Universal Logo's Untold Story: A Six-Month Masterpiece of Light and Shadow
The creation of Universal Pictures' iconic logo is a tale of ingenuity and painstaking effort. Art director Alexander Golitzen, using plexiglass, phosphorescent coatings, and multiple exposures, spent six months crafting the mesmerizing rotating globe and stars. Thin plexiglass stars, coated with silver-activated zinc sulfide for high reflectivity, were individually rotated with multiple lights and filmed with a narrow aperture. The globe, painted black with an interior phosphorescent coating, had the title added in a separate pass. Multiple projections and exposures, along with a second, larger globe, were used to create the final effect. The logo's design even inspired the 'Interociter' device in the 1955 film 'This Island Earth'.
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