Blockbuster LLC, formerly Blockbuster Video, was an American home movie and video game rental company founded in Dallas, Texas, where its first store opened on October 19, 1985. The brand’s visual identity, built around a blue torn-ticket shape with yellow lettering, became one of the most widely recognized retail marks of the 1990s and 2000s.
Design and History
The original Blockbuster Video logo was created in 1985 by Dallas-based Rominger Advertising, with art direction by Lee Dean. Dean, who later described the Blockbuster Videos brand as his “claim to fame,” worked with the agency to develop the logo and the rest of the original corporate identity. According to Dean, the founders initially had an amateurish whole-ticket design using the Art Deco typeface Broadway. He changed the typeface to ITC Machine “to match the power of a blockbuster film.” Dean chose ITC Machine because it fit the name better, and he deliberately avoided the bold weight because its counters were too small and would fill in when printed at small sizes. ITC Machine, an uppercase-only alphabet drawn entirely with straight lines, was designed by Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase. In Blockbuster’s nearly 30-year existence, ITC Machine was never removed from the identity. [1] [2] [3]
The early logo appeared on a stylized ticket with the words “Blockbuster Video” in bold yellow uppercase letters on a solid blue background. In 1996, after Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. merged into a new Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, the retail stores, then called Blockbuster Video, were renamed Blockbuster. The logo changed slightly but retained the ITC Machine font. [4]
The current wordmark, registered as a trademark by Blockbuster L.L.C., consists of the word “BLOCKBUSTER” printed in yellow, surrounded by a yellow border, both disposed upon the design of a blue torn ticket. Yellow and blue are claimed as features of the mark. [5]
Meaning and Symbolism
The torn-ticket shape was intended to evoke a movie theater ticket stub. Lee Dean noted that Rominger may have wanted customers to subconsciously see the logo as a ticket to Hollywood, though he added that the torn ticket could also be read as a bus ticket. [1]
Blockbuster’s own trademark enforcement has treated the ripped ticket design as a core element of the brand. In an opposition against an animal-feed product called “Block Buster,” Blockbuster alleged that the product label, which used yellow on a blue background above a ripped movie ticket design, was confusingly similar to its registered BLOCKBUSTER and ripped ticket logo mark. [6] [7]
Typography and Design
The Blockbuster wordmark uses ITC Machine, a bold uppercase-only typeface designed by Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase. The font was chosen specifically for the Blockbuster name, and it remained part of the identity throughout the company’s history. [1] [2]
The blue-and-yellow color scheme became so closely tied to the brand that it remains the defining visual cue of the last surviving Blockbuster store in Bend, Oregon, which sells merchandise featuring the familiar logo. [8]
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