New Logo For Leno

By Jennifer Farley | February 18, 2010 | Web Design Tutorials & Articles

Following much controversy and a bit of verbal fisticuffs, US chat show host Jay Leno is returning to his late night show slot which has been vacated by Conan O’Brien. As part of the return, the show has a new logo which was revealed yesterday on thejaylenoshow.com web site. The new logo features dark blue text on a black background with a small slither of a moon hanging like a dot over the letter “i”. The words “with Jay Leno” are slotted in between in white.

(Image from B Carvahlo on Twitpic)

Here’s the old logo from Jay Leno’s previous Tonight Show, which also used the quarter moon over the letter “i” trick.

Below you can see the logo for the The Tonight Show as hosted by Conan O’Brien. This particular logo was unveiled in April 2009 as Conan was preparing to take over the helm from Jay Leno. At the time he said:

I wanted a logo that acknowledged the long, rich tradition of The Tonight Show while still looking good on hats, T-shirts, mugs, lawn furniture, notebooks, stemware, urns, defibrillators, water bottles, cell phones, sports equipment, pens, vacuums, chimes and our new line of unisex cologne.

(Funny because it’s true in so many cases of branding).

The new Leno logo is not a million miles away from this, but is not as striking in terms of color or typography. Having said that I do like the simplicity of the typeface and color used in the new logo.

More importantly though, what do you think of the new Leno logo? Should they have just reverted back to the original one or is it too dated now? Or should they have just replaced Conan O’Brien’s name on the gray and yellow version?

Written By:

Jennifer Farley

Jennifer Farley is a designer, illustrator and design instructor based in Ireland. She writes about design and illustration on her blog at Laughing Lion Design.

Website - >> More Posts By Jennifer Farley

Tagged as: branding, logo design, logos

{ 17 comments }

3itservices.com February 25, 2010 at 11:05 pm: third one is superb with corporate looks fonts and colors
Duuude February 24, 2010 at 10:04 pm: Like Matt, my first thought immediately was: This looks like the MyNitelife Logo.
And it DOES!
Kyle Scollin February 21, 2010 at 6:59 pm: I agree with Matt Patterson. My first thought was of Chris Spooner’s logo design. Seems awfully similar.
annhltr February 19, 2010 at 11:00 pm: The logo is quite good yes.
Shame I’ll never see the show, not after all this drama.
Zellers February 19, 2010 at 1:47 pm: Was the grey version of Conan’s logo ever used? I’ve only ever seen it on black.
Dan February 19, 2010 at 1:28 pm: The kerning is inconsitant. Otherwise I like the colours and font choice.
tony February 19, 2010 at 12:53 pm: Thanks, this will be the only time I will see this logo.
sonuvagunder February 19, 2010 at 10:23 am: If you make the “T” lowercase, put a swirly in the g’s, and add some errant sketch lines on the page, I think that the new Jay Leno logo with the black background looks a bit like the logo for the “Twilight” book series. No?
I think they needed updating from the old Leno logo, and it would have been tactless to have simply replaced Conan’s name (it would recall to easily how they erased Conan from the show). But I think this new typeface and design look more like a book title.
vip February 19, 2010 at 2:04 am: looks like Leno has his kiester hanging out in the wind.
Jess February 19, 2010 at 12:14 am: It’s about as sleepy as his show as become, so I suppose it’s fitting. It just looks so dark and drab. The old Leno one wasn’t very good but was a bit less boring.
garryhopkins February 18, 2010 at 10:24 pm: Well I don’t see much change in the logo. The theme is the same with a bit of variations in the fonts and style.
Anything new or fresh would have got a lot of attraction but considering the ‘time’ this show has gone through with the values and guidelines,the logo without much change seems to convey this very well.
Secondly,the logo market is really a big one and I think the logo was kept more or less on the same lines due to this fact only. I mean any considerable variation from the previous one would have rendered the previous brandings a bit ‘out of date’ !
Danni February 18, 2010 at 4:49 pm: They should have kicked Leno in the nuts and kept Conan on the Tonight Show :-)
adesignrsa February 18, 2010 at 3:51 pm: Personally, I’m not a big fan. The T is horrible and in general it has a really “nightmare before christmas” look to it.
Also, it almost reads “The tonight with Jay Leno show”.
That said, I’ve seen worse.
rima February 18, 2010 at 12:48 pm: definitely a huge improvement over the previous leno iteration. it looks better – i love the concept but am not crazy about the font. did they need to redesign? maybe not, but it would have been lame to swap out conan’s name
Peter February 18, 2010 at 12:37 pm: It’s funny, the rare occasion that I was forced to watch Leno (visiting my in-laws), I always thought the old Leno typeface read “Topight Show.” So, I suppose the new one is better. Not that I’m ever going to watch.
Matt Patterson February 18, 2010 at 10:36 am: Hmm, a lot of the ideas/typography look very similar to this tutorial http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/logo-design-project-step-by-step-walkthrough
zenracer February 18, 2010 at 10:32 am: This one is a snoozer and is damn boring. Have all the creative minds gone to sleep? No wonder NBC is going down the loo!