The Lost PBS Logo Animations by Lubalin, Smith, Carnase, Inc, and Animated by Edstan Studios, Recreated by Jonathan Katav
On day 18, the 3rd April 2018, the website Lubalin 100 — 100 Years of Herb Lubalin 1918-2018, 100 Days — celebrated the discovery of some long lost PBS logo animations, that were originally animated sometime after 1971, by having all 3 recreated.
Lubalin 100 is a project of the Herb Lubalin Study Center to celebrate Lubalin’s centenary, directed by Annabel Brandon.
This whole journey that Lubalin 100 has taken is absolutely fascinating, and is obviously an important digital record, and celebration, of graphic design and typographic history.
These original PBS logo animations were produced and created by the Lawrence K Grossman Agency, with Lubalin, Smith, Carnase, Inc. (their beautiful company logo is below, found on the Lubalin Center’s Flickr account.), and were animated by Edstan Studios.
The 3 PBS Station ID Animations
Lubalin 100 decided to recreate these lost PBS logo animations, 3 in total, based on the individual keyframes in the image below.
Each column of key lines represents one complete animation:
Jonathan Katav, a current Cooper Union student, was tasked with recreating these PBS animations, whilst another Cooper Union Student, Alex Tomlinson, created the new music to accompany the new animations.
The newly created PBS logo animation videos are live on Vimeo; I’ve also embedded them here below:
PBS Logo Animation / Station ID Animation from Lubalin Center on Vimeo.
PBS We Belong promo from Lubalin Center on Vimeo.
Bonus: The Making of the PBS Logo
Lubalin 1o0 also has a fantastic article on The Making of the PBS Logo, featured on Day 7, 23rd March 2018.
About: The Herb Lubalin Study Centre of Design and Typography
Established in 1984, the Study Center was created in order to preserve an unprecedented resource, Herb Lubalin’s vast collection of work. Its goal was to provide the design community with a means to honor Lubalin, and to study his innovative work.
Herb Lubalin (1918–1981) is best known for his wildly illustrative typography and his groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros, and Fact. The Study Center’s core collection includes an extensive archive of his work, including promotional, editorial and advertising design, typeface designs, posters, logos, and other other materials dating from 1950 to 1980.
The Study Center is located at The Cooper Union 41 Cooper Square, Room LL119, New York.