For nearly 40 years, Shark Week has been a cultural institution. We partnered with Discovery to create a unified brand identity system – refining the iconic logotype through precise unit-based proportions, developing a comprehensive color palette, and producing a graphics standard manual that equips teams and partners to execute the brand with consistency across every platform and touchpoint.
Role: Concept. Design.
Shark Week is a cultural phenomenon – the longest-running cable event in television history. But with nearly four decades of evolution, the brand needed a systematic approach to ensure visual consistency across broadcast, digital, print, and environmental applications worldwide.
We refined the Shark Week logotype through a rigorous unit-based grid system. Every proportion – the relationship between "SHARK" and "WEEK," the spacing from the Discovery wordmark, the integrated fin silhouette – is now governed by precise mathematical relationships. The result is a mark that feels both bold and meticulously crafted.
The system includes three lockups: a primary stacked version for hero applications, a horizontal variant for constrained spaces, and an abbreviated "SW" mark for app icons and UI elements – each with defined safe spaces and minimum sizes.
We developed a comprehensive palette with memorable nomenclature: Shark Week Yellow and Shark Week Blue lead, supported by Mariana Blue, Mako Blue, and Shinkai Black. Each color includes full specifications for print (CMYK), digital (RGB/HEX), and broadcast applications.
The complete Graphics Standard Manual provides partners and internal teams with everything needed to execute the brand with consistency: logo usage guidelines, color specifications, safe space requirements, minimum sizes, 3D treatments, UI/icon applications, pattern libraries, and clear examples of what not to do.
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