In 1981 when Bob Pittman began MTV and initiated the idea of an
around-the-clock music video television, music videos had not yet reached their
full potential as a creative outlet. The young network turned to the design
firm Manhattan Design to create a logo for them. Manhattan Design was known for
taking risks and creating experimental graphics for people in the music
industry.
The
partners who made up the leadership of Manhattan Design, Pat Gorman, Frank
Olinksy and Patti Rogoff all had backgrounds in fine arts and they were all
interested in comic book art. They were also raised in creative environments
these factors led to their unique approach to design.
When
the design began it was just a sketch of a large capital sans-serif “M” created
by Olinsky. Gorman fealt that it needed to be developed further and simply
scrawled a graffiti style “TV” across the “M” and a new iconic logo design was
created. They quickly realized that there was a huge amount of potential by
varying the design. These variations allowed for the design to take on multiple
personalities.
The
concept of a logo that was constantly changing challenged the notion that a
trademark or visual identifier needed to be static and fixed. Many believe that
a logo should never change and needed to be used in a consistent manner all the
time in order for it to maintain its effectiveness.
Early
on, it was used in ten second network identification spots. An unending stream
of variations and ideas were created and storyboards created for this allowed
for the logo to take on any face the designers wanted it to. This process
called for illustrations and designs to be created much faster than before and
pushed for much more collaboration among the designers than ever before.
This
new media and new concept changed the face of graphics design and visual
identification systems. It pushed ideas
and expanded the boundaries of design into more areas. Because of this logo,
television began to influence the way printed graphics looked and felt in terms
of color, texture and many other aspects.
Due
to this logo we now have a much more expansive ideas about what can be
accomplished and communicated through design and are able to reach many more
mediums. It created nothing short of revolution in the thinking of designers
and concepts of design.
