Somehow, TRON: Legacy is a near-perfect sequel, a rare achievement considering the nearly three decades that separate it from its predecessor. Director Joseph Kosinski and his team managed to capture the spirit of Steven Lisberger’s 1982 cult classic while giving it a sleek, modernized visual identity. The original TRON was groundbreaking in its use of CGI and animation, but by todays standards it looks incredibly dated – almost charmingly so! Rather than discarding those roots, Legacy embraces them, weaving the geometric neon grids and stark digital landscapes into a futuristic design that still feels distinctly TRON. The result is a film that honors its lineage while proving that an update can enhance rather than dilute nostalgia.
One clever aspect of this is how the movie treats its reliance on CGI. Most modern films are being criticized for leaning too heavily on digital effects, but Legacy uses them in a context that makes sense: the story literally takes place IN a computer. In this setting, CGI isn’t just necessary – it’s essential. So when we finally see Jeff Bridges’ digitized, younger self with its slightly uncanny appearance, it actually works to the film’s advantage. Not only that, it even elevates the immersion. A very rare privilege!
Designing a revamped and modernized version of the iconic TRON logo must have been a similarly difficult balancing act between reinvention and preservation. The original 1982 logo was bold for its time, with its sharp angles and glowing neon simplicity. But for TRON: Legacy, a contemporary upgrade was necessary. The solution was a three-dimensional, glass-like reinterpretation that radiates light and depth, creating a sense of digital tangibility that ties directly into the film’s updated aesthetics. It feels almost haptic, like a physical object existing within the Grid. And it shows us that the digital frontier has progressed irresistibly not only in Hollywood, but also in the narrative of this story. IMAX audiences were given an especially memorable treat when the camera flew through the rotating logo in the film’s brilliant opening sequence – a subtle callback to the 1982 original.
Unsurprisingly, with a great logo like that, the cover of the official soundtrack album (#1) puts it front and center. The prominent use of the logo is even further emphasized by the choice of Helvetica Neue font for all other text on the cover. It’s certainly one of the most understated (or, in other words, boring) fonts out there. But apparently that’s a well known trick.
It’s not only very brave to keep a soundtrack cover so simple, but also quite astonishing, given that there was a vast variety of incredible key art available to the designers. It would have been highly obvious to make use of these dazzling visuals. But the complete opposite is happening. The absence of images, the stark blackness, the bland font used for the text, just that iconic TRON logo in holographic foil print… I think all these characteristics make the official soundtrack album and the music on it even more special. I have the utmost respect for Steve Gerdes and Steve Sterling, the creative minds behind this design! Be sure to check out their case study on the packaging design for the TRON: Legacy soundtrack and the R3C0NF1GUR3D remix album (#9). Inspiring stuff!
Interestingly, designer Matt Taylor took the opposite approach for Mondo’s 10th Anniversary Edition (#2 to #6). His artwork is literally bursting with imagery from the film, yet still looks absolutely fabulous. It is balanced by a very atmospheric illustration on the front of a spot-varnished and die-cut O-Card (#2). Although I like the back even better, which mimics a touchscreen display that is very relevant to the film’s plot (#6). What you see here, however, is a replica that I painstakingly recreated from scratch due to the lack of high-resolution images of the original. Anyhow… together with the front cover it forms a beautiful somber record sleeve that is dominated by black negative space.
Well…. having said all that, you might find it amusing that some custom covers of mine (#11 to #15) feature the utmost gigantic versions of TRON: Legacy key art I could find, and yes, I can’t argue against that at all. It’s just… I think the movie looks incredibly good, gorgeous really, and it would be an absolute sin not to make at least one or two (or five) different soundtrack covers with these images.
Perhaps one of the most important aspects for me, why I love TRON: Legacy so much, is the heavy use of cyan. That particular colour – also known as “Tron Blue” – that dominated the entire marketing campaign, fills me with a wild rush of nostalgia! And for a while, I wasn’t even sure why. But it just draws me in magically, like a moth to a flame. It feels like my entire childhood. And I think I recently unearthed the core memory that was lying dormant deep within my own sea of simulation, pulsing faintly in that particular shade of electric blue.
Please join me for a short trip back in time, into a typical living room from the late 1980s…
Dark wood paneling, carpeted floors, corduroy curtains, and a low tile table in front of the couch. It’s late at night, and in a corner of the room, a young boy sits in front of a heavy black wooden rack with a glass door. His face half-illuminated by a cool, turquoise light. He looks at the numbers of a radio frequency display. Tiny windows into another world: “104.0 FM”. The CD player shows “Track 07” – sharp, clear, futuristic. There are moving bars of VU meters, dancing like little neon lights to the rhythm of the music. As the large speakers fill the room with bass, the flickering glow of a large hi-fi tower almost seems like an electric heartbeat.
Yup… I’m afraid I’m hopelessly nostalgic when it comes to those huge stereo systems I spent so much damn time in front of as a kid. Their typical turquoise light, produced by the VFDs or digitron displays, had a magic all of its own. It was the colour of technology, of the future, of the hi-fi feeling. A little shimmer of science fiction right in your own living room.
The same colour runs through TRON: Legacy like a current. From the light cycles to the suits to the identity discs, cyan isn’t just a design choice, it defines the film’s visual world. Light has always been central to TRON and with that in mind, I wanted to take a piece of that design language and turn it into something physical. So I came up with two very special Glow-In-The-Dark Editions, to echo the film’s aesthetics and bring a little bit of that digital vibe into the real world.
This blog post was originally published on May 31, 2012. In this updated version, the entire text has been rewritten. The custom covers are a mix of completely new designs and revised and improved versions of previously published covers.
HQCovers 