For my final project, I decided to tackle Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast (SGC2C), which for several years served as the cornerstone to the network’s late night Adult Swim programming. SGC2C originated from archived animation from the 60s Hanna Barbara cartoon, Space Ghost. That show’s hero has since developed an acute sense of cocksure narcissism and a hilarious loss of several IQ points. Each episode, hilarity ensues when Space Ghost is tasked with interviewing clueless celebrity guests in a jarring mix of live-footage and re-purposed cartoon stills that have been formatted to follow the typical late night talk show format.

My initial entry point in thinking about the show package redesign was the SGC2C logo which is the show title, spelled out, in a hand drawn surf and turf style. On occasion, other alternate logos appear in SGC2C promotional spots that consist of a red, yellow, and black icon featuring the silhouette of Space Ghost’s head in a triangular container. At other times, such as on the DVD packaging and website, there is a black silhouette of Space Ghost’s head instead. All in all, the show’s brand identity is determined by two things: the braggadocio of the host and the fine graphic design sensibility of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim program package.

To bring some continuity to the brand, I decided to go with a modern logotype based on Akzidenz Grotesk, which grounds the show in its Adult Swim world, but also contains a  touch of hand drawn styling that connects the font to the show’s source material from the era of hand-drawn animation. I felt that this was a good solution to SGC2C’s lack of design direction and stemmed from my interest in the show’s severe comic timing and the rigid simplicity of the Adult Swim graphic design aesthetic.

It was at this point that I felt that I was falling into a space that I was previously trying to get out of. On previous projects, I often ran into a problem where I started designing less for the screen and more as if the project were print based. For the first assignment, I worked on a concept that threw typography around the stationary product, a Nike SB Dunk. For the second project, I created a pattern that was accompanied by clean typography for the London 2012 olympic bid. I did try to learn from each of the projects and incorporate new ideas and feedback gathered from my peers.

In the Olympic logo animation, I felt that I focused most on scale and camera movement, which the Nike spot lacked. I also tried working on patterns and colors. What was difficult for me on that project, however, was something unexpected. After research, I learned that the olympic logo has a very specific set of rules that govern its usage and how it can be manipulated. For the sake of visual exploration and experimentation, I did go ahead with my ideas to modify the logo, but for the final project, I made certain to chose a show that I was not only very familiar with, but heavily vested in. That fortunately made the task of putting together a package much easier.

It finally made sense and in fact demanded the type of treatment that I had been dying all semester to create. I designed with an attention to subtlety and made my best effort to channel the spirit of Space Ghost and the show’s irreverent and at times combative editing style. I used a mix of hard cuts to white and slow fades as a way to communicate a playful awkwardness. Pairing that with bare black and white typography in turn fuels the show’s sense of macho bravado and, luckily for me, mirrors the creators’ design sensibilities.  Both animation and typography keep things simple. It is the joke that’s important, not the animation.