DixonBaxi's rebrand for Oscar-winning VFX company DNEG "suggests motion and constant transformation"

Branding and creative agency DixonBaxi has created a new identity for the merger of VFX companies Double Negative and Prime Focus World. Double Negative has brought home an Oscar three times in the last four years for its work on Blade Runner 2049, Ex Machina and Interstellar. It has merged with Prime Focus World, the creative division of one of the largest media services businesses in the world.

DixonBaxi has unified the brands of these two businesses, defining “one clear vision”, which, the team tells us, “distils the legacy and spirit of both brands into a single-minded strategy”. By providing a new, “confident, modern and iconic” logotype, they aimed to leverage Double Negative’s industry moniker – DNEG – taking it one fresh step forwards, while retaining “the heritage and brand equity” of the companies’ history.

The designers explain: “The ‘D’ and ‘G’ now mirror each other in a subtle suggestion of constant motion and transformation. [The logotype] is crafted to work at any size, from the cinematic opening of a film to a discreet but memorable mark of quality on a movie poster.”

The brand language is intentionally pared back and restrained, featuring the image of an aperture throughout, symbolising how “the brand moves and reacts”. This graphic system is used as a visual metaphor, “to frame, focus, magnify and represent time”, applied to UI and iconography on the website, and physical designs such as the clocks in the offices, or timelines on company documents. The rebrand is rolled out through the graphic design, website, studio interiors, merchandise, stationary and clothing for crew on set.

There is a new modern, muted palette of colours supported by the primary “coral” orange of the brand. As Aporva Baxi, co-founder and ECD of DixonBaxi comments, it was “the opportunity for radical transformation that was at the heart of the project;” this can be seen through the new logo, tone of voice, website, studio interiors and merchandise.