What it had to solve
Founder Efe Cakarel wanted 'my own roaring lion' — an ident that, alone, would make people want to watch MUBI films, made in Refn's 'craziest signature colours'.
The idea
A 10-second digitally rendered warehouse flooded pink and blue, where seven great spheres slide together to form the MUBI logo as the sound climaxes.
How it works
Refn worked with London creative agency All City Media to design and digitally render the deserted warehouse; producer-composer Julian Winding built a sound intended to shake a theatre in surround sound. Early storyboards placed a figure inside; the final version is empty.
What it did
Premiered in cinemas at the 2017 BFI London Film Festival, where MUBI released Have a Nice Day and Berlinale Silver Bear winner Félicité; no metrics reported — the job was associating MUBI with theatrical film.
Background
When streaming service and distributor MUBI ventured into theatrical film releases, founder Efe Cakarel decided it needed the one thing studios have and platforms lack: an ident. 'We bought the film that won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale and I thought at that point, I need a studio ident for this film,' he told Dezeen in October 2017. The brief to director Nicolas Winding Refn was the MGM lion: 'It is such a cult thing and I wanted my own roaring lion' — an ident that, on its own, would make people want to watch MUBI films.
The result is a 10-second ident that pans through a digitally rendered warehouse illuminated by seven large spherical balls which align to form the MUBI logo, the sound building to a climax as the word fills the screen. Refn — best known for Drive, colour-blind yet famous for flooding his films with high-contrast colour — was asked to use his 'craziest signature colours', producing the pink-and-blue glow. He worked with London creative agency All City Media on the render, and with producer and composer Julian Winding on a soundtrack Cakarel said 'shook the theatre' in surround sound.
Cakarel called Refn 'a friend of MUBI and a cult director among the MUBI audience', grouping him with Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson as 'the reason MUBI exists... MUBI is like the restaurant that chefs go to.' The ident debuted in cinemas at the BFI London Film Festival, which ran until 15 October 2017, ahead of MUBI's releases there: Liu Jian's Chinese animation Have a Nice Day and Alain Gomis' Félicité, winner of the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize.
Why it lands
An ident plays before every release, so it is the cheapest repeated branding a film distributor owns — and MUBI had none.
Aligning the brand with cult cinema talent reinforces MUBI's curation positioning: the platform identifies with directors.
The sound was engineered for cinema speakers, making the ident meaningful only in the theatrical context it was meant to claim.
Refn's neon palette is instantly attributable, letting the ident function as an auteur signature rather than a corporate mark.
What you can take
A platform entering others' territory needs its own studio signature: borrow a cult director's obsession and make the ident itself an attraction.
Since then
The ident premiered at the 2017 BFI London Film Festival alongside MUBI's releases Have a Nice Day and Félicité, opening the company's theatrical releases thereafter. MUBI's later logo work — Spin's 2024 three-dot 'Go' rebrand — is covered as its own entry; Dezeen reported no further changes to the ident.
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