Thursday, July 12, 2018

LOGOS: Gettin' the Band Back Together

If you know me or read the blog with any regularity, you know that I LOVE show logos. Not only is it advertising, but it is art as well. Fortunately, there are more hits than misses logo-wise. Unfortunately, the show art for the new musical Gettin' the Band Back Together, which starts previews next week, is squarely in the "miss" column.

Grade: F

Here's why:

First of all, it looks lazy. Though the font style vaguely resembles an 80's rock band concert shirt, setting it against a plain white background instead of making it look like it's on a t-shirt diminishes the impact. I mean if it had to be white, why not put it on a drum?


Second, the red/black/white combo for a logo will get lost in the sea of other logos with that trio of color... Chicago, Kinky Boots, The Play That Goes Wrong, Hello, Dolly!, School of Rock (which could be more of a concern for a show about a rock band than two other shows with "band" in the title), and another show starting previews next week, Pretty Woman. (I'll talk about why that logo works next week.) And then there's that faux duct tape thing. That's as clever as it gets.

Third, the iterations with the cast photo aren't much of an improvement. Sloppy middle-aged guys holding instruments looks more like a "Where Are They Now: The Cast of School of Rock 25 Years Later" feature in People.  Don't get me wrong.  I really love Mitchell Jarvis, and I've had a gay guy crush on Marilu Henner since Taxi (and she still looks good!). But neither of them sell me on this show. The little handwritten "starring Marilu Henner as 'Mitch's Mom'" is not nearly as clever as they think it is. She's hardly up there in the national consciousness these days. Again, I truly love the woman, but she is not a selling point.  To add a little legitimacy to it, i.e. making it seem like a musical that musical theater fans need to see, why aren't they touting that it's from "The Tony Award-winning producer of Once On This Island and the Tony Award-winning director of Urinetown" ?

With an unknown title with almost no one of note in the cast or on the creative team, a bad logo comes across as lazy. And if I'm being completely honest, their entire campaign stinks of desperation. Do they believe in their own show? I'm not sure.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...