In 1981 Warner AmEx announced they were going to start a music television channel. Frank Olinsky, along with his team at Manhattan Design, created the MTV logo that still stands today. Together, the Manhattan Design team created a flexible innovative design. Why is this design so flexible? Over the years the ‘M’ in the logo has given MTv the opportunity to dress up or alter the logo without loosing the overall identity.
The MTv logo is a well known logo of today. Many people understand that when they see “the chunky, baby block `M’ and the dripping ‘tv’,” they recognize the logo as Music television. It has lasted more than 25 years almost unchanged. Why is this design so good? By keeping the design simple Olinsky and his team left the ‘M’ open for alteration without altering the identity itself. This flexibility has given MTv the opportunity to put whatever they want in the ‘M’, whether a pattern to match a holiday or a color to represent a genre of music. Music is always changing and with a flexible logo, it allows for minor changes. Creating company identities is a long design process and requires a lot of thought. So many things need to be considered, change in time being one of them. Manhattan Design successfully designed a logo made for change.
10 Comments
This blog makes an excellent point about importance of logos and how Mtv has created a long lasting and successful logo and how they did it. Being a Graphic Designer logos are a common project so it is good to know the aspects of a good design for a logo or any other design that needs to be be simple flexible and easy to recognize.
What a nice surprise to stumble across your blog.
Thanks for your kind words.
Do you know where I can find actual MTV logos for each year since 1981 (1981-2008). I need that for school.
does anyone know who (or which agency) designed the animated MTV ads (for MTV, broadcast on MTV) (such as the one where it looks like a jet engine and then turns into stairs, or where the logo is just hovering in a forest? thanks for your help!
please reply to rouge666 @ hot mail
mtv is mintosh
mtv icon is a unique one
d logo itself tells us
wat kinnda channel it is
and its a awesum channel for all kind of age groups
MTV U ROCKS
great writeup. thanks for including Mtv example. shows the importance of logos.
MTV ALL THE IDENTS 1981-1995
Right
the best part of mtv logo is that it can adapt to any color..1riku@gmail.com
Awesome. I agree.
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