House of X / Dawn of X / Reign of X / Destiny of X. From 2019 to the present day, the logos and brand marks designed for Marvel’s X-franchise.
With the next phase in Marvel’s X-Men cycle, Destiny of X, releasing this spring, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to showcase the family of logos to date.
Coming this autumn from Gestalten Books and Marvel —MARVEL BY DESIGN looks at the rich design history of the publisher. Excited to share that the X-Men rebrand work is included. The book will be released in September across Europe and in November in the US.
Official description:
As one of the most recognizable brands in the world, Marvel has spent the last 80-plus years inspiring generations of creatives through its approach to visual storytelling.
Marvel’s comic books, in particular, established a distinct graphic language that has found its way into mainstream culture, including 1960s Pop Art and present-day digital culture, gaming, advertising and more.
Marvel By Design will celebrate the company’s visual language with an in-depth exploration of the design process behind the brand’s most recognisable graphical elements including logos, covers, lettering, layout, and colour palettes. Readers will learn how the renowned Marvel Method established a unique approach to the creative process and how that process can serve as a template for creatives working beyond comics.
Throughout the book, Marvel by Design will connect the dots between comic culture and its undeniable influence in every creative field including the evolution of graphic design, editorial design, movies and visual culture at large. Highlights include:
An expansive, five-part visual encyclopedia, highlighting examples of Marvel’s exceptional approach to logos, layout, lettering, cover design, and colour palettes.
This section will feature insights from some of Marvel’s most renowned contributors including artist Klaus Janson and letterer Todd Klein, among others.
Essays from famous graphic designers including Mike Essl and Paul Sahre, as well as from well-known Marvel contributors including letterer Chris Eliopolous and designer/editor Carl Potts.
An oral history of the making of House of X, featuring Jonathan Hickman, editor Jordan D. White and designer Tom Muller.
Case-studies that trace the visual evolution of ten iconic characters.
Hundreds of images from Marvel’s past and present.
Nice way to end the year with the ‘Dawn of X’ design variant covers I created for Marvel receiving a Typography Award of Excellence from Communication Arts, and being included in their 11th Typography Annual, released next month/year!
X-MEN — X OF SWORDS: Creation #1 kickstarts a massive 22 part crossover event for Marvel Comics. Here are a few shots of the masthead system & brand I designed for the crossover.
The X-Men “Dawn of X” rebrand picked up a Bronze award in the Publishing category at the Brand Impact Awards. Very grateful and honoured; and great to see brand design for comics and pop culture recognised this way! eXcelsior!
With Comic-Con 2020 coming to a close, Mondo is wrapping up their Comic-Con@Home experience with a range of new X-Men merchandise, including a new ‘Dawn of X’ Slip Mat, and House of X/Powers of X enamel pin — designed by me based on my own rebrand of the relaunch of the X-Men franchise last year.
The cover designs for Marvel’s DAWN OF X Vol.1–6 collections. The books collect the recent X-Men franchise series chronologically and following the story narrative across the relaunched series with each book containing the corresponding numbers of the series (Vol. 1 contains all Nº1 issues, and so forth). The unifying design system across the collections puts the X front and centre, in order to create an iconic cover design that stands apart from everything else on the shelves.
Cover art for the books is by Pepe Larraz and David Curiel (Vol. 1, 4–6) and R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia (Vol.2–3).
Last post of 2019! Last one out of the gate for 2019! Here’s the cover design for Marvel’s DAWN OF X Vol. 1 collection, featuring brand new art by Pepe Larraz & David Curiel — in stores February 12, 2020!
My comics output of 2019. The year started off with the collected editions of DAYS OF HATE Vol.2, THE NEW WORLD, and THE WEATHERMAN Vol.1; and the release of THE WEATHERMAN Vol.2 issues #1–5 (#6 drops in February 2020). And then Marvel and the X-Men came knocking and I’ve spent the best part of the year designing the new X-Men master brand and identity, the complete publication design language for the franchise and the logos for all the new series relaunching the X-Men family of books; and worked alongside Jonathan Hickman creating the now ubiquitous “data pages” that runs through the series.
Charlie and friends of the podcast Chris Eddleman (@strictlyworse), Adam Reck (@arthurstacy), Zack Jenkins (@xavierfiles), and Dan Grote (@danielpgrote) get together to talk about House of X, Dawn of X, and The World’s Largest Orange AKA Orange World.
