The Metroid Prime logo looks so perfect and appropriate for the game that you probably never really noticed or thought about it much. It’s just one of those things that looks like it always existed or came into this universe fully formed. But the designer behind the iconic logo is here to remind us that even the tiniest of things, like a logo, can be frustrating to create.
As spotted by NintendoLife, graphic designer Jim Wornell sat down and chatted with YouTuber KIWI TALKZ in an interview uploaded earlier this week. Wornell is a graphic designer who once worked for Nintendo and helped create logos for a load of games across multiple franchises, including Animal Crossing and Paper Mario. However, perhaps one of his most famous and well-known creations is the logo for the 2002 GameCube classic Metroid Prime.
But while the game and its logo are fondly remembered today, Wornell talked about how frustrating it was to create, explaining that it took 53 different iterations to finally get one that Nintendo and the game’s developers approved.
“There were times where I wanted to blow my brains out, yeah,” joked Wornell. “And you know, to be fair, 53 versions, yes there were 53 versions, but some of those versions were a blue ball, or a red ball, or a red ball with the ‘S’, or a red ball without the ‘S’. Right around probably version…30, I was getting a little tired of it, but, uh, you know, it was a big title at the time. There were a lot of people looking at this. So…I understand why there were so many versions of the logo, from start to finish. You want to get it right, you know, it’s important.”
He also explained that he was personally very excited about Metroid Prime at the time, which helped him push through some of the stress and frustration of designing the logo.
“It was a big game. It was interesting to me. I played Metroid way back in ‘86 on the NES and so you know that was a game to definitely ‘geek out’ over.”
After Metroid Prime, Wornell would go on to create the logos for Metroid Prime 2, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Prime Hunters. And according to Wornell, these were easier to design. As for if it ever stops being rewarding to see your logo show up in big trailers or used inside of beloved games, Wornell admitted it never gets old.
“Yeah, it’s always cool. It’s always cool.”
