BEHIND THE DESIGN: PLAYSTATION LOGOMARK ORIGINS

Imagine a single drop of sweat form on the back of your neck, it begins to roll downward, gracing every individual hair on the back of your neck. It makes you quiver as it reverberates down your spine. Raising hairs, dilating pupils, and even vibrating the hair on your scalp. That feeling of anticipation. The suspense could not describe the unstoppable force or feeling, for so many kids when Playstation was unveiled in Japan and worldwide.

The effort that was put forth ahead of Sony’s debut of the now incredibly successful gaming brand Playstation could never have been known. So here at Sabukaru, we have decided to take a moment to reflect on “Behind The Design” of the logomark.

When the original Playstation 1 was unveiled in 1994, it included a unique logomark in perspective. Identifiable by the perspective standing P and S shape distorted as a shadow form. The P form is indicated in red and the S form in three colours. The logomark was designed to emulate the emotive feelings of happiness [yellow], excellence [green], patience [blue], and passion [red], as indicated on slide 4.

The first generation identity mark was designed where approximately 20 different final iterations were selected before a final design direction was chosen. Oddly enough the logo was partially designed in 3D from behind to precisely decide the perspective of the mark from the front. The original mark was created by Sakamoto Manabu a senior producer in the Creative Development Department at Sony Creative Center until his departure in 2011. Sakamoto was also responsible for producing print, television, and package branding as an extension to the Playstation brand.

Lastly, in addition to the creation of the logomark, included an entire typeface called [SST]. It was created based on Sony’s original typeface “Helvetica” and then added “Frutiger” married together, to create the new humanist sans-serif typeface “SST” which was designed by Monotype GmbH.