One of America’s best-known animation studios, Cartoon Network Studios is based in Burbank, California. It makes programs and shorts for the cable television network Cartoon Network.
The number of updates the Cartoon Network Studios logo has gone through during its comparatively short history has exceeded ten. And yet, in spite of all the modifications, in most cases, the logos have preserved their original core.
In its original shows, the company typically used the primary logo of Cartoon Network. It sported a 7×2-square grid where each of the rectangles housed one of the glyphs from the company’s name. The letters were taken from the Eagle Bold type. The emblem was black and white.
The wordmark was created by the design agency Corey McPherson Nash (or, to be precise, its division Hatmaker, which closed in 2003).
The word “Studios” was added below the main emblem. It was placed on the white background and featured a different type, so it did not merge well into the logo.
The outline of the black-and-white grid became bolder. You could come across this emblem in several shorts of “What a Cartoon!”.
The word “Studios” was included in the grid, which made the design look more wholesome. This version appeared in later episodes of the 1st season of Dexter’s Laboratory but was a rather short-lived one.
A totally new design element was introduced, a stylized depiction of the brand’s headquarters. The checkered wordmark, which was slightly updated, could be seen below.
The letters in the word “Studios” grew larger than the letters in the writing “Cartoon Network.” The style was somewhat similar, with a couple of differences.
This logo was also used in a slightly different variation, with more noticeable white highlights along the border of the rectangle.
Another version of the studio’s logo, used at the beginning of the 2000s, was pretty much the same, but with some of the black squares and characters having their surfaces slightly “erased”, which gave the whole badge a more interesting and creative look, and evoked a feeling of a hand-drawn banner.
The company added a version where the word “Studios” looked blurred.
This is a cleaner version of the previous emblem. The company decided to get rid of the checkered wordmark replacing it with minimalist lettering in a bold sans (Impact). The emblem was featured, for instance, in the Adult Swim pilot-short Korgoth of Barbaria.
Once again, the logo went through a complete overhaul, although it still preserved the checkered theme.
The historic Cartoon Network Studios logo returned. It was slightly tweaked to look more “serious” and refined.
The redesign of 2022 has introduced a new version of the Cartoon Network Studios badge, which is somewhat in between the logos, created for the company in 2001 and 2013. The two-leveled black and white lettering with squares behind the characters is set on a plain black rectangular banner, and complemented by a heavy, enlarged uppercase “Studios” in white, executed in an extra-bold sans-serif typeface with thick lines and straight cuts.