Who let him into the Dark World???

Defect. Part 6.

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Index.

From Carson to Colbert: a survey of late night logos

The late night landscape has been in flux the last few years. With the retirement of David Letterman and the twice retirement of Jay Leno, our staples for the last thirty years made way for new talents. Conan jumped from Late Night to The Tonight Show to his own eponymous show on TBS. CBS is a few weeks from boasting its all new lineup anchored by Stephen Colbert, who will be the new lead-in to the promising Late Late Show with James Corden. Despite the shakeups, the format has shown little variance, retaining the format made famous by Johnny Carson. Unfortunately, along with these shows’ format, their logos have also seen little innovation.

A logo often must act as the face of a corporation, the first visual associated with the brand, company, or business. But that’s not true for late night talk shows. A late night show’s face is often the actually face (and name) of the show’s host (think of any talk show—Letterman, Carson, Fallon, DeGeneres Handler; when thinking of their shows, we picture the host.) If a logo is the visual representation of the brand, perhaps a talk show doesn’t need a logo. And perhaps that’s why there has been little creativity, originality, and even brand consistency in the late night landscape.

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