The company was formed after Meledandri left as president of [[20th Century Fox Animation]] and [[Blue Sky Studios]] in early 2007. While at those companies, he supervised or executive-produced movies including the first two ''Ice Age'' films, ''Robots'', and ''Horton Hears a Who!''. After he left, a deal was announced positioning Illumination as Universal's family entertainment arm that would produce one to two films a year starting in 2010. During the summer the following year, Illumination acquired the animation department of the French animation and visual effects studio Mac Guff, and formed Illumination Mac Guff (now Illumination Studios Paris).
The studio is responsible for the ''Despicable Me'', ''The Secret Life of Pets'' and ''Sing'' franchises, and the movies ''Hop'', ''The Lorax'', and ''The Grinch'', and the upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie (In association with Nintendo Pictures). The Minions from the first title are the studio's mascots.
===(July 9, 2010-)===
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'''Nicknames:''' "Minions"
'''Nicknames:''' "Minions", "Scared Minion", "Bunny Minion", "Crushed Minion", "Triumphant Minions", "Singing Minions", "Scared Minion II", "Excited Minion", "Singing Minions II", "Triumphant Minions II", "Minion + Snowball", "Scared Minion III", "Singing Minions III", "Crazy Minion"
* '''Despicable Me:''' "Scared Minion"
* '''Hop:''' "Bunny Minion"
* '''The Lorax:''' "Crushed Minion"
* '''Minions:''' "Triumphant Minions", "Singing Minions"
* '''The Secret Life of Pets (prototype):''' "Scared Minion II"
* '''The Secret Life of Pets:''' "Excited Minion"
* '''Sing:''' "Singing Minions II", "Triumphant Minions II"
* '''The Grinch:''' "Minion + Snowball"
* '''The Grinch (trailers):''' "Scared Minion III"
* '''Sing 2:''' "Singing Minions III"
* '''Minions: The Rise of Gru:''' "Crazy Minion"
'''Logo:''' On a dark background with a reflective floor, a large stacked text reading "{{color|silver|'''ILLUMINATION''' ENTERTAINMENT}}" appears (written in Futura Condensed). Minions appear below the text (usually Bob or Stuart) and get up to different things, which vary:
* '''The Dog Days of Winter''': Kevin, Stuart and Bob can be seen in front of a small gingerbread house with the text being seen on top of it while they stand in front of a blizzard wearing {{color|red}} and {{color|white}} scarves and shivering. The camera slightly shakes as the area around them rumbles, slightly startling Bob. It happens again, only stronger, which causes Bob to almost be swept away by the snow as Kevin pulls him back. They stand there for a bit as the area shakes once more, this time causing all of them to float and spin around the house. The camera then zooms back to reveal that the area and the Minions are actually part of a snowglobe being shaken by the young Grinch from his self-titled movie.
* '''Minion Scouts''': On a dark, starry night background, the top of the text can be seen at the bottom of the screen, with an {{color|orange}} glow. A wooden platform held by two strings lowers, holding Kevin, Bob and Stuart, who are ready to roast some marshmallows on the glowing text. Kevin and Stuart pull out two sticks with four marshmallows on each one, but Bob pulls out a giant stick with a huge jumble of marshmallows curled up in a ball as the Minions look in surprise. Kevin then roasts his marshmallows happily while Stuart roasts with a straight face. The camera zooms out and reveals the text, which has a glowing top and a more metallic center and bottom as Bob says the company name in a somewhat excited manner.
* '''Norman Television''': This is the first ever variant without any Minions. On the normal background (albeit with the letters on the ground instead of floating in the air like the normal logo), Chloe the Cat from ''The Secret Life of Pets'' comes in from the right and sees a {{color|green}} feather next to one of the letters as its edge causes the feather to be stuck. She then tries to take it off nicely, before cutting to a montage of her trying to take it off in several aggressive manners before she pushes the letter forward until it eventually topples, freeing the feather as she looks at it in surprise. The camera then zooms out and reveals another letter on the right with a {{color|purple}} feather stuck on it, which Chloe then spots and decides to leave the green one to try and take off. The camera zooms out again, revealing the letters to be the "I" and "N", with the "I", being made of glass-like material, being broken due to the fall.
*'''Training Wheels''': Carl can be seen standing on a bicycle in a dark room. He then sighs and cracks his fingers before starting to pedal the bike, which powers up some sort of electric machine that powers a huge lightbulb off-screen. We then cut to a wide shot of it, revealing several other Minions standing around the bulb which has "Illumination" in a scripted-style font being formed by the bulb's filament. As it lights up, the Minions gasp in admiration as one of them says the company name in that manner.
*'''Love at First Sight''': On a {{color|lightgreen|light green}} background, Miss Crawly from ''Sing'' can be seen pushing various letters that form the text in an somewhat exasperated, but mostly tired manner, starting with the "N", as the camera angles change between every shot. After she pushes the "I" towards it's "place", her work is finally finished, and she slowly walks across the text, which, in a far shot, she misspelled as "LILI MOUNTAIN".
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'''Other Variants:'''
* Some trailers lack the minions, such as the ''Minions'' and ''Sing'' trailers. Also seen on video games based on Illumination films. This version is also still.
* Starting with ''Sing'', the name is three-dimensional.
** On ''Minions: The Rise of Gru'', the logo fades out.
'''FX/SFX:''' The minions and the text, which varies by film or short. Animated by Illumination themselves.
'''Music/Sounds:''' Just the minions (voiced by Pierre Coffin) making noises or saying/singing the company name. On the ''Despicable Me'' variant, a loud, bombastic three-note fanfare is heard as the logo appears, kinda sounding like the [[Viacom (1952-2006)|Viacom]] "Wigga-Wigga" logo. Composed by Heitor Pereira.
*There used to be a version of the ''Despicable Me'' variant on the company's website that removes the footstep sound effects from the Minion, the fanfare sounds a little different and is louder and a little more bombastic, and the sounds when the Minion falls and crawls off-screen are different. Stuart's sounds are still the same, though.
*On ''Despicable Me 3'', ''How to Draw a Minion'' and ''Minions: The Rise of Gru'', the opening theme plays over the logo, while the minions talk and the sound effects play. For the third title, the opening theme is heard without the sound effects.
*On the ''Norman Television'' variant on(for ''Minions and More 1''), a rock tune is heard.
'''Availability:''' Current and common. Seen on all of the company's films.
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