OakieDokie is on BSKY

A new PBS logo was developed in 1984 to overcome what was described as a ‘serious problem with the prior identity’: its focus on just the initials which was designed by Herb Lubalin back in 1971. The logo later devised by Chermayeff & Geismar, which would replace Lubalin’s, depicted a stylised profile of a human face that repeated three times using positive and negative space. This was said to ‘playfully’ put the ‘public’ in public television and in so doing, did away with the ‘BS’ as no one knew the meaning of it. Despite the change, a clear continuity remained, with only subtle ‘cosmetic’ changes being applied to the face and its direction. The suggestion was that the new logo could work for PBS, and at the same time be something that affiliated stations could comfortably adapt for use in establishing their own identities.