Draft:PBS (Graphics Packages)

This page is about graphics packages used by PBS. For the ID's on the programs themselves, see Public Broadcasting Service.

1st Graphics Package (1987-1988)

Examples from member stations

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2nd Graphics Package (1988-1989)

Examples from member stations

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3rd Graphics Package (1989-January 3, 1993)

Designer: LePrevost Corporation

Creative Director: John C. LePrevost

Animation: Pacific Data Images

Hardware: Silicon Graphics 4D/25 TG

Examples from member stations

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4th Graphics Package (January 4, 1993-July 20, 1995)

Designer: Telezign

Hardware: Quantel Paintbox

Examples from member stations

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5th Graphics Package (July 21, 1995-1998)

Designer: PMcD Design

Creative Director: Patrick McDonough

Animation: Tape House Digital

Lead Artist: Patrick Inhofer, Michel Suissa

Hardware: Grass Valley Group Kadenza, Silicon Graphics Onyx RE2

ID

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Logo: Dark blue lights can be seen swirling and moving around over a blue aurora background. The PBS logo, seen in a similar way to the 3rd logo, sits over the lights. The logo is colored light blue with a slight tint of teal, it and the text are metallic and the logo reflects the aurora and the lights moving around.

Technique: 90s computer effects.

Music/Sounds:

• Chris Murney, the same announcer as the previous logo, says "You are watching PBS, viewer-supported public television."
• Early on, a different male announcer says, "This is PBS, your source of quality programming on public television."

Availability: Extinct. This was used between programs on PBS's satellite feed.

Legacy: This logo was a surprise discovery, largely because home recordings from the PBS satellite feed are very rare. A more recent discovery is that everything was done with dissolves in the early years of PBS Express on Schedule X.

Graphics

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Logo: One of seven genre-based logos, which would form the basis for the 1996 PBS logo:

• Arts and Entertainment: On a black screen, half of a blue vase painting obscures the left half, while a metronome ticks in the right half. As the metronome exits stage right, a modern dancer, from the intro sequence to Dancing, appears performing from behind the painting, and then framed footage of Derek Jacobi from I, Claudius also appears from behind the painting as an artist's palette appears from above, then a music bar from below, which touches the palette. The scene cuts to a yellow background, with a framed music bar with tap dance shoes on top and a brass trumpet in the upper-left-hand corner, and a framed portrait of an opera singer with the writing of a portion of T.S. Eliot's "Little Gidding" upside-down in the upper-right-hand corner. The opera singer is replaced by a fingerprint as a framed video of Charleston dancers appears from the left and settles in the lower-left-hand corner. Finally, the fingerprint is replaced by a portion of the opening to Mystery!, while the trumpet is replaced by a smoking pipe. On the short version, the first three seconds are cut off, and the second section is removed entirely. On local stations, either the P-Head or a custom graphic used by the station may fade in below the frame with Jacobi inside it and to the right of the music bar.
• Nature: A water drop hits a body of water, then a frame showing the same animation and more flips forward against a white background as a white feather floats down, a wooden rectangle appears from the left to settle in left-center, and a video of dolphins is shown before fading to blue. The scene cuts to a nest being lifted, which then appears in a frame against a black background with the same wooden rectangle in the center and footage of wildlife playing on either side. On the short version, only the first two shots are used.
• Explore: At the top of the screen is a video of an approaching train, with a wooden frame and a wooden globe in the upper-left-hand corner. At the bottom is a variety of bluish and greenish rectangles in which the word "explore" appears. Between these two portions of the screen is a canoe. The next screen to be shown includes a teal rectangle with black slowly creeping into it, with video of a hot air balloon to the left and a cartography drawing, in teal on white, to the right. A framed picture of sun rays moves downward, and a framed video of a book's pages being turned moves towards the right, as a flashlight appears briefly before flashing out. Then, a black rectangle appears to the left, with footage of kayakers going along a river to the right. Finally, the footage is put inside a rectangle in the center going up to a framed teal picture. To the right is an empty kayak. A spinning globe goes upwards to the right. On the short version, only the second and fourth screens are used. On local stations, either the P-Head or a custom graphic used by the station may appear in the frame of the book's pages being turned and to the left from behind the footage of the kayakers.
• Science: An x-rayed hand in blue appears to the left and moves to a frame in the lower-right-hand corner of a screen with a multi-colored but predominantly white background. The word "SCIENCE" appears above that frame as another frame, with a see-through video, moves downward. In the lower-left-hand corner of the screen, a ruler spins on a red background as the Moon fades in above. Next, on a green and yellow screen, a black machine moves towards the camera. Finally, a framed video of an astronaut zooms out to the upper-left-hand corner of the same background as the earlier screen, with a black stripe in the lower-left-hand corner and footage of Albert Einstein to the right. On the short version, only the first two shots are used.
• Depth, Dialogue, Discussion: Against a white background, a red frame, a framed teleprompter from the October 17, 1994 edition of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and a microphone appear. Black and white footage is overlaid over the teleprompter frame as the same spinning globe from Explore appears from the right and the background darkens and merges with a camera with four flashes. In the lens of the camera is a clock to the right with blue lighting. A windowsill appears from the top, framing footage of an anchorman delivering his report. On the short version, the bumper begins just before the four flashes. On local stations, the P-Head may appear in the windowsill, and a custom graphic used by the station may appear in the lower-right-hand corner.
• Do-It-Yourself: Against a light yellow background with footage from The French Chef playing behind, a brush leaves a yellow paint streak on the left, while the upper-right-hand corner shows a framed animation of a carrot being prepared, and the lower-right-hand corner shows some clay being molded into a pot. Next, a framed animation of scissors snipping appears, with a fork and spoon to the right and some silver circular parts to the left. The same silver circular parts, enlarged, appear along a darker yellow rectangle to the left along with two squares, one resembling marble and the other resembling a shadow with "do it yourself" along the top edge, in the center and a framed wrench animation in the right. The marble square opens to reveal footage of someone drilling into wood. Finally, seven frames appear on the screen, showing the wrench, a hammer, string, a thimble, and footage of someone working with a plant, and sometimes nothing but solid color. On the short version, part of the second and fourth shots, as well as all of the third shot, are removed.
• Biography/Storyteller: Against a mahogany background with black markings, a framed front page of the New York Times depicting the lunar landing swings in from the left and is then shown from a distance, with an animated baseball and American flag in the foreground. Next, we pan across a picture of Union soldiers, with a framed red picture and an animated cannon in the lower-left-hand corner and a picture of Abraham Lincoln to the right. A red stripe appears in the center, with the initial animation framed, but this time with a glove catching the baseball. Black and white newsreel footage appears to the left. Finally, video footage showing a wheel appears to the left, with a Dorothea Lange photograph to the right as framed footage of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech moves towards the right. On the short version, only the last two shots are used. On local stations, either the P-Head or a custom graphic used by the station may appear above the framed "I Have a Dream" footage.

Trivia: Stations known to have used this branding on their IDs and/or promo tags include Kentucky Educational Television, KERA, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Public TV for East Tennessee, Vermont ETV, WITF, WNET, WQED, and WVIZ.

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation and compositing effects.

Music/Sounds: Differs based on the ID.

• Arts and Entertainment: A rhythmic tune followed by an Oriental-esque woodwind flourish. A classical guitar is strummed in a descending fashion as a soprano starts singing. Finally, a jazzy-sounding strings tune can be heard.
• Nature: An echoing high-pitched piano tune.
• Explore: A train whistle, overlapping a quick, somewhat dissonant-sounding piano tune, followed by tribal chanting backed by strings.
• Science: A choir note held for several seconds, with a new age keyboard tune in the background.
• Depth, Dialogue, Discussion: A dramatic tune with crosstalk at the start and a brass note near the end. On the PBS satellite feed, a voiceover at the start (same as in the ID) says, "When you want the whole story and all of the angles, turn to PBS."
• Do-It-Yourself: A pizzicato tune.
• Biography/Storyteller: A new age choir and strings tune. In the second half, applause can be heard, and MLK declares as part of his "I Have a Dream" speech, "Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain in Tennessee!"

Availability: Extinct. Can be seen on Vimeo, oddly enough under the name "PBS 2000". Known to have appeared before programs on WSJK/WKOP and the Schedule X satellite feed, and after programs on WNET.

Blue background

Logo: TBA

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation and compositing effects.

Music/Sounds: A peaceful brass tune with a few English horn and violin riffs thrown in.

Availability: Extinct.

Red background

Logo: TBA

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation and compositing effects.

Music/Sounds: An African-style new age tune with flutes, cellos, a choir and a piano.

Availability: Extinct.

Yellow background

Logo: TBA

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation and compositing effects.

Music/Sounds: A piano/guitar tune with bongo drums beating in the background.

Availability: Extinct.

Examples from member stations

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6th Graphics Package (1998-2000)

Designer: Lee Hunt Associates

Creative Director: Bob English

Executive Producer: Jane Potenzo

Animation: Manhattan Transfer/Edit

Lead Artist: Kieran Walsh

Hardware: Silicon Graphics Indigo2 IMPACT or Octane

ID A

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Logo: Against a computer-animated green sky background, the PBS circle zooms in in the center as acrobats doing various tricks appear around it.

Technique: Same as the 1998 PBS logo.

Music/Sounds: A rearrangement of the 1998 PBS logo's theme.

Availability: Extinct.

ID B

Logo: Against a computer-animated green sky background, a kaleidoscope consisting of several humans holding placards is zoomed in on, with the PBS circle in the center. The circle briefly fades out before fading back in, and the placards alternate between a random program's title card and a still from the same program throughout.

Technique: Same as the 1998 PBS logo.

Music/Sounds: A rearrangement of the 1998 PBS logo's theme.

Availability: Extinct. Was seen on a WXEL recording from June 1999.

Coming Up Next A

Logo: Against a computer-animated green sky background, one person passes to another a placard with "Next" on it, which fades to a clip from the next program. Next to the second person is a third person already holding a different placard, on which the program's title fades in.

Technique: Same as the 1998 PBS logo.

Music/Sounds: A guitar rearrangement of the 1998 PBS logo's theme.

Availability: Extinct.

Examples from member stations

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7th Graphics Package (2000-2002)

Designer: Lee Hunt Associates

Creative Director: Bob English

Executive Producer: Jane Potenzo

Animation: Lee Hunt Associates

Lead Artist: Jean Brennan

Examples from member stations

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8th Graphics Package (2002-Fall 2022)

Designer: PMcD Design

Creative Director: Patrick McDonough

Examples from member stations

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9th Graphics Package (September 27, 2009-2022)

Designer: EyeballNYC

Creative director: Limore Shur

Executive producer: Ben Spivak

Director: Jory Hull

Examples from member stations

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10th Graphics Package (2019- )

Designer: Lippincott

Creative Director: Connie Birdsall

Prominent colors

#2638C4 (PBS blue)
#0A145A (navy blue)
#0F1E8C (medium blue)
#FFFFFF (white)
#48D3CD (teal)
#FFCF00 (yellow)
#FE704E (coral)

Examples from member stations

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