Research into the Production logos

·   A production logo, is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce and to determine the production company and the distributor of a television show or film.

·   Production logos are usually seen at the beginning of a movie or video game, or at the end of a television program or TV movie.

·   Many production logos have become famous over the years, such as; the 20th Century Fox's monument, searchlights, Paramount Pictures' mountain, Universal Pictures', Warner Bros.’, Columbia Pictures' etc. Unlike logos for most other media, production logos can take advantage of motion and synchronized sound, and almost always do

·   Production logos and brands used to be simple, appearing on title cards and in the opening credits.

·   For example, The Paramount Pictures mountain came from this era and originally featured no special effects. As the studios grew, more effort was put into their identities, and motion and sound began to be used. Twentieth Century Pictures introduced their futuristic "tower" logo, which had moving searchlights; it was carried over when they merged with Fox Film Corporation and became 20th Century Fox.

·    The advent of television in the 1950s also opened the door to ‘Cel animation’ in production logos. Most studios had used cels for their animation departments' logos, so the demand for animation on TV made more effects available for less money. TV itself started using logos on its programming: Desilu, Mark VII Productions and Revue Studios all had distinctive logotypes by the end of the decade (Desilu's and Revue's were animated). By 1976, all the major studios except Universal had switched their logos over to cel animation.

·    In the 1980s a return to the older style of logos came around. Warner Bros, one of the first studios to switch to a cel-animated abstract logo, brought back their WB shield logo as a matte painting in 1984. TV logos began switching from cels and 2D computer graphics to 3D computer graphics.

·   By 2007, almost all production logos become produced/ edited on computers.

Example of how Walt Disney Pictures introduction logo has changed over time: