Film School: HBO logo mistake?

HBO ident HBO ident

One viewer’s observation becomes another’s obsession.

The observation: that the letters in the HBO logo aren’t properly aligned. James Barnard, logo and visual identity designer, dives deeper:

@barnardco

HBO left a mistake in their logo. 😬 To prevent this from happening to you, make sure you include ‘Gridding’ in your logo design process. Turn to page 167 in George Bokhua’s book ‘The Principles of Logo Design’ to learn all about this. You can get that Grid It plugin from Akrivi by the way. 👍 #logodesign #hbo #graphicdesign #typography #designtok

♬ original sound – James Barnard

The follow-up adds an unexpected wrinkle to the story – via guest star Gerard Huerta, the designer of the original logo in the 1970s:

@barnardco

🤷🏻‍♂️“Who. Cares? Unfollowed” This is how a *lot* of people responded to my post about the mistake in the HBO logo. For those that didn’t see it, the H and the B of the logo don’t line up at the top of the official vector version from the website. Not only that, but the original designer @Gerard Huerta700 got in touch! Long story short, we’re all good, and Designerrrs™ community members can watch my interview with Gerard Huerta where we talk about this and his illustrious career! #hbo #typography #logodesign #logo #designtok

♬ original sound – James Barnard

Further Viewing

Another example from HBO – and more from other brands – where the ident was elevated by handmade craft: