Follow-Up BY Armin

Follow-up: The Hub Launches

In February we reported on the logo for The Hub, a new channel launched by the partnership of Discovery Communications and Hasbro aimed at the 6 – 12-year-old demographic with programs like My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, Transformers, and G.I. Joe. The Hub premiered this past Sunday on 10/10/10 with a very convincing on-air identity by Los Angeles-based Troika, who also developed the logo and have posted a nice case study on their site, some of it excerpted here.

Logo exploration. Click image to see bigger.

Age-appropriate flexibility.

Custom typeface.

The Hub logo looks like it will live in perfect harmony with other entertainment logos like Xbox and Wii, and is even more so in tune with toy packaging graphics, with unapologetic bevels and shines. […] But those same qualities make it extremely generic and almost lifeless, although it has the potential to animate really well.
— Me, back in February

One of the techniques I try to employ for critiquing identities is to acknowledge potential if there is some, especially when I am less than enthusiastic about the basic premise. In part this helps me not have to eat my words months later. So, eight months ago, I called it: This logo had great potential to animate. And animate like hell it does. Troika has really brought to life an otherwise generic logo and seeing it in action, below, makes the whole package quite successful. Plus, how awesome is “Bub”?

[The] brand strategy is brought to life in the network’s logo, called ‘Hubble,’ a fun bubble-like shape with unlimited possibilities as it unexpectedly transforms into anything it desires. The Hubble is featured prominently in all of the creative executions, including nine animated network IDs in which it interacts with a library of whimsical characters including a one-eyed creature, a robotic spider, a frog with a mohawk and card-playing fleas all developed by Troika. The logo and various characters all inhabit the Hub world, a friendly, bright and inviting place carefully designed and rendered in cinematic quality CG. The logo has a little brother named ‘Bub’ that appears during the morning pre-school programming block, dubbed Hubbub.
— Press Release

Sample of the on-air package. See bigger size here, or at Vimeo.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners