Character in the Logo

A logo without that silhouette would be quite objectionable.

The simplest way to be distinctive is to use a silhouette. It's easy to both print and draw, without too many details to be distracting. It is also recognizable at small sizes. This is what this trope is about: the logo of a work featuring the silhouette of a character. This may be inside a letter (or be the letter), standalone from the logo (for example, beside or behind it), or even be the logo itself (with the letters inside it). Silhouettes are not necessarily required for this trope; this can be extended to the characters themselves as well as elements from the media.

Part of Title Tropes and Title Sequence. See also Logo Joke, Thematic Sequel Logo Change, and Special Edition Title for special versions of a logo, which may overlap, and Pictorial Letter Substitution (replacing letters with similarly-shaped images), which may also overlap.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Agent Aika: The silhouette of the title character doing a Pistol Pose appears in the first "A" in "AIKa."^note The title is often displayed this way.
• Devil May Cry: The Animated Series: As it was with the early Devil May Cry games' tradition, the official poster features a red silhouette of Dante beside the title art.
• One of the logos for Inuyasha shows the titular character's silhouette leaping over the letters.
• The Japanese logo◊ of Magu-chan: God of Destruction fills in the right half of the kanji for "god (神)" with the eponymous character's single eye. The English version◊ does the same with the "A" in "MAGU".
• The anime version of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid featured Tohru's horns and maid headdress.
• One Piece has the silhouette of Luffy replacing the "I" in the logo of the series, as well as the jolly roger of the Straw Hat Pirates sitting in the O.
• Pretty Cure: The 20th anniversary logo features silhouettes of the original Cures, Black and White.
• Sailor Moon: The original Japanese Sailor Moon S (third) season title logo includes a bust of Sailor Moon in silhouette, complete with trailing sailor collar and trailing pigtails from her odango.
• Tamagotchi: The exclamation mark in the show's logo has its dot shaped like Mametchi's head.
• Unico: Some English logos would have Unico's horn placed on top of the "O".
• Midnight Horror School: Hikky appears where the first "ー" would be in the title in the logo (the series' Japanese title being ミッドナイトホラースクール).
• Tousouchuu: The Great Mission has the silhouette of one of the Hunters placed on the upper right side of the logo.

Asian Animation

• One version of 3000 Whys of Blue Cat's logo has Blue Cat giving two thumbs up.
• 4 Angies: The logo seen in the series intro depicts 2D versions of, from left to right, Pui, Kai-chan, Kalamare, and Nina.
• Flower Angel: Not for the series itself, but the Taomee logo (Taomee being the series' production company) used in the later seasons and the film have Xia An'an in the O.
• Happy S. appears in the original logo of Happy Heroes.
• The logo for Keymon Ache is Keymon's head. The outline of his head and his teeth are visible.
• The logo for Lamput features Lamput as the "T" in the word "Lamput".
• Mechamato: MechaBot is present in two versions of the show's logo. The older logo◊ has him in the middle of it as the first "a". In the current logo◊ the series uses, his circular body makes up the "o".
• The logo for Nana Moon features the head of Princess Amy in the middle.
• Noonbory and the Super 7 has the title character's face incorporated into the logo.
• The Oddbods logo features the letters in the colors of, and with the antenna of, the main seven characters.
• Oye Golu: The "O" in the "Oye" in the show's logo is made to look like Golu's head.
• In one version of the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf logo, Weslie appears on the left and Wolffy appears on the right.
• The Yamucha's-Kung Fu Academy logo features Miko, Nao, and Jubby.

Comic Books

• Batman: Various iterations of the Batman logo have his name in front of a bat-shaped symbol with his head on top of it.
• Green Lantern: The Green Lantern logo has had either the titular green lantern or the green lanter ring's symbol in the logo. The Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) also had his face inside the lantern in his logo.
• The Phil Silvers Show: The show got two Comic Book Adaptations, one featuring the Breakout Character Pvt. Doberman. The logo for his comic◊ featured his face inside the "o" In Doberman.
• Sonic Adventures: The logo has Sonic winking above the "i" in his name.

Films — Animation

• Arlo the Alligator Boy productions (the Pilot Movie, the I ♡ Arlo series) use a silhouette of Arlo's footprint as the hole in the letter "O" in "Arlo".
• The main logo of The Boss Baby (used also for its sequel The Boss Baby: Family Business) features a silhouette of the Boss Baby's (Ted's) head in the "O," with the tie of his suit in the "A" below it.
• The Despicable Me movies use Gru's silhouette in the logos, usually between the big "M" and "E" letters.
  • In the first trailer of Minions: The Rise of Gru, Gru's silhouette is the "I" in "Rise". This isn't the case in the final logo.
• The Iron Giant movie based on the children's book has the eponymous robot's silhouette in the "A" of the logo.
• Leo: The version of the logo seen in the trailers and the beginning of the film has a silhouette of Leo lounging in the "O".
• In the logo of Pixar, the flex light jumps on the "I" and substitutes that letter. Also, some films have variations, like WALL•E replacing the "R".
  • Brave' logo has Merida's face carved into the "B" and Elinor's face carved into the "E".
  • Turning Red's logo is surrounded by the silhouette of a red panda's face, the animal the protagonist transforms into.
• The logo for the Shrek films is the letter S with the same skin tone and trumpet ears as the title character.

Films — Live-Action

• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence has the robot kid's silhouette step out of the letter "A" and become the letter "I".
• For the film Dick, the "i" in the logo is a silhouette of Richard Nixon making his iconic "V for Victory" hand gesture.
• Elf: Certain artworks, like the one used for the boxart, have Buddy posing as the "L" in "Elf".
• The Godzilla series include silhouette of the Kaijus that are featured in the movie. They are usually found on the back of the cases.
• The logo for Inspector Gadget (1999) has Gadget's silhouette inside a gear. Inspector Gadget 2 includes G2 within the logo.
• Done in the VHS releases of 1989 Intruder film, with its killer in the "I" of the logo.
• The Men in Black trilogy (as well the animated series) has the agents K and J getting their silhouettes on the "I" of the "MIB" acronym as the main logo of the series.
• Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over: The logo for the In-Universe video game "Game Over" has one of these, showing "The Guy" in the silhouette of the game logo that can help players get past the "unwinnable" Level 5.

Literature

• There are two variants on the Barbapapa logo that feature the Barbapapa family in them. One of them has the Barbas holding the letters forming the show's title, while the other features them as the letters.
• The UK covers of the Gone series do this, with the title in big black letters and the silhouette of one of the characters at a side, illuminated with a neon light behind them.
• Seen on some covers of the novels as well in some images of the anime, Haruhi Suzumiya's silhouette can be seen standing on the logo, mostly along with the big "H". Although this is not official, the Haruhi silhouette and the big "H" became an iconic logo for anime (and especially Haruhi) fans.
• The UK covers of Rainbow Magic have a fairy sitting/laying on the logo. The default fairy for this is Izzy the Indigo Fairy (who is on the logo for the original series, the special editions, and the one-off books), but the serialized groups of fairies will have one of their group be in the logo (ex. Goldie the Sunshine Fairy is on the logo for the Weather Fairies' books, Cherry the Cake Fairy is on the logo for the Party Fairies' books). This practice was discontinued in 2016, when the series' logo was updated.

Live-Action TV

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents would begin with the series' title superimposed over an outline of Hitchcock's profile. Hitchcock (in shadow) would then walk up to the outline and line his face up directly with it.
• The logo of Bear in the Big Blue House is a blue house with what appears to be the eponymous Bear's face on it.
• Charlie's Angels: The silhouette of the three girls in fight poses with the title inside is the iconic logo of the series. Seen also in the two films (a variation with the girls just standing still) and in the 2011 remake, both not so iconic (and remembered) as the original series.
• Conan: The logo when the show premiered, was the title, and a silhouette of Conan O'Brien's iconic hair (which is also the page's image).
• Doctor Who
  • When the revived series aired on Syfy it was promoted in advertising with an original logo that had the Doctor's silhouette in the "O" of "Who".
  • During the Eleventh Doctor era, the logo included the letters "DW" in the shape of the TARDIS. In some versions of the title sequence the DW fully morphed into the TARDIS itself.
• The logo used during Season 4 of The Good Night Show has Star sitting on the moon.
• The logo for the court show Judge Faith features a silhouette of Judge Faith Jenkins with her arms crossed in place of the I in "Faith".
• The promotional logo for Season 1 of The Mandalorian featured the title character in the second A of the title. The show itself does not use this however. By Season 2, The Child was added next to him.
• The logos for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. each show one of the main characters (Napoleon Solo and April Dancer, respectively) standing next to a globe.
• The logo for Mopatop's Shop features Mopatop holding the title of the show in his hand.
• Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: The Tyrannozord sits above the logo and its tail becomes the lightning bolt portion of the "Power Rangers" logo.
• The sun in the The Sunny Side Up Show logo was usually seen outside the Sunshine Barn.
• The logo for The Sprout Sharing Show features Patty holding up the show's title.
• Toby Terrier and His Video Pals: The series logo is a star with Toby Terrier's head in the center, a collar reading "Toby Terrier" going around the star below him. In the actual series, the Toby Terrier puppet is used in place of the 2D rendition on the VHS covers.

Music

• The '80s Spanish Heavy Metal band Barón Rojo has the eponymous Red Baron in the band logo as a black silhouette behind the big red letters of the band name.

Professional Wrestling

• The Iiconics (formerly "the Iconic Duo" on NXT, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay) appear each of them inside of an "I" since their induction into the main roster on Smackdown Live.
• Chris Jericho's "King of the World" pose is either in the middle of his Y2J logo or taking the Y spot itself.
• Roman Reigns: His shape doing the Superman Punch is in the middle of the two R in his logo.

Toys

• The iDog logo featured the seven-LED face of the iDog in place of the dot in the "i".
• When Kenner had the toy license for Indiana Jones, they created a logo◊ featuring Indy's silhouette, which was framed by the shape of his iconic bullwhip.
• The Trash Pack logo features mascots Blow Fly and Trash-A-Pillar on each side of the logo.

Theatre

• The star logo for Hamilton has the silhouette of the title character Alexander Hamilton as portrayed by Creator and Lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda. Lin's body makes up the point of the star, some variations of the star logo will show 3 dots which are the buttons on his jacket. The full logo has the star in place of the A in the word Hamilton.
• The logo for Sweeney Todd includes caricatures of both Sweeney and Mrs Lovett.

Video Games

• Alan Wake has the protagonist in the "A" of "Wake".
• Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia: A silhouette of Aurica is at the center of the logo.
• BlazBlue: In a variant, the logo for each game contains one of the "character crests".
  • The first game's logo has a combination of Ragna and Nu-13's crests. The story involves a "Groundhog Day" Loop where the timeline always ends with Ragna and Nu jumping into the past to become an Eldritch Abomination and then the time loops back.
  • The second game has Mu-12's crest, and she's the central character for this part of the story.
  • The third game has the crest for Master Unit Amaterasu. The villains' goal is to try to summon it from the Boundary to the real world.
  • The fourth game goes back to the first game's crest, albeit with additions.
• Capcom
  • Different from other titles, the Dead Rising series have silhouettes in their logo, but in general are zombies in the second "D" (including The Movie).
  • Some Fighting Games (mostly some of Marvel vs. Capcom games) have the black silhouette of Ryu along the Capcom logo as a kind of Series Mascot.
  • Various of Mega Man X games have the silhouettes of X and Zero (as well Axl in X8 and X Collection) behind the Capcom logo.
  • The first Devil May Cry game has the silhouette of Trish in the logo, best shown in the boot-up cutscene where her pose transitions into the silhouette. It is also a Visual Title Drop of the eponymous devil-hunting company of Dante.
    • Subsequent games kept up the trend, with the exception of Dm C Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 5. 2 even went so far as to have two different logos featuring the two protagonists, Dante and Lucia.
  • Various of the Ace Attorney titles has the prominent silhouette of Phoenix Wright (as well Miles Edgeworth and Apollo Justice in their own games/novels) back the logo with the "Objection!" pose.
• Chantelise: A silhouette of Chante with her head down, on the bottom of the image.
• The logo for Cosmic Star Heroine features a silhouette of Alyssa's profile in the second "O".
• The Dead Island series has the silhouette of the palm with a corpse hanging. The first game is more notorious and iconic, being the corpse the "I" on "Island".
• Death's Door: The silhouette of the crow protagonist appears inside the "A" in "Death".
• Eternal Senia: Uses this for all games:
  • Eternal Senia: A shot of the eponymous Senia from the waist up, facing to the right.
  • Eternal Senia: Hydrangea After The Rain: A shot of the eponymous Senia from the chest up, facing to the left.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The logos for the Final Fantasy games often feature a prominent character of the title, may be The Protagonist as well the Big Bad. This started since Final Fantasy IV in Japan and Final Fantasy VII in Western applied to all games past them with redesigned logos, in which the character (or the meteorite in VII) is drawn in monochrome with some color(s) and left behind the "Final Fantasy" archetype logo. Final Fantasy VIII actually features two characters - Rinoa and Squall - in an embrace, while Final Fantasy IX ditches the idea and uses the crystal, a recurring motif in the franchise.
  • Subverted with Final Fantasy XV. The end of the game reveals that the logo features Luna. Yet, it doesn't look like Luna. This is because the logo technically isn't Luna. The logo dates back to years before Luna was even created. It's most likely Luna's longer haired prototypical version, Stella.
• Both inFAMOUS games have their protagonists in their logos as silhouettes, right in the "O" of "inFAMOUS".
• Jetpack Joyride logo features Barry flying on the jetpack on the right.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Minish Cap incorporates Ezlo's silhouette in the English logo (the Japanese version has an actual picture of him).
  • Twilight Princess's logo has a stylized silhouette of Link's wolf form and Midna's helmet.
  • Several games in the franchise have incorporated major characters into their logos. Ocarina of Time even did so retroactively when Skyward Sword made the Master Sword a character in its own right.
• Lost Home has its two main characters, an armadillo and a snake, in the game's logo. However, the logo depicts them in a more realistic style, unlike in the game, where they're more cartoonish.
• The Steam game Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift has the silhouette of protagonist Mylne's head, that turns into a flowery tree when it moves to the right.
• A creeper's face was put inside the "a" of the Minecraft logo beginning with the 1.4 beta, when the monster officially became the game's Mascot Mook.
• The Mole's World game Mole Kart has Mole Man in its logo.
• NetherRealm Studios, creator of the Mortal Kombat franchise (back when it was Midway Games), has MK's Scorpion in the logo.
• NiGHTS into Dreams…: NiGHTS's head appears above the first game's title logo.
• Pac-Man has the "Pac-Man Head" replacing the C in the game's logo. Or, rather, the logo font was styled after Pac-Man's appearance. The C was occasionally rendered with Pac-Man's eyes as well.
  • Columbia Records had also been using a font with a C shaped like a circle with a wedge cut out as early as 1973 on its 45 rpm singles, thus pre-dating Pac-Man. They also ended up being the original publisher for Buckner and Garcia's song "Pac-Man Fever", making this an amusingly coincidental case of Character in Publisher's Logo.
• The logo for Part Time UFO features the title character's claw standing in for the "T" in "Part" and "O" in "UFO".
• Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare: The Zombie Foot Soldier is in the first "a" of "Warfare".
• Pokémon:
  • Pokémon X and Y has the "X" resemble Xernea's antlers and the "Y" resemble Yveltal's talons.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon features a stylized Sun resembling Solgaleo and a stylized Moon resembling Lunala.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield feature a stylized sword and shield with wolf heads representing Zacian and Zamazenta, respectively.
  • Pokémon Sleep features a Snorlax in the logo.
• Puyo Puyo: Calling the Puyos "characters" might be a bit of a stretch, but at any rate, a Puyo appears on the logos for Puyo Puyo Fever and its sequel.
• The logo for the Chinese web game Roco Kingdom features the head of the main character Roco on it.
• SEER: The "赛" in "赛尔号" (the Chinese title) has Simon's face and screw-looking head protrusion on it.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic appeared in his own logo in the first entry of the series Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with sassy finger wag.
  • Sonic & Knuckles, apart of having these two characters on the main logo of the game, in the cartridge, and cover has the silhouette of their heads, both depicted in blue and red, respectively.
  • Sonic Team, the creator of the series as well as other Sega titles, has the silhouette of Sonic's head with his eyes marked as its logo.
• The logo for sora has the titular character's silhouette positioned beside the title. In addition, clearing the EX Stage will add Suguri's silhouette beside it alongside the subtitle, "Suguri II".
• The logo for Project Soul, the developer of the Soul Series, has Nightmare holding his sword against the ground in silhouette.
• Both titles of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed have Starkiller silhouette in the "O" part of FORCE in the title.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2: It has a 3D render of the orange Assist Luma featured in its logo most of the time, such as the box art.
  • Super Mario Odyssey: Cappy, in the form of Mario's hat, appears in the game's logo.
  • One version of the general Mario & Luigi series' logo features silhouettes of Mario and Luigi running on top of the title of the series, visible on the viewer's left.
  • Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3: The logo on the American boxart has Wario's head in the "O" in "Wario".
• Sword & Fairy 6 has Yue Qi's monochrome upper body image above the game's name.
• Sword of Elpisia has Alice's portrait on the left side of the logo. And the sword on the right side is her Magisword form, making it a double example.
• Tales of Berseria: The silhouette of Velvet Crowe is seen behind the game's name. When you boot up the game, she is seen walking towards the screen, before fading into silhouette, after which the logo appears.
• Trails Series:
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has a silhouette of chained Valimar (a sentient Super Robot) placed inside a circle behind the numeral.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie places a sketch-like image of living doll Lapis Rosenberg in a fetal position behind the game's title.
• Wild ARMs 4: The Western logo of the game has Jude's silhouette placed inside the "i" letter. Incidentally, his pose is the same he is shown in on the Japanese cover (which averts it).
• Wynncraft: The eye in back of the logo is an agent of Dern and the Final Boss of the Eldritch Outlook.
• ZanZarah: The Hidden Portal: A fairy, facing to the left is in the middle of the second "Z" of the logo.

Visual Novels

• Trapped with Jester: A silhouette of Jester's head facing left can be seen behind the game's title in the logo.

Web Original

• Lampshade Hanging is probably the most iconic trope in TV Tropes, and that's shown with a lamp as part of the logo, usually between "TV" and "Tropes" or above the "T" in its abbreviated version.

Western Animation

• One of the logos for Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has an image of Daniel on Trolley in the center. This variant is also used for the Italian dub of the show.
• One of the logos for Dora the Explorer features Dora in the O of the logo, which also happens in the first version of the opening titles. The others feature not only her in the O but Boots in the R.
• A hilarious occurrence in Big Nate has Nate being sandwiched between the "Big Nate" title. The Nickelodeon logo follows up by knocking him down on the head, squeezing Nate out to the ground hard.
• Most logos of Caillou typically have Caillou himself in them.
• The Codename: Kids Next Door logo features silhouettes of the five main characters in an Angels Pose.
• The logo for Fat Dog Mendoza features Fat Dog on it.
• Both the logo displayed at the end of the opening sequence of Franklin and the logo that was typically used in merchandising had Franklin himself in them.
• George Shrinks: George is the "I" in the word "Shrinks" in the series logo.
• In the logo for The Ghost and Molly McGee the sole in the letter "O" in the word "Ghost" is shaped like Scratch.
• The logo of Guess How Much I Love You has the main character, Little Nutbrown Hare, sitting in the bottom right corner.
• Inspector Gadget: Gadget, of course, is upside-down as the "I" in "INSPECTOR."
• The logo for the original Jonny Quest has Jonny's face inside the oversized "Q" in "Quest".
• In the logo for Johnny Test, the "O" in the word "Johnny" contains a silhouette of the eponymous character's head.
• The logo for Kaeloo depicts the characters running on a little planet. The characters, from left to right, are Kaeloo's hulked-out form Bad Kaeloo, Mr. Cat, Quack Quack, Stumpy, and normal Kaeloo.
• Let's Go Luna!'s logo depicts Luna in one of the corners.
• A variant of the Lilo & Stitch: The Series logo, as well as the title card of the show, has the titular duo appearing from behind the surfboard. They appear over each other's names and Stitch takes a bite of the surfboard.
• Lucky Fred's logo has Friday's eyes and arms on it.
• There are two versions of the Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends logo. One of them features a goofy-looking sun, and the other features Miss Spider herself.
• The logo for The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show has the four characters' headshots inside the O's.
• Ni Hao, Kai-Lan's logo features Mr. Sun.
• The logo for Our Cartoon President replaces the "I" in President with Donald Trump in profile.
• In the logo for The Owl House, the hole in the "O" of "Owl" is shaped like Owlbert's inanimate form with the left half of the "H" forming his staff. Downplayed with Stringbean, who doesn't actually show up but has her existence foreshadowed by the "L" and "S" forming an upside-down staff topped with a snake.
• PB&J Otter's logo features its three main characters, Peanut Otter, Butter Otter, and Jelly Otter.
• The logo for Phineas and Ferb represents the first letter of each title character's name with a stylized silhouette of his head.
• Most of the logo designs for Purno de Purno feature Purno in the center of the logo.
• The logo for Spiral Zone featured the main hero, Colonel Dirk Courage, firing his futuristic weapon.
• The title screen logo for SpongeBob SquarePants has SpongeBob (more specifically, a stick figure drawing of him) in the left of the text.
• The logo for True and the Rainbow Kingdom features a Wish.
• Two versions of the Valt the Wonder Deer logo exist; one that has Valt on a scroll, his antlers forming the shape of the "V" in "Valt" in the series title, and one where the antlers simply adorn the name of the series.
• One version of Wander over Yonder's logo features Wander riding his steed Sylvia near the bottom.
• WordGirl: Silhouettes of WordGirl and Captain Huggyface are featured in-between the "Word" and "Girl" in the show's logo.
• Wubbzy is in the logo of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, usually depicted standing on the top right of "Wubbzy" in the show title.
• Xiaolin Showdown's logo has Omi's head replace the "O" in ''Xiaolin."

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