape. His chest logo, and that of the Corps, was an abstract representation of his green lantern power battery, a circle between two parallel lines.
The simplicity of the new design made it especially versatile, appearing on the uniforms of Corps members and on the power rings themselves.
In the decades that followed, DC introduced additional members of the Green Lantern Corps, all of whom wore a version of Jordan’s costume. Due to the fact that the Green Lantern costume was actually a construct of the ring, it could be redesigned at will. And for every character who decided to change their costume design, they often changed the logo as well, altering its style and layout to compliment the overall look. Thankfully, the black, white, and green color scheme remained intact in each case.
(I won’t mention all the other Lantern Corps on the “emotional spectrum.” Seriously, don’t ask.)
Despite all the redesigns and variations, the core Green Lantern logo endured to this day. Sure, the current version sometimes added diagonal cuts to the upper and lower borders (see the title design above), but by and large, it’s remarkably close to where it started.
But could it be better, while remaining simple and recognizable?
The Problem
While Hal Jordan was the main Green Lantern of Earth, he wasn’t the only one. In the 1960’s and 70’s, two alternates made appearances whenever Jordan was sidelined, Guy Gardner and John Stewart.
Both Gardner and Stewart eventually created their own custom versions of the Green Lantern uniform. Gardner kept the logo as it was. Stewart took a few liberties in the early years, expanding the mark across his whole costume, but eventually settled on a more conservative look.
In 1994, a personal tragedy took Jordan out of the Green Lantern role for the next 10 years. (I’m oversimplifying, of course.) His replacement was Kyle Rayner, an artist from LA who unexpectedly and reluctantly took up the mantle in Jordan’s absence. Given Rayner’s profession, a redesign of the costume and logo was inevitable.
Now, I’m not particularly fond of Rayner’s original costume — not enough green — but I did appreciate the evolution of the Green Lantern brand. It curved the upper and lower lines to make something more cohesive, especially when placed inside of a circular frame.
Rayner went through several costume changes over the years, but the more traditional Green Lantern logo eventually made a return.
Jordan came back as the main Green Lantern in 2004, sporting the original logo with the diagonal cuts mentioned above. But now, in light of the original Rayner logo, those parallel lines look especially rigid and out of place.
The Solution
In order to create a modernized version of the Green Lantern symbol, I looked to Kyle Rayner’s original version for inspiration. The circle is a universal shape, perfect for an organization with intergalactic reach.
Upon recreating the Rayner logo (minus the midline split), I explored ways to bring in more depth. I ultimately decided on a series of concentric circles, which maintained the basic silhouette of the Rayner version, but gave added emphasis to the ring at its core.
Taken as a whole, the logo feels more cohesive, with the top and bottom borders suggesting a lantern, and the side elements suggesting its shining light.
There it is. A logo that merges two eras into one, while creating a sense of cohesion and balance. I’d wear that on a T-shirt.
That’s it for this installment of LogoShop. As usual, you can grab a pack of desktop wallpapers from this article here.
That does it for my take on the brands of DC Comics. Join me next time as we move across the street to Marvel, and give the Punisher a brand worthy of his reputation. See you then.
Hi, I’m Daniel Beadle, writer, artist, and design consultant. Follow me and my work at DanielBeadle.com.
