Behind the site: designing the Lupin Central logo!
Welcome to the first of several articles in our new behind the site series of features!
Over the next few months, whenever any brief downtime from Lupin III news hits, we will be writing up a short article giving a glimpse behind the scenes over at the Lupin Central hideout. Topics will cover the sites design, history, how we manage social media output, and more.
While by no means essential reads, we hope these posts are informative and interesting. As always, thanks to everyone who reads the site, shares our content and supports us over on social media - we love you all!
When designing the initial Lupin Central website back in 2014, we knew we needed a fitting logo.
During our time at Tumblr, the Lupin Central blog mostly went by unbranded, simply using illustrations and images from the many talented artists working on the franchise in Japan.
We wanted to give the site a personal kick - an identity that set it apart from the official media, and something that helped us feel unique. At the same time, it had to look the part, and tie into the franchise in an interesting way.
Artist and friend of the site Manuel García Melgar (also known as Köpke online) worked hard doing just that. Have a read below on what he had to say regarding the process of creating the logo design for the new and improved Lupin Central.
When Lee originally pitched the idea of a resigned Lupin Central to me, I nerded out!
Lupin III is one of my favorite characters and series, and so for me, this was a fun gig. It was one in which I could roam free in terms of my own creativity, and as such I tried to do the best I could.
The first issue I was presented with was to make the logo stand out more so than the typical fan site style - simply adding the face of the character. While this is still a valid means of creating a nice logo, as a designer, it is my job to propose something unique that helps add personality to the content that is being shown.
The second issue was down to the typeface / spacing of the logo, and how many blocks this was to take up. It’s often hard to place an irregular shaped logo on top of and alongside other images. As a result, I designed the logo to be a solid block type, helping make it easily spotted, instantly recognizable and easily inserted into content.
Early sketches for the new and improved Lupin Central logo, by Manuel García Melgar.
Initially, I created four sketches for the logo that took from the following influences: espionage, suspense, action, Japanese katakana and strokes, jazz, guns, the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, pulp comics and 1960’s James Bond.
I also added the block influence from both Lupin III and Cowboy Bebop’s logos. As I had heard Monkey Punch’s original Lupin III had a big influence on Shinichirō Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop, I thought some back influence to that would be cool! I enjoy how Cowboy Bebop’s blocky and high colour contrast logo (only two tones) is displayed, and therefore decided to channel that same feeling here!
As you may have noticed, the first option shown in the sketches was the final idea we went with. While this was clear from the start, the other three examples were mostly created just to ensure I was on the right track. I also needed Lee’s feedback too, so having a selection was useful - however, we both agreed that option A was the most fitting for the site.
The final Lupin Central logo, by Manuel García Melgar.
I used the shape of Lupin’s necktie and staple Walther P38 to represent the L and P letters. This was done with the aim to help to give readers the immediate thought of the series and character when seeing the logo.
After the initial sketch, I had to re-diagram the image and make proper corrections on the logo types. I had a difficult time making the proper optical corrections on the U’s bold weight trace, that left me also having to correct the L too. As you can see above, the final version is a lot different in terms of proportion and spacing when compared to the sketch version.
The idea from the original still shows though - as if its soul still withstands the minor spacing changes. The letter P was the one in particular that determined the proportions of the rest, since it typically becomes your first visual point due to it being the most obvious series reference (the Walther P38 gun)!
I added Aachen font as the typeface for the Central subtitle since I found that the end strokes played well with what I had already created. Adjusting kerning was important too, so that the typography could be readable and had similar spacing to the bigger logo.
Take a look at a couple of variations below, and thanks for reading!
And there we have it!
Hopefully long time readers may appreciate a look at how we designed the current Lupin Central logo. Despite using this for seven or so years now, there’s no desire to replace it any time soon - we still love it now as much as we did back then, and hope you do too!
Join us next time to get another insight into what goes on behind the scenes over at Lupin Central. Thanks for reading!
