Hulu is an American subscription streaming service owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its visual identity centers on a lowercase green wordmark that has remained structurally consistent since the service’s 2007 launch, with the most significant brand work occurring in 2021 when London-based studio DixonBaxi built a comprehensive design system around the existing logo.
Design and History
Hulu’s first public logo, launched October 29, 2007, featured a lowercase wordmark in a custom geometric sans-serif letterform rendered in a two-tone gradient green, lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. This version accompanied Hulu’s debut as an ad-supported streaming joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corporation. [1]
On November 19, 2014, Hulu dropped the gradient and shifted to a flat, solid green treatment. The letterform itself was unchanged; only the color treatment was simplified. [1]
Timed to the May 3, 2017 launch of Hulu’s live television service, the wordmark reintroduced a gradient and shifted the hue to a cooler cyan-turquoise. The color change was intended to signal the expanded product, distinguishing the live offering from the original on-demand service. [1]
In 2018 the gradient was removed again, returning the wordmark to a flat treatment in a brighter, more saturated green. [1]
In April 2021, Hulu launched a comprehensive brand redesign dubbed “One Hulu,” a cross-functional design system aimed at unifying branding, marketing and product experience. [2] The work was a collaboration between brand and design consultancy DixonBaxi and Hulu’s in-house creative studio, Greenhouse. [3] Critically, the existing wordmark was retained and left untouched; DixonBaxi’s approach realigned the brand’s tone of voice and outputs without changing the logo itself. [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The central feature of the 2021 redesign is a graphic device called the “Vessel,” a rectangular, round-cornered shape styled after the rounded nature of the Hulu wordmark and its letterforms. [5] The rectangular graphic gets its rounded corners from the stylized “u” in the Hulu wordmark. [6]
The Vessel’s meaning derives from research into the origins of the Hulu name. DixonBaxi uncovered an ancient Chinese proverb that describes Hulu as a “gourd,” the “holder of precious things.” This discovery became the basis for the new brand design, with the “u” in the logo forming part of the vessel. [7] Disney described the green frame around Hulu in the new brand design as a “vessel” or “holder of precious things, to help elevate brand and content campaigns.” [2]
The Vessel is described as an “infinitely adaptive design and narrative system” that can hold content, work as a guide for the product and serve as a way for Hulu to express itself. [4] It is threaded through every aspect of the experience and creates a powerful visual signature, according to DixonBaxi design director Astrid D’Hondt. [6]
Typography and Design
Prior to the 2021 redesign, Hulu’s brand used multiple typefaces. DixonBaxi streamlined the brand identity to a single typeface across the entire experience, adopting Graphik across the platform and promotional material. [7] The Graphik typeface was chosen to bring “character, swagger and style” to the brand. [4]
The 2021 redesign also doubled down on Hulu’s distinct green brand color, which “creates ownership and punctuates stories,” while expanding the palette with deeper, content-inspired colors bringing “the warm glow of the TV experience” into the brand. [6] Consumer research conducted for the redesign confirmed the bright green color as a “source of power in brand cues.” [2]
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