Production logo

A production logo, vanity card, vanity plate, or vanity logo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. Production logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie or video game (an "opening logo"), or at the end of a television program or TV movie (a "closing logo"). Many production logos have become famous over the years, such as the 20th Century Fox's monument and searchlights, Paramount Pictures's mountain, Universal Studio's spinning globe, Columbia Pictures's personification of Columbia, MGM's Leo the Lion, and Walt Disney Pictures' fantasy castle. Unlike logos for most other media, production logos can take advantage of motion and synchronized sound, and almost always do.

History

In the early days of Hollywood, production logos and brands were simple and very much like their print counterparts, usually appearing on title cards and in the opening credits. The Paramount Pictures mountain hails 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. MGM and Universal were the first studios to take advantage of the new medium's possibilities, MGM first using Leo the Lion in 1924 and Universal debuting their globe around the same time. RKO Radio Pictures used their rotating globe and radio transmission tower with a Morse code beeping soundtrack as early as 1929. In the 1930s, 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 first version of Columbia's mascot used a sparkler to represent her torch, and Universal's globes could rotate.