There’s a new Wonka logo in town and it’s as rich, decadent, and caramelized as you could hope to see!
And why not, when it comes to childhood fantasies, few candy makers are as beloved as the eccentric and brilliant Willy Wonka of the famous Wonka Chocolate Factory.
As a fantastical chocolatier and dreamer, Willy Wonka holds a special place of love and imagination for every child who has ever found themselves lost in the world of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In this famous children’s book by Roald Dahl, Willy Wonka is a wonderful, creative character. Genius, mysterious, eccentric, and extremely kind, he runs the world-famous Wonka Chocolate Factory and is known by every child in the realm.
Image Source: amazon.com
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a classic children’s novel and has been turned into a movie twice. The first time was in 1971, starring Gene Wilder as the quirky candy maker, and the second time in 2005 when Johnny Depp appeared as the iconic chocolatier.
Image Source: moviesanywhere.com
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In 2023, the role was adopted by Timothee Chalamet in the latest movie Wonka. This movie visits Wonka’s past and tells the story of how he became who he became. Serving as a prequel to the first two movies, it was released on Dec 15 and received a positive response from everyone.
In this article, we take a look at the branding of the movie Wonka, including the Willy Wonka logo, which is done by Pentagram, and briefly review the evolution of the Wonka candy logos throughout the years.
Let’s start with the best Wonka logo on the list. Designed by Pentagram, it’s a beautiful and rich logo, full of magic, charm, and toffee delight. Flowing like golden caramel, it captures the spirit of the Roald Dahl world, which has always been pure imagination and artistry.
Image Source: Pentagram
In golden-brown gradients with a hand-written style, the logo is meant to inspire creativity, show the personal element, and convey the magic of the story.
The new Willy Wonka logo has been inspired by “historic typography and ornate graphics from general stores, shops and emporiums, and the labeling and packaging for chocolate, candy, and other confectionery products.”
As a standalone letter, the ornate W logo is meant to represent the movie logo in smaller spaces and special moments. Like the custom chocolate bars with the company logo carved into them. The W letter logo is taken directly from the full typographic logo, with no further changes to it to keep visual continuity.
Image Source: Pentagram
Along with creating a full-scale logo for the movie, Pentagram has also created a custom typeface and typographic system for the movie’s branding. They’ve named it Willy Fontka. Cute world play.
This is how it looks in practice.
Image Source: pentagram.com
As a graphic designer, it’s crucial to understand that a truly functional logo works on multiple surfaces and situations. It should look good on screen, definitely, but it must also work on various print surfaces to give the brand full freedom to market and brand itself.
Here’s how the Wonka logo looks on different merchandise items:
Image Source: Pentagram
As we already shared, there have been two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies in the past. The first one was named a bit differently, though: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
That was because of marketing and publicity. Quaker Oats, the company that was funding the movie and that wanted to enter into the candy-making business riding high on the success of the movie wanted a title that put the focus on the chocolatier and not on Charlie, the kid who got the Golden Ticket.
But the 2005 version that starred Johnny Depp was closer to the source material. So we got a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory logo. Here are the two movie logos for your perusal.
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The Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory logo features chocolate heavily. Look at the last part especially. The company name — the Chocolate Factory — is in all-rich brown, looks like a chocolate company logo, and can work as a standalone wordmark.
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory logo is different. The focus here is more on the candy visualization. From the bubble gum font to the blue-green color theme, the design looks more like a Wonka Candy logo than a Wonka Chocolate logo.
These subtle differences aside, the underlying theme for both movie logos is child-like, fun, personal, and charming.
If you’ve been a candy fan, you’ll probably know that there were once real Wonka chocolate bars around. When the 1971 movie was released, Quaker Oats created some of these candy bars — produced and marketed by Willy Wonka Candy Company, a Quaker Oats subsidiary — but they were immediately pulled from the shelves due to a production issue.
So when the movie came out, Quaker Oats only had two products to market with the movie release. Those were the Super Skrunch Bar and the Peanut Butter Oompas.
Image Source: flickr.com
The Wonka Candy logo on the bars is very different than the font on the movie’s poster.
Image Source: uspto.report
Was this an effort to distance the actual products from the movie placements? If so, it didn’t help the visual continuity.
But the Wonka branding didn’t stop there. In 1988, Nestle acquired the Willy Wonka Candy Company.
Nestle was a well-known brand even in the late 1980s and had a global distribution system. Under Nestle’s tutelage, the Wonka Candy Company saw its products being sold in regions as far as wide as Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The Wonka Company logo during that time went through a bit of evolution but the final iteration that existed looked something like this:
Image Source: pngwing.com
The purple hat looked like the main character of the logo, with a whimsical wordmark superimposed on the hat. The white and purple color coordination worked. And if you think it looks familiar, it’s because another beloved candy logo, Cadbury, sports the same color branding. Turns out, purple is a famous color option for chocolate and candy logos.
In 2017, Nestle sold off its candy brands, including the Wonka brand, to Italy-based candy company, Ferrero, which also boasts brands like Nutella and Ferrero Rocher as its own.
In 2023, with the new Wonka movie coming out, the Wonka company released special gummy candies to celebrate the release of the movie.
Image Source: wonka.com
There are a few things that stand out as you study the Wonka brand.
It’s important to note that the visual style of the Wonka movie logo plus the Wonka candy company product packaging has been sourced from the original book by Roald Dahl — the creative genius who continues to captivate imaginations and inspire magic.
Tell us what story from Roald Dahls has been your absolute favorite and if it has made any impact on your creative thought over the years. Share your favorite quotes from the author as well as the latest movie. Plus who’s your favorite Wonka? Gene Wilder, Johnny Depp, or Timothee Chalamet. We’ll go last 😀.
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