Utendahl Creative makes over the production company behind Manchester by the Sea

Utendahl Creative uses the example of the MTV logos “infinitely iterative” nature, when describing its new brand mark for K Period Media. While the studio refers to the flexibility of those iconic 1990s idents, the logo also has some of its playfulness, too – a hard balance to get right. The symbol is part of a complete rebrand from the multi-disciplinary studio for the production company K Period Media, which has previously worked across releases including Suspiria and Manchester By The Sea.

One of the biggest assets of K Period Media is the diversity of film projects it works across, which also presented one of the primary challenges for Utendahl Creative. “The logo needed to be versatile enough to portray horror, happiness, heartbreak, and beyond,” the studio explains. To flex across genres, cases and tones, UC has landed on a mark that can maintain the integrity of its form while undergoing a range of visual treatments. In the first look at the new brand, we see treatments including colour-blocking, masking and diffusing employed, though UC assures the design is “by no means” limited to these options.

At the centre of this asset is a logo consisting of three stacked shapes. It draws on the original iteration of K Period Media’s brand mark featuring a period motif – the only element that was kept in the visual overhaul. From there, “we went bold”, says UC. The studio has deconstructed the period symbol into a more “abstract sculptural form” and pairs it with a modern, legible sans serif.

UC has also introduced a broad colour library. According to the studio, the new palette serves to “encapsulate the diverse range of voices and work under KPM’s belt”. The colours also nod back to that MTV reference, embracing “high contrast pops of Kodachrome red” and block letters you’d expect to find across 90s cassette tapes. The animation style is similarly playful; “we wanted to invoke this idea of being ‘left-of-centre’, like many of KPM’s projects,” says UC.