Icon Redux – Wonder Woman

With the on-again-off again nature of the live-action Wonder Woman film (currently off-again), it might be a while before DC gets around to fixing the WW logo which has sporadically adorned the comic since the eighties.

There are a few niggling design elements which pop out from the basic design, and over the years I’ve trained myself not to look too closely at the logo for fear of having an aneurysm. Parts of the design truly annoy me, to the extent that I haven’t thought about picking up the title with any regularity for years, even though everyone else seems not to notice the little quirks Milton Glaser took when designing it. Or, should I correctly say, one of his staff. Even Todd Klein doesn’t know for sure if the logo was from the hand of Glaser personally or not.

Let’s start with the centerpoint of the uppermost W. It rises above the ‘wings’ just a little too far for my liking.

On the regular comic it isn’t so bad, but on oversized editions, posters and t-shirts it looks even more obvious. After the redesign of the DC “bullet” into something resembling a toothpaste logo I was sure someone would ‘fix’ the Wonder Woman “W’s”, but most folks seem to be able to overlook that section of the character iconography. I’m also unsure of the reason for the slightly rounded elements in the overall design (and the scalloped ends of the wings), making the “comic-book” style of the logo more evident than, say, a corporate logo would be designed.

The diagonal lines aren’t true 2:1 either (which causes the perfectionist in me to let out a silent scream every time it appears prominently), so that should be addressed as well when it comes time for the inevitable re-branding. As for the ‘wings’ on the sides… Those have always seemed stretched just a bit too far, but ‘correcting’ them so that they fall in line makes the overall image look too weird.

It isn’t “wrong” per se, just a bit too clunky on the eye. I’m never sure whether the current angled effect is a good thing or not, but it is still far better than a vertical line at each side.

One last niggle (I swear, I’m almost done complaining) is the red used for the center of the logo for some issues. I’m not sure where in the character’s history the color red took on such an important status, but it still seems ill-suited when used for a character inspired by Greek mythology.I would be much, much happier if someone involved with the character decided to go for a bronzed effect to mimic ancient art. It seems to suit the logo perfectly when the W’s are blacked out (go look at a Greek jug and see where that stylistic tic comes from), and doesn’t give rise to the question of why she is lowered in status to a ‘mere’ superhero.

I might meddle with other logos if I don’t get hit with a complaint from DC over this.