The new Disney Plus logo is a beautiful compromise

Your streaming service portfolio simply received a brand new coloration: teal.

To mark its official merging with Hulu, Disney+ has rolled out a brand new brand for its streaming service app. Out with the blue, in with the teal. The web is already awash with theories concerning the coloration change, the most well-liked being that Disney+ combined the Hulu green with the Disney+ blue and obtained teal. Whereas that principle is appropriate, it’s only one half of the story.

Teal could come as a shock to hard-core Disney followers. It may appear fancifully random, or too huge of a departure from the model’s royal blue. However it indicators an vital evolution for Disney+. “We expect we’ve discovered a steadiness of recent and nostalgic that helps ring a bell that Disney+ has all of the stuff you love about Disney, however can be evolving and including new issues to like, too,” says Andy Baker, VP of artistic at Disney+.

In November 2023, Disney purchased out Comcast’s one-third stake in Hulu for $8.6 billion. A month later, the corporate launched a beta model of the Disney+ app, combining Disney+ and Hulu content material for bundle subscribers. The Hulu app isn’t going anyplace, however if you happen to’re a bundle subscriber, right now marks the official, world launch of Hulu on Disney+. Bob Iger’s long-promised “one-app expertise” has arrived—coupled with a refreshed brand that was designed in collaboration with design company Loyakaspar.

So…about that teal! Eager observers would possibly discover that the teal matches that of the commanders’ wives in The Handmaid’s Story, or the principle coloration of Dopesick—each of that are Hulu reveals. However in keeping with a Disney+ spokesperson, the most important supply of inspiration got here from the sky—or the Aurora Borealis. The “northern lights’ phenomenon doesn’t instantly seem in any Disney content material, but it surely’s a illustration of the night time sky, which has featured so prominently all through Disney’s historical past. There’s additionally Sleeping Magnificence’s Princess Aurora, which gave the colour its official identify: Aurora.

Within the nonetheless model of the emblem, the Northern Lights manifest as a refined gradient, going from a brighter teal on the backside left nook to a darkish teal on the prime. The inspiration is extra evident within the animated brand that can seem each time you open the app. In the app’s previous version, the Disney phrase mark appeared first, adopted by the star because it swooped over it and dove right into a plus signal. The swoop was rendered in a gradient that went from darkish to gentle blue.

Within the new model, the swoop seems first; the phrase mark comes second (maybe as an try to construct a barely much less Disney-centric model.) The swoop is now rendered in stable white, and the plus signal is just a little thicker to assist it stand out on smaller screens.

Whereas the star is swooping down, the background is drenched in darkness. Then the plus signal lights up and the background brightens up like a beam of sunshine passing by means of teal-colored clouds. Instantly after, the decrease a part of the display screen fills up with ever-so-gently dancing teal streaks—like an Aurora Borealis.

All of those modifications could seem incremental, however they signify an vital shift in Disney’s race to beat Netflix. And nothing indicators that higher than the precise identify of the colour, Aurora, which is derived from the Latin phrase for daybreak. In different phrases: a brand new starting for the Disney+ model.