25 years ago…
August 1st, 2006
I was sitting in my best friend Kim’s basement, our heads glued to the tv, watching… MTV. Did we know what MTV was? No. But damnit, with all the hype we were going to watch and find out. I don’t know about Kim, but I was mesmerized. It’s a good thing we didn’t have cable at our house, because I would’ve been that spiral-eyed tv junkie, watching 24 hours a day. I wanted my MTV. I loved the moon man. I wanted to win John Cougar’s Little Pink House contest. Aaaahhh, to be 10 again…
Only later, in college, did I learn learn some random design trivia about the early days of MTV. Before they were flush with cash. Before Genevieve Gorder worked there. That moon man? Free stock from NASA. Yep, it’s free folks — mosey on over there and pick yourself up some space shots. And that logo? One of the first, and most successful, non-static logos. Have you seen what they do with that thing? What don’t they do?! It changes colors, it walks, it does all of the things that logos aren’t supposed to do — and yet somehow we dumb consumers still know it’s the MTV logo. Freakin’ brilliant.
As far as logo design goes, I admire Paul Rand, but I *heart* that goofy old MTV logo.
Entry Filed under: design
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