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For season two of Paramount Plus’ series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the creative team reached out to artists to create an array of worlds in which the show’s logo could reside.
Each scene places the logo into a whole new scene, giving the viewer lots to explore – including the occasional Easter egg.
“Star Trek is a show about different cultures working together so we wanted to lean into the global aspect of it all,” said Michael Sutton-Long, senior director, design at Paramount Plus. “We tried to have a range of continents.”
The artists came from all over the globe, including Brazil, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the U.S., and Uruguay. In the U.S., those designers included U.S.-based Compadre, who designed the original logo; State Design, who created multiple logo treatments for season one; Flux and Bunker. Several in-house designers at Paramount Plus also contributed. While being a Star Trek fan wasn’t required to get the assignment, several of the artists were enthusiasts.
“We started with a big list of folks of whom we’d been fans, followed on social media,” said Sutton-Long. “We chose the ones who had the most contrasting styles. We really wanted a range of people – fine artists, motion design agencies, or someone whose work was very hand made.”
For example, one scene is made of hand-cut paper by Indian artist Sabeena Karnik.
The artists had free reign to create what they wanted, except that the team at Paramount Plus didn’t want them to give away any plot points.
“This season of Strange New Worlds is very genre-based,” said Sutton-Long, “[which inspired scenes like the] romcom machine that was created by Morphine in Uruguay. A Brazilian artist was inspired by an outlaw in Brazil. That all came together from the genre side of things.”
The logo treatments first launched at London MCM Comic-Con May 26-28, where it was on screens on-site and then distributed across social media channels. They then will be used on digital billboards throughout the U.S. and internationally this summer.
Season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds started streaming Saturday, June 15 on Paramount Plus.
CREDITS
Client: Paramount Plus
Agency: In-House
Designer contributions:
Bruno Brasil, Brazil
Sabeena Karnik, India
Flatwhite, New Zealand
Bunker, US
Compadre, US
Flux, Michigan, US
State, US
Morphine Motion Graphics, Uruguay
EchoLab, Ireland (frequently works with Paramount Plus as audio agency)
In-House Designers: Kelly Bolton, Brian Frank, Amanda Huynh, Moravia G. Roman
Senior Director, Design: Michael Sutton-Long
Design Project Manager: Aurora Albi-Mercier
Lead Designer: Robin Spehar
Design Intern: Logan Armstrong
Director of Design Operations: Scott Regier
SVP, Head of Design: Matthew Hernandez
VP Creative: Ben Cochran
Campaign Project Managers: Tamar Bessos, Erika Gesue
VP, Marketing: Jen Hanulak
Director, Marketing: Jamyla Willer
Marketing, Manager: Sara Krol
EVP, Creative: Terry Minogue
VP, Content Strategy: Yetee Osunsanmi