BY Brand New

Around the Globe since the Sixties

Guest Editorial by Guilherme Machiavelli

In 1965, soon after the military coup d’état in Brazil, a media conglomerate was founded and, in the following years, experienced an spectacular growth. This conglomerate, called Rede Globo or, more simply, Globo, became the most influential broadcasting network in Brazil (and, one could argue, in Latin America). (More on Wikipedia). Its socio-cultural importance has been commented often not only inside the country and the continent, but even in other parts of the world, such as England, with BBC’s highly polemical “Beyond Citizen Kane”, a documentary that even now, 15 years after its first british transmission, has not been officially exhibited in Brazil, due to pressure made by the brazilian corporation itself.

Since its inception, Globo’s identity has passed through various transformations, which, curiously, seem to have become increasingly minimal — the last four logos had a few subtle changes, always attempting to keep up with the latest trends, without making any real improvement. The designer behind this brand is the Austrian Hans Donner, the same responsible for great part of the opening and closing credits and logos of shows produced in Rede Globo in the last 20 years. The globe-inside-a-square-inside-another-globe is now a fairly ubiquitous symbol in Brazil, being instantly recognizable by anyone who has lived in the country even for a short while.

Evolution of the Rede Globo logo.

With that in mind, the new logo actually does a good job in simplifying the (in the lack of better word) intricate combination of metallic glows and gradients that have, for good or bad, become the key elements in Globo’s identity. The ratio of the “window” has also change to reflect the more common widescreen television sets sold now. The execution seems to be a little more subtle and well-made than the previous symbol, diminishing its confusing pattern of colors inside the metallic globe, while it focuses on the RGB colors — adding a new and less distracting texture. The light is slightly more well balanced too, without the blinding glow in the upper left from the previous iteration. Conceptually, I found myself almost liking this logo, but it still seems overly complicated. The idea of a globe showing itself inside another globe with a TV frame feels like a good way of representing a media conglomerate so focused in television, but my real grudge stays in the various glows, gradients and metallic shines that permeate the whole composition.

But, this rebranding feels to me as the exact reproduction of the way Globo has been doing its business for a long time: Always staying on the safe side, changing practically nothing since the eighties, only with the eventual varnish to keep with a “modern look and feel”. One can see this through the evolution of the brand, of course, but in other aspects as well: The prime-time schedule of the broadcasting company has not changed in all those years. With a combo of three soap-operas and one news program, Globo has maintained its status as audience champion for quite some time. With that will to maintain its own status quo, one might ask exactly how Globo will fare against Rede Record, its newest and most strong rival nowadays.

Guilherme Machiavelli is a designer/journalist/student in Brazil who works mainly with editorial and web design, along with the eventual branding project.

Thanks to Marcio Caparica for the tip.

\n\nGuest Editorial by Guilherme Machiavelli\n\nIn 1965, soon after the military coup d'état in Brazil, a media conglomerate was founded and, in the following years, experienced an spectacular growth. This conglomerate, called Rede Globo or, more simply, Globo, became the most influential broadcasting network in Brazil (and, one could argue, in Latin America). (More on Wikipedia). Its socio-cultural importance has been commented often not only inside the country and the continent, but even in other parts of the world, such as England, with BBC's highly polemical \"Beyond Citizen Kane\", a documentary that even now, 15 years after its first british transmission, has not been officially exhibited in Brazil, due to pressure made by the brazilian corporation itself.

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