IMAX Logo Redesign & Advertisment
BRANDING
GRAPHIC DESIGN
SnapShot
Timeline
December 2024
Industry
Marketing
Role
Lead Graphic & Motion Designer
Team
1 Graphic Designer (me)
1 Motion Designer (me)
Overview
IMAX is globally recognized for delivering a cinematic experience unlike any other, defined by scale, clarity, and immersive sound. While audiences strongly associate IMAX with blockbuster films, many are unaware of IMAX’s broader portfolio of experiences, including 70mm projection, documentaries, live events, and enhanced at-home viewing. These offerings lacked distinct identities while still needing to feel unmistakably IMAX.
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This project explores how a flexible brand design system could unify and differentiate IMAX’s expanded experiences under one cohesive umbrella. The goal was to create a scalable visual language that allows each offering to express its own personality while remaining grounded in the core IMAX brand.
The Challenge
IMAX currently offers four distinct product experiences:
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IMAX 70mm Projection
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IMAX Documentaries
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IMAX Live
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IMAX Enhanced
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Despite their uniqueness, these offerings were not widely understood or easily
distinguishable by audiences. The challenge was to design a system that:
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Increases awareness of IMAX’s expanded offerings
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Gives each experience a clear, recognizable identity
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Maintains consistency with IMAX’s existing brand equity
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Scales across global markets, content types, and future products
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This system needed to live everywhere, while remaining adaptable to vastly different content, from concerts to documentaries to live sports.
Current Logo
Audience
IMAX is a global brand operating in over 85 countries, with audiences spanning casual moviegoers, cinephiles, families, and tech-forward entertainment enthusiasts. The identity system needed to be:
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Instantly recognizable across cultures
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Emotionally immersive rather than language-dependent
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Flexible enough to support both cinematic and live-event contexts
The concept is “Experience, Amplified”
The overarching concept centers on amplification, a core promise of IMAX. Every IMAX experience takes something familiar and elevates it through scale, precision, and immersion.
This concept translates visually through:
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Modular systems that expand and contract
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Bold typography and spatial tension
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Motion-led identity elements that build anticipation
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A shared structure with room for individual expression
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Each product experience is treated as a distinct amplification of reality, unified by structure but differentiated by tone, motion, and visual behavior.
Logo System
To distinguish IMAX’s expanded offerings while maintaining strong brand cohesion, I designed a modular logo system rooted in the iconic IMAX wordmark. Rather than creating entirely separate logos, each experience extends from the core IMAX identity, reinforcing brand recognition while allowing for differentiation.
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The system uses a consistent typographic foundation and linear construction, with a horizontal extension that acts as a flexible container for each product name. This extension serves both a functional and conceptual purpose, it visually communicates expansion, scale, and continuity, aligning with IMAX’s promise of immersive experiences beyond the traditional screen.
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Each product: IMAX Live, IMAX 70mm, IMAX Enhanced, and IMAX Doc share the same structural framework, ensuring they feel unified under the IMAX umbrella while remaining individually identifiable.
Differentiation Within the System
While the logos share a common structure, differentiation is achieved through naming, proportion, and future adaptability rather than decorative variation. This approach allows the system to remain flexible across content types, from concerts and live sports to documentaries and premium home viewing,
without competing with the visual intensity of the content itself.
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By relying on restraint and structure rather than color or illustration, the logo system is designed to scale globally, translate across cultures, and adapt to future IMAX experiences as the brand continues to evolve.
Ident Design
The in-theatre ident serves as the emotional entry point for each experience. Built on the iconic IMAX countdown and sense of scale, the ident system uses motion, sound, and spatial transitions to reflect each product’s personality.
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IMAX 70 emphasizes precision, clarity, and film grain
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IMAX Deep leans into slow, enveloping motion
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IMAX Live uses dynamic pacing and rhythmic energy
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IMAX Enhanced balances cinematic polish with modern digital cues
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Each ident feels unique while clearly belonging to the same IMAX universe.
Digital Experience: Landing Page
The landing page brings the system to life online, acting as an educational and discovery tool. It introduces users to IMAX’s full range of experiences through immersive visuals, clear hierarchy, and modular content blocks.
Key features include:
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A unified hero moment introducing the IMAX experience ecosystem
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Individual sections highlighting each product’s value proposition
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Flexible layouts that adapt to different content types
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Motion and interaction patterns that reinforce immersion
Cross-Platform Applications
To demonstrate adaptability, the system was applied across multiple platforms:
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Posters that showcase each experience while maintaining system consistency
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Social media assets designed to work across varied content, from concerts to sports
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Flexible compositions that allow content to shine without overpowering it
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The system intentionally avoids reliance on specific IP or celebrity likenesses, ensuring longevity and versatility.
Impact & Outcomes
This brand system positions IMAX as more than a movie format, it reframes IMAX as a platform for immersive experiences across entertainment categories. By clearly differentiating offerings while maintaining a cohesive identity, the system:
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Improves awareness and understanding of IMAX’s expanded portfolio
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Allows each product to stand confidently on its own
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Scales across global markets and future experiences
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Reinforces IMAX’s core promise of immersion and excellence