The Prodigy is a British electronic music group playing in the genre of electronic music. The band was among the pioneers of the big beat style in music. It was founded in 1990 by Liam Howlett, who was also the author of the songs that made up their first mini-album released in 1991. Quite soon the musicians became popular at home and then abroad, first in Italy and some other countries. By now, the group has sold more than 25 million copies of its albums.
Meaning and history
1990 — 1991
1990 — 1996
In 1990 the band starts using a monochrome logo in Escher style. It was a circular badge with a psychedelic pattern in its central part, where the voluminous letter “P” appeared. The whole wordmark was written on a white outline of the badge and executed in an extended sans-serif typeface, with its uppercase letters massive and solid.
1991
In 1991 the new logotype was introduced by Prodigy. A lowercase inscription in a custom typeface with thick solid lines and shapes and an enlarged dot above the “I”. The wordmark was underlined with the thin stretched rectangular from which two short and thin lines came out to the sides.
1991 — 1996
Another logo created in 1991 featured the same style of lettering as on the previous badge, but with thicker lines and a double white and blue outline of each letter. There was no underline of this version, but a small rounded rectangular with “The” in the lowercase, glued to the dot above the “I”, in its right.
1993 — 1994
The logo changes its shape in 1994, now the enlarged letters of the inscription look like they are “hugging” a globe. The first and last letters of the wordmark can barely be seen.
1994 — 1996
The same concept was refined in 1994. This time the letters got smaller which made them all visible, though the “globe” disposition remained, it was not that obvious on this version.
1995 — 1996
In 1995 the band adopts a new symbol — Ant — which become iconic and synonymous with it in no time. The new logo featured bold white lettering on a black background, with the letter “O” enlarged and having a white image of the insect inside.
1996 — 2004
The redesign of 1996 made the lettering leas bright and placed it on a rounded horizontally stretched black badge, putting the white circle with a black ant on its right. The inscription was executed in the lowercase of a contoured sans-serif typeface.
1999
For just one year, in 1999, the band used another logo design — a black handwritten wordmark was placed in the right from a solid black circle with the white ant silhouette on it. This badge looked cool and very modern.
2001 — 2002
The ant was removed from the Prodigy visual identity in 2001. The new logo featured massive geometric lettering in two levels executed in black and enclosed into a thin square frame. The letter “O” was replaced by a solid black circle with a white five-pointed star on it.
2004 — 2008
The logo from 2004 can be called the most minimalist in the Prodigy visual identity history. It was a bold sans-serif inscription where black uppercase letters were complemented by a delicate cursive “The” above the letter “P”.
2005 — 2008
The logo goes three-dimensional in 2008. A completely new style and color palette were introduced by the band. It was a traditional and classy blue ribbon in a silver outline. The ribbon was arched and had its ends curved. The solver lettering in the uppercase was written on a bright blue background, using a simple and neat serif typeface.
2008 — 2009
The logo goes three-dimensional in 2008. A completely new style and color palette were introduced by the band. It was a traditional and classy blue ribbon in a silver outline. The ribbon was arched and had its ends curved. The solver lettering in the uppercase was written on a bright blue background, using a simple and neat serif typeface.
2009 — Today
The logo we all can see today was introduced in 2009 and featured a black logotype placed on a white background. The custom typeface of the inscription featured straight geometric lines with sharp triangular ends and a very strong character. The logotype is set diagonally and has its “The” part written in small letters and placed on the left from the “P”.
2015 — Today
2017
In 2015 another version of the logo created in 2009 was introduced. It featured the same shapes and concept, shout the color palette was enlightened, adding more white to the ends of the letters.