American Broadcasting Company logos

American Broadcasting Company logos used at various times:

Early ABC television logos

One of the earliest logos for the ABC television network was a microphone with the letters "ABC" aligned vertically within in it (the then-current logo for the ABC radio network), and the letters T and V on either side of the microphone. (It is doubtful if the logo was used on the air, since ABC television began in 1948.) In 1948, the network was using a logo consisting of a map of the United States with the words "American Broadcasting Company" superimposed, and also used a logo designed to look like a camera lens with the capital letters "ABC" within it (this could be considered a precursor to today's "ABC Circle" logo).

In 1953, after ABC's merger with United Paramount Theaters (a former division of Paramount Pictures), a new logo featured an eagle and a circle of 13 stars surrounding the letters "ABC".

In 1957, the network introduced a new logo, known as the "ABC Circle A," consisting of the lowercase letters "abc" inside a larger lower case "a".

The ABC Circle logo

In 1961, Paul Rand designed a new logo which was introduced in the fall of 1962. This is the current "ABC Circle" logo, now used for over 40 years, of a simple circle with the lowercase letters "abc" in an ultra-modern (for its time) typeface inside. The typeface used is a simple geometric design inspired by the Bauhaus school of the 1920s; its simplicity makes it easy to duplicate, something ABC has taken advantage of many times over the years (especially before the advent of computer graphics).

Several variations of the ABC Circle logo have been used since then. In 1963, the letters "abc" were multicolored, an orange "a", a blue "b", and a green "c", to emphasize new color programming. In the 1969 and the early 1970s the logo was animated with several concentric circles in a "tunnel" effect. In 1975 an orange ABC Circle logo rose over a reflective ocean-like surface to coincide with the slogan "Welcome To A Bright New World." In 1978, the logo appeared in a starfield. In 1983, a golden ABC Circle logo appeared on a blue diagonally striped background. In 1987, the circle consisted of thin multicolored diagonal stripes. In the late 1980s until 1996, three-dimensional computer animation was used to manipulate the logo.

ABC identities through the 90s and early 2000s

In 1979, the network began using a maximalist ldentity consisting of a middle simple rainbow and classic ABC circle logo Nicknames including; STILL THE ONE!, 'abc' logo, color lasers, Still The One! music. ABC circle logo on a black background, with color lasers after the slogan "STILL THE ONE!" across turn into the late '70s logo. An pop high-heeled-twenty-four-note theme tune. The network used Cartoon for Saturday morning, (with School House Rock! short intro logo theme as eight-note theme tune), and rainbow for Weekday and Sunday programming. In 1997, the network began using a minimalist identity consisting of a small simple black and white ABC Circle logo on a yellow background, with the words "We Love TV." underneath. A new four-note theme tune to create a sound signature on par with the NBC chimes, CBS's three-note sound mark, and the Fox Fanfare was introduced at the same time, and has been updated with every TV season hereafter. Later variations of the identity used the words "America's Broadcasting Company" and "America's #1 Broadcasting Company". Later in 2002, the appearance was amended again, this time being more colorful looking and returning to full-color photos in the promos. This series would finally end in 2003, when Squares started becoming the new theme. In 2005, the circle motif returned (with streaks of light and sparkles formed using the ABC logo) with the introduction of the new "Only on ABC" slogan, but in 2006-2007, the largest change to ABC's appearance occurred.

The 2-D logo is still in use on ABC Radio, but is currently licensed to Citadel Broadcasting after the ABC Radio sale on June 12, 2007.

ABC identities in the present era

For the 2006-2007 season: ABC's appearance across all 3 platforms (entertainment, news, and sports) received a major revamp - the ABC logo used on-air and online (except in "simple" settings and on the network bug during non-sport programming) got revamped with a more modern look. In addition, Promos still used the sparkles+light streaks theme (but every promo used a different color scheme that fit in with the show; "Lost" for example always had a teal color scheme), and all ABC News programming (except for Good Morning America until October 2007) used a new animated bug. During ESPN on ABC programming, the new ABC logo would appear on the SD feed in opaque (on the HD feed however, a significantly smaller version of the opaque logo is now used). The on-air bug during primetime programs varies between the genre of the show. Dramas use a very translucent bug which is hardly visible, where sitcoms, reality, late night and daytime use a very clear, glassy and more visible bug.

On September 24, 2007 with the official launch of the 2007-2008 television season on ABC, ABC began using a redesigned logo bug on the SD and HD feeds, featuring the new glossier ABC logo which debuted alongside the new "Start Here" campaign. Another significant change was instead of the light streaks and sparkles used for the previous two years, the logo was now accompanied by a liquid water motif with splotches of liquid float past the ABC logo. This was often accompanied by a ribbon swishing around the logo (similar to the CBSpirit idents exactly twenty years earlier). In the summer of 2008, the digital logo bug on the HD feed during entertainment programming was moved to within the 4:3 safe area of the screen, in line with the other four major broadcast networks.

See also

*Circle 7 logo
*List of ABC slogans

External links

* [http://members.fortunecity.com/tvnetworks/abc/ The Evolution of ABC]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20050208164025/www.tv-ark.org.uk/international/us_abc.html TV Ark - ABC Presentation] from the Internet Archive
* [http://www.ev1.pair.com/colorTV/abc_logo.html The ABC Color Presentation Logos]