United Learning

1st Logo (Early 1980s-1997)


Nickname: "The Flying Boxes"

Logo: On a black background, we see white outlined boxes (without a picture) flying from the bottom right to the middle left of the screen. As the boxes come together, a picture of abstract flowers (composed of orange squares with black outlining) and a flash appear at the outlining. The text "UNITED LEARNING" appears next to the box. The text then "shines" left to right.

Closing Variant: A closing logo was used at the end of most tapes with the animation reversed in order: The text shines, the logo flashes and flies off-screen, turning into the outlined boxes like the opening.

FX/SFX: Typical early '80s animation.

Music/Sounds: An electronic jingle (possibly composed on a modular synthesizer) with four long low notes in the background, with two series of three electronic beeps (although most tapes abridge it to one series) during the first two low notes, and eight ascending beeps during the last two low notes. The closing version uses a different 11-note jingle in the same style.

Music/Sounds Variant: A silent version exists on Mammals (1993).

Availability: Seen on tapes from the period, such as The Underground Railroad: The Escape from Slavery. Can also be found on assorted videos on the Discovery Education website—in fact, the website was even originally called "United Streaming," prior to Discovery Communications buying it and renaming it to its current name.

2nd Logo (1997-Early 2000s)


Logo: On a background featuring three swirling beams of light, three interlocking circles move onto the screen, and towards the left. A blue square appears, encasing the interlocking circles while the text "united learning" and "YOUR EDUCATIONAL PARTNER FOR A CHANGING WORLD" fades in towards the right. Two URLs fade in below.

FX/SFX: The circles and the text appearing, along with the background. A step up from the previous logo.

Music/Sounds: A synth-flute theme with percussion that loops several times, with synthesized horns as the URLs appear.

Availability: Like before, seen primarily on tapes from the period. More commonly can be found on Discovery Education.