#mtv posts

The Art of MTV - The MTV: Music Television Logo August 1, 1981-February 8, 2010 by Fred Seibert

Click here for my posts about MTV and here for Fred/Alan’s MTV work.

I've often posted here about the MTV logo, and people keep asking me about it, even all these decades later. At least, people ask about the OG logo that lasted until 2010. It’s true that you can see hundreds of example on the internet, but... there’s just something about a book. 

Here's the introduction I wrote for this book of many of my favorite M’s, I think it's adds some (more!) color to the story. 

...

The ‘M’ was the star

In a world about to explode with TV channels and noise, it had to be.

By Fred Seibert 

My job at MTV: Music Television was to make the ‘M’ the star. The question is, why?

My boss didn’t tell me to do it. My actual job title was Vice President, Program Services. Essentially, I was the original Creative Director and a co-founder. My tasks seemed straightforward: get a logo made, establish the verbal and written vocabulary, and make on-air promotional spots. 

Check. Check. Check.

So why did I reject nearly 500 preliminary logo sketches from Manhattan Design? Why did I pick the one you all remember? Why was it so damn important?

Let’s rewind. In 1981, the year we launched, the average American home had just two television channels. Really. In major markets like Los 

Angeles or New York, you might get seven primary VHS channels: three national networks and four independents. Most people ignored UHF. In some rural areas or densely packed cities, they had one channel, with reception that was snowy at best. On average, two channels.

But with satellite-distributed cable TV coming fast, the prediction was there would be 100 channels by 1984. One hundred!? Unthinkable. (No one could imagine the 50 million+ YouTube channels we have today.)

In that coming flood of video programming  MTV: Music Television wouldn’t even get sampled unless we stood out.

I felt we needed a dominant visual signpost to guide viewers to us. The musicians were important, but they’d come and go. Duran Duran and Pat Benatar might be huge now, but they’d be replaced by Michael Jackson, Nirvana, or the Backstreet Boys.

MTV had to be the constant. The channel itself had to outlast the artists.

To me, it was like the transformation in the ’60s when album covers went from utilitarian to statement pieces. Music alone wasn’t enough—the design, photography, and illustration had to stop you in your tracks. Bob Pittman, my boss, put it perfectly:

“Fred, people don’t buy music. They buy packages.”

The Beatles may have lit the match, but the fire spread fast, and I wanted MTV to burn just as brightly.

What to do?

After hundreds of failed attempts, Manhattan Design walked in with that now-iconic giant ‘M’ with a graffiti-inspired ‘TV’ scrawled over it.

Yes! 

My promo mentor Dale Pon had a mantra: “Designs need to dominate the space.”

The ‘M’ did just that—it filled every inch of those old 4x3 TV screens like it owned the room.

From there, my creative partner Alan Goodman and I reached out to young, independent animators around the world. They’d grown up not just with rock’n’roll, but with the album art that gave the music its emotional packaging. We gave them a simple rule: Make sure the ‘M’ is center of attention.

They delivered. Did they ever.

MTV: Music Television bombarded the world with A Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, Michael Jackson, Joan Jett, David Bowie, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Aerosmith, Radiohead, Counting Crows, Sheryl Crow, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Eminem, Linkin Park, Blink-182, Mandy Moore...

Many of those artists are now forgotten, dismissed, or listened to only through the fog of nostalgia. And once MTV dropped “Music Television” for "Jersey Shore," "Ridiculousness," and a gutted version of the logo, something got lost. Visit the MTV Store today—the only T-shirts that sell carry the classic logos designed by Pat Gorman, Frank Olinsky, and Patti Rogoff of Manhattan Design.

The artists came and went.

But MTV: Music Television? 

MTV hit the world with more glorious M’s than you could shake a stick at.