Founded in 2014, Pluto TV is an online television service owned by Paramount Global. The platform is based on a free advertising-supported streaming technology, which means it offers traditional TV programming without a paid subscription and is funded exclusively by advertising. Paramount acquired the service in 2019 and has actively been developing Pluto TV, making it available in 25 countries in the Americas and Europe. Recently, the platform completed the update of its brand, stating that the new visual identity is intended to help the company “stand out from the crowd” amidst growing competition.
According to Valerie Kaplan, the company’s consumer director, Pluto TV conveys a sense of lightness and well-being with its versatile streaming and content offerings. The brand’s modernized individuality and visual design invite Pluto TV’s audience to immerse themselves in a world full of premium entertainment that is unique, recognizable, and memorable. In other words, the platform attempted to reimagine its look in a bold and contemporary way, placing a bet on a stricter yet more consistent design developed by the Brooklyn, NY-based design studio, Gretel.
The service’s previous logo, adopted only four years ago, featured the lettering “pluto” and five colored overlapping circles with “tv” in the center. However, despite the color palette, the design was rather plain. The loose structure suited more for an ordinary streaming service, and in fact, the company mostly used only the wordmark as its signature in its mobile apps.
The new logo seems to have a more thoughtful design. It retains the “pluto” lettering as a central element, placed within a yellow circle. Furthermore, the composition is supplemented by the “tv” in yellow, maintaining brand consistency. The wordmark is based on the Pluto TV custom typeface, characterized by sloped ends of the glyphs.
In the new iteration, the tilt was adjusted to have a 22-degree angle. 22 holds special significance for Paramount, as its history began with 22 actors and actresses who signed contracts with the film studio in 1916, as reflected by the number of stars in the iconic Paramount logo. Here, we can notice some thoughtful design features including the alignment of the upper ends slopes in the “u” and “t”. Another special thing about the design is that “pluto” touches the edge of the circle. All of this is a good evidence of the serious approach in Gretel’s design.
Although the brand’s color palette was reduced to two colors, the concept of combining black and yellow works well, especially in digital applications. The company sees its new look as a confirmation of its promises to its audience.
