This design, featuring a smiling Mooglie who holds up two fingers to indicate a sequel, wouldn’t exist in the Ghostbusters world itself and so loses its diagetic quality. This curiosity is lost in the choice of logo for the Ghostbusters II movie. With additional input from Brent Boates, an artist working on visual concepts for the movie, the legendary logo was born. The ghost (given the name Mooglie during the making of the movie) has a mischievous rather than overtly menacing look.

The original Ghostbusters logo

The word ‘iconic’ is probably thrown around a little more freely than it should be. Chapters like “Anyone Can Be a Ghostbuster” would highlight how fans worldwide have adopted and remixed the logo for franchise patches, logos, and local fan groups. The social-first content platform has launched a creative agency, Rad Studio, which is offering luxury brands real-time insights into how Gen Z think, look and feel Adam Murray’s photography book, The Domestic Stage, explores the history of fashion images in the home environment and how they reflect our changing culture Michael C Gross, the originator of the Ghostbusters logo, died in November 2015. Which is probably just as well, as no-one wants a repeat of what emerged when the Ghostbusters came back for a second time in 1989.

Upgrade Your Ghostbusters Plasma Series Ectomobile HasLab with These Real Metal Vents

• “Danny Aykroyd had it written on the page, that the boys came in with this logo on their shirt, or on the side of the Ectomobile, of a ghost trapped in the ‘no’ symbol.
• The symbol would be required for sets, props and costumes, Gross explains, so needed pinning down right away.
• Dan Aykroyd conceived the logo in his original Ghost Smashers script.
• This is where the concept of a ghost inside a ‘no’ sign is thought to have first appeared.
• Again, the logo was a tweak on the original, with a more edgy, distressed look that sees the red circle of the no ghosts icon take the form of a metal door studded with rivets.
• This form of the logo was mostly used in Europe, where the use of the ‘no’ sign is more familiar in daily life.

But there can be no doubting that the Ghostbusters logo is truly an icon in the history of film graphics. Beyond the logo’s official history, CHOGRIN’s mock-up reveals that the book would have explored Mooglie’s influence across pop culture and merchandise, from toys and plushies to ads and parodies that riff on the iconic ghost. In an interview from the bonus disk of the DVD collection, The Real Ghostbusters (Time Life), Gross says that in talks with director Ivan Reitman, he offered to art direct the film and look after the animation side, as it was clear that it was going to warrant a wide range of special effects and creature designs. Prior to filming, the design of a symbol for the Ghostbusters fell to executive producer Michael C Gross.
As some film commenters have suggested, the Ghostbusters logo is ‘diagetic’ ie of the fictional world of the film. The film also celebrated New York City at a time when its image had been severely damaged by years of financial problems and high crime rates. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. For more cinematic winorio casino registration logo inspiration, see our pick of the best movie logos. Stuart Reeves, the designer behind it, posted about the design on social media. As a bonus, the end of the film sees a brief appearance of another, quite different Ghostbusters logo.

Alternative versions

This simple graphic conjures up all things Ghostbusters – classic moments from the film, the catchiest of theme tunes, and some seriously evocative childhood memories for 1980s kids like me. From its use in the 1984 film itself to its huge popularity on t-shirts and countless other items of merchandise ever since, the No-Ghost logo has become firmly embedded in our popular cultural heritage. “The interesting thing is – and it’s hard for people to figure this out – but one of the versions I did had ‘Ghostbusters’ written in the diagonal sign,” he explains. And there are, in fact, two versions of the Ghostbusters logo, Gross reveals. This in itself is not unusual (there’s a logo for Omni Consumer Products in RoboCop, for example), though the extent to which the Ghostbusters’ logo is used and referred to – in and outside of the film – has only since been bettered by Jurassic Park.

Unrealized Ghostbusters Project Would Have Explored the Origin and Legacy of the No-Ghost Logo

In fact, it made it into our list of the best logos of the 1980s. The Ghostbusters logo was initially only going to be used on the eponymous team's uniforms and on the Ectomobile. The suit was for 50 million, plus the destruction of all Ghostbusters film prints. Dan Aykroyd conceived the logo in his original Ghost Smashers script. While Europe had the logo to the upper left, the rest of the world had the logo to the upper right. The No-Ghost Sign has been used for the franchise in one form or another since its initial appearance with the first film in 1984.

• From its use in the 1984 film itself to its huge popularity on t-shirts and countless other items of merchandise ever since, the No-Ghost logo has become firmly embedded in our popular cultural heritage.
• In some European and Japanese posters, a mirrored version was used.
• The logo was a fun way to make the message clear in teasers and trailers, but it doesn’t make much sense on the side of the Ectomobile or  as the sign on their fire house headquarters.
• The logo design is loosely based on the no signs of Europe.
• This fun but not excessively cute figure, with the strong graphic impact of the red circle and slash of the ‘no’ symbol, makes for a playful and thoroughly memorable design.
• One early logo design that never saw the light of day shows what appears to be Thing from the Adams Family in handcuffs.

Even for what we know as the definitive version of the logo, there are two slight variations of it, with subtle design differences. This form of the logo was mostly used in Europe, where the use of the ‘no’ sign is more familiar in daily life. This is because in the international ‘no’ symbol (officially called the general prohibition sign) the red bar runs instead from top left to bottom right. This is where the concept of a ghost inside a ‘no’ sign is thought to have first appeared.

This makes the Door Transfer and Sticker Kits I have created for the Hero Collector Ecto-1 such a key mod for me. Nowhere does the logo make its presence felt more strongly than in the branding of the Ghostbusters’ all-important work vehicle, the Ectomobile. From its enduring connection with those of us who love Ghostbusters to its important role in the visual imagery in scenes of the movie, it has a remarkable legacy.
The logo was redesigned for the second film to giving it a different identity from the first film. If you’re building this model, I hope you enjoy the enhanced quality and realism this addition brings – a fitting tribute to the ‘No-Ghost’ sign, a cool and much-loved piece of movie iconography. Fans of obscure trivia might be interested to know that this makes the film’s logo a ‘diagetic’ element – meaning it forms part of the fictional story itself. Curiously, while the main logo used in the movie has its diagonal line running from top right to bottom left, there is another version in which the line runs the opposite way.