Click here for my posts about MTV and here for Fred/Alan’s MTV work.
Video is kinetic. Why should video logos stand still?
The mutating MTV logo, 1981, designed by Manhattan Design, New York
I was the first Creative Director of MTV: Music Television (in later years, known as a co-founder), joining the parent company (then called Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment Company) May 5, 1980. My boss, Bob Pittman asked me to oversee all of the original production and programming for the fledging cable television channel (who had even heard of cable TV as anything other than a service for rural audiences?) though I’d never seen a television camera.
The first job? Establish a vocabulary, “voice,” and try and figure out “the thing,” whatever that would be, that was truly special about MTV beyond the fact that we had a lot of music. The first move? Hire my oldest and best friends, Alan Goodman and Frank Olinsky.
In my MTV office, 1981. Photo by Alan Goodman
Alan was a writer who I met producing music and promos in college radio and then he went off to film school; we met working and became friends and partners along the way. A perfect combination to collaborate at a music television channel.
I knew Frank for a lot longer. We met on a dirt hill at my parents’ new house when I was four years old. He was the older brother I never had, he was five. His parents were artists and Frank was showing his talent early. And when we became teenagers, our mutual love of pop and rock had him introducing me to everyone from The Monkees to the Mothers of Invention. Another quintessential colleague. His new Manhattan Design studio was tapped to design our logo and one year and 500 rejected designs later they hit the jackpot. More on that story here.
There are a number of other posts about the MTV logo here. Or, you can read more about my further adventures with MTV here or at The Fred/Alan Archive.
Click here for my posts about MTV and here for Fred/Alan’s MTV work.