MGM100:
A case study
The Genesis of the Project
Ars Gratis Artis.
Art for Art's Sake.
This is the slogan of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a studio founded by the combination of three smaller studios and established on April 17, 1924. A century later, I wanted to celebrate it centennial anniversary.
Interestingly enough, what you're about to see began a year ago when I started my celebration of Warner Bros' 100th anniversary in 2023.
I knew I wanted to celebrate MGM's role in the history of Warner Bros, especially in the nearly 30 years WB has owned a bulk of MGM's golden age library of films and shorts as well as their role in co-producing and distributing their titles in international markets today, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The WB100 Project I spent a year on celebrated nearly everything about the Warner Bros side of Warner Bros Discovery, including the MGM-produced fare now distributed and branded under the Turner Entertainment brand.
I just knew that MGM's own centennial was in 2024, and I wanted to do something special for that because I felt that Amazon, MGM's current owner, wouldn't really go all out on such a celebration to the extent of Warner Bros or even Disney for obvious reasons.
So, I made a makeshift banner in April 2023.
Yeah, this was a quick test, very crude, and a decent start.
I initially created this banner in April 2023, not too long after I started the WB100 Project. I was still experimenting with the concept, and I wanted to take some inspiration from the Warner Bros Centennial banner, which themed itself around the slogan "Celebrating Every Story."
What I came up with was using the MGM font and creating a slogan that fits the brand, "A Century of Wonder."
I used the current Leo and golden theater mask motif in the center. It was a fine first attempt, but it was just a test image.
I needed something that would feel modern yet retain the spirit of MGM. I didn't want to make something that felt complicated. I wanted something simplistic.
So, I found inspiration in the past.
In 1966, MGM created a modern logo. Designed by Lippincott, modernized and streamlined Leo in a simple design that still feels as fresh in 2024 as it did nearly 50 years ago.
The fact MGM used this as a secondary logo beyond movies for 20 years and just abandoned it feels like a waste of a design.
However, the Lippincott Leo kind of survived in the unlikeliest of places: Las Vegas.
While I was working on the tribute images, I felt like I needed to address the other MGM
MGM Resorts, which was created after Kirk Kerkorian purchased MGM and transformed it as a casino brand that made movies, has their own lion logo which is an altered version of the 1966 Lippincott MGM logo.
The two companies are no longer connected (historically speaking, the current studio is a spinoff of the casino group, not the reverse, meaning the company that's MGM Resorts is actually turning 100 in 2024), but I felt that the studio could use the Lippincott logo as it was with minor tweaks.
Still, if MGM Resorts and MGM have people scratching their heads in 2024, maybe you should ask why a resort would name itself after a film studio. I doubt they'd really complain.
#MGM100
Inspired by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv's Warner Bros Centennial graphics, I utilized a simple rectangle and circle motif using MGM's trademark gold-on-black color scheme.
I used the Lippincott Leo design as the foundation of the design centering it in the main image, just as Leo would be placed in the traditional MGM logo. I slightly changed the tagline from "A Century of Wonder" to "A Century of Pride" because I realized the original was too close to Disney's "100 Years of Wonder" they used for its 100th anniversary. The alternative logo uses the MGM wordmark in the familiar Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer typeface at the left.
A Century of PRIDE
In my tribute pieces, I'm using the Lippincott Leo as the unifying balance along with films and shows from the current MGM as well as the legacy of United Artists, which the older half of MGM's history builds from.
From franchises like James Bond, Rocky, The Pink Panther, and Stargate to blockbusters like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Thelma & Louise, Legally Blonde, Barbershop, and Hot Tub Time Machine to Oscar-winning films like Rain Man, The Silence of the Lambs, and Fargo, to classic shows like The Addams Family, Flipper, Green Acres, Hollywood Squares, In the Heat of the Night, American Gladiators, Stargate SG-1, and Dead Like Me, and modern hits like The Handmaid's Tale, Fargo, and Wednesday, the company known as MGM has created its own legacy over the decades.
As for the part of MGM's history that most associate with the brand, well, about that...
WB and MGM: A Shared LegacY
Remember when I was talking about Amazon's reluctance to fully celebrate its 100th anniversary?
One of the reasons I feel that way is because the lion's share of what audiences associate with the brand are owned by Warner Bros via its Turner Entertainment division.
Ted Turner bought MGM in 1986 from MGM/UA and renamed it MGM Entertainment. Not too long after doing that, Turner sold the studio, United Artists, the physical studio, and many associated assets but kept the most valuable part of MGM: the library. Over 60 years of MGM's films, shorts, television series, and a bulk of titles from other studios like RKO and Warner Bros, the latter he merged his company with in 1995.
After MGM/UA was reestablished as Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Inc., Turner renamed his massive media library from MGM Entertainment to Turner Entertainment, which is what those titles are still branded under at Warner Bros. The library was also used as a foundation for the creation of a trio of networks: TNT (1988), Cartoon Network (1992), and Turner Classic Movies (1994). In fact, the 1939 MGM-Selznick film Gone with the Wind was used to launch both TNT and TCM.
That said, it would be a disservice to ignore the bulk of what made MGM the studio with "more stars than the heavens," as they once proclaimed. That's why I'm honoring and celebrating the shared legacy Warner Bros and MGM have.
Warner Bros and MGM's shared legacy continues today. Recent films like Creed and the Hobbit trilogies were co-productions of Warner Bros and MGM through Warner Bros' New Line Cinema unit. Warner Bros distributes MGM's films in most international markets outside of North America as well as a few titles on the home media markets. The popular music competition series The Voice is a co-production of both studios.
I felt I should close off this tribute with a few words.
I don't know what the future holds for MGM. Amazon has fully integrated itself into MGM's legacy. Amazon MGM Studios is the overall name of the entertainment company. The MGM brand is still there, but it feels like a secondary brand that is still trying to find its place in the 21st century.
Closing off with how I'd imagine the official logo would look after the centennial, with the Lippincott Leo fully in place as the center of the MGM brand, modernized and replacing that weird CGI Leo the studio currently uses, a future where MGM could continue to grow could set the stage for the next century.
One last note. I am not nor have I ever been an employee of Amazon or Amazon MGM Studios. These are just fan-made concepts. I'm just making these unofficial images for fun and to celebrate an iconic studio's legacy.
You know, art for art's sake.
