2022

SNL 48 Opening & Logo

Saturday Night Live returned in fall 2022 for Season 48 with a year of big change. Eight veteran cast members departed—including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson. To capture that change we created a new identity and title sequence. The new opening brings the cast to the historic Chelsea Hotel on West 23rd Street in NYC. The Chelsea has legendarily housed artists for over a century and is an incubator of creativity not unlike Studio 8H. It also contains a variety of spaces that could provide settings for different tableaus for the cast. Along with Mary Ellen Matthews, our team developed the concept of a tableau-based sequence. Under the direction of Mike Diva, the montage features rapid movements mixed with slow-motion glamor shots.

Our new logo brings back the distinctive lowercase “n” from Season 1 and a triple-stacked configuration we referred to as “the tornado.” The logo is set in Bass-O-Matic SNL, a customized version of the sans serif Blender by Nik Thoenen of Binnenland. The letterforms have a deliberate naivete and mix of curves and angles, giving the logo a raw, DIY quality as if it were plucked from 1980s New York signage. Furthermore, the treatment of the logo and cast names in the open mimic the warmth and imperfection of aged film. Inspired by early title cards on-screen typography subtly moves as if it is being manually imposed over footage or shifting due to gate weave.