Mercury

Mercury are a Canadian film production company that specialise in animation and special effects for live action.
The brief was to rebrand the existing logo, which had become dated and no longer properly represented the company.
The original logo can be seen on the left. Research into the God Mercury brought to light that he was the god of Communication, Manual Arts and Trade. With this in mind, it was decided to keep the airplane as a symbol of Mercury — the Messenger God.
The client was brought through the decisions made around typeface choice and colour. The original typeface used was Gotham which has become over used in years. For the rebrand, a Canadian typeface Annonce was chosen along with a secondary typeface Brezel. These two combined were more
in keeping with the rich, visual legacy of cartoons. 
The colour palette was improved for richness and vibrancy and two extra colours were added for flexibility — and again
to reflect the bright, visual language of animation.
In creating applications for the brand it was appropriate to carry through this sense of playfulness and humour. Within the suite of stationery, the letterhead and envelope contain fold lines and a diagram to encourage the reader to create a paper plane as a nod to the icon held within the logomark.
The oval container of the logo is derived from a device used in cartoon history. The "Portable Hole" is used in many classic animations and is something of an in-joke with animators. Playing with this idea could be carried through in  idents used for onscreen branding. 
The animators in the company would all have a chance to come up with their take on how the portable hole is used  — giving them an extra sense of ownership to the brand and allowing for flexibility of the mark over time.
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One of three design proposals.
Client: Mercury Filmworks, Canada.
Studio: CI Studio. Creative Direction: Mel O'Rourke
Role: Concept and Design. Credits: Matt Dillon for animation.
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