The History and Story Behind the Warner Animation Group Logo

The Warner Animation Group has its roots in the Warner Bros film production company that was first launched in 1923. Through the decades the logo has undergone a few changes. It’s a fascinating story of four brothers who came together to create one of the most successful companies in the industry. It’s endured for nearly 100 years. The Warner Animation Group is a division of this iconic production company, so to fully appreciate the current logo, we look at the history and story of the Warner Bros logo and its evolution to the current Warner Animation Group logo.

The first logo

The first Warner Bros logo was created in 1923 and it was used until 1929. It featured a black and white, sometimes brown and white color scheme. By 1927 when “The Jazz Singer” was released, it was presented with a pink hue along with the original formatting, symbols and text.

Warner Bros logo in 1929

In 1929 we can see that the logo evolved to remove the dot in between the W and the B enclosed fully within the slightly rounded triangular outline that was shaped to accommodate the shape of the W and B letters. The iconic logo was placed within an image box for displaying a prominent film theme, with the words, “Warner Bros Pictures Inc ( at the top) and directly below the text “with VITAPHONE Corp., with the logo symbol in the middle, and at the bottom, the word “present.” The font style offered a few variations. This was used at the beginning of a film through 1934 with the same color variations of black and white, brown tones and a pink hue.

In the third iteration, clouds were added to the background. The dot reappeared between W and B and the VITAPHONE Corp was dropped. Some examples of the logo from the 1934 through 1936 period simply featured the logo against a blue or cloudy sky background without additional text. From 1937 through 1948 The logo appeared in a 3D representation against a background that provided highlights to draw attention back to the symbol with the text “Warner Bros. Inc. Presents placed as a banner in the center of the logo. The logo changed to a more modern style with a different font and styling of the letters from 1967 through 1970, including change in the text to read “Warner Bros. and Seven Arts Presents.” The style was again changed from 1970 through 1972 when the Kinney company bought the company, alongside the iteration of a retro style that went back to a previous version and more like the current logo. Saul Bass created 3 color versions of this logo in 1973 through 1974, and it has been used as recently as 2012 for the film “Magic Mike.”

According to its Wiki fandom, Warner Bros Feature Animation was launched in 2013 by Jeff Robinov. It evolved into Warner Bros. Animation. It took the place of the hand drawn animation team. The logo for the Warner Animation Group was based on the previous logo of Warner Bros. with a great resemblance, but text that distinguished the new division from the parent group.The basic shape of the enclosure around the large letters WB remained the same but it is framed in a thick 3D white outline with a red solid center. The letters W A G are displayed in the place of W B in the center of the frame with the banner Warner Animation Group wrapping neatly around the bottom.

Warner’s habit of interchanging logos

Warner Bros (including the Warner animation group), initially stuck with the same logo design in the early years of the company. As time moved forward, they developed a habit of bringing back older versions of the logo, and using them for new projects. There are also multiple versions of the Warner Animation Group logo currently used. They feature a variety of styles from modern to retro. There are thirteen major logos with dozens of variants that seem to mix and match the styles, so it’s not possible to catalog them in accordance with their dates after the period of the late 1940s era. Regardless of the fact that some of the changes have been significant, it’s still a logo that is easy for most to recognize.

The Warner Bros. logo is an iconic symbol of entertainment and fond memories for most of us who grew up on the film and animation releases from the company. We grew up seeing the logos displayed at the beginning of every feature film or show, and it has become ingrained in our memories. We’ve come to equate the logo with memories and classic movies that seem to never go out of style with the public. Our children watch the same things we did when we were their age, and they too become familiar with the various logos used throughout the years.

Conclusion

Warner Bros Animation has taken an icon and made their own edits to the logo, and those who view the projects that are released are building a database of the logo variations that this department uses. WAG is following along with same pattern as the Warner Bros parent division by surprising us with tons of takes on the iconic logo. If you were to compare the differences, without prior reference you might not recognize a few of them, but for the most part, our exposure to the various iterations over the years has programmed our minds to be on the lookout for the WB whether it’s conscious or a deeper process.

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