France 2

Background
France 2 is a public TV channel owned by France Télévisions.

(1963-1964)
Logo: On a light brown background with "Times New Roman" on it, 2 curtains, with the one on top being white and the one on the bottom being dark gray, close themselves, removing "Times New Roman" stopping when they are halfway the "2". Then, as the 2 curtains spin around the "2" disappears and arrows pointing to the corners on the screen move to the corners of the screen. The animation gets repeated 3 times. The 4th time arrows are again pointing, but they home in on each other and then move to the corners of the screen. After that, the RTF logo appears.

FX/SFX: Simple 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A very triumphant fanfare.

Availability: Extinct.

1st Logo (1964-1972)
Logo: Same as the first logo, except that the top curtain is now orange, the bottom curtain is yellow and the arrows are blue to signify their shift into color broadcasting.

FX/SFX: Same as the first logo.

Music/Sounds: Same as the first logo.

Music/Sounds Variant: Another variant with café/elevator-like music exists.

Availability: Extinct.

2nd Logo (1972-1975)
Nicknames: "The Kaleidoscope", "The Flower Pattern"

Logo: Three circles in red, green and blue) fuse into each other and form the ORTF logo. It then gets embedded in multiple colorful petals. Then we see gaping holes moving out, creating color illusions. Then we see colorful shapes forming patterns around a circle, with a red circle zooming in on its center. After that, we see green ovals and violet circles appearing on a white circle in the center of a red background. Ultimately, the text "CHAINE 2 COULEUR" appears on the center of the pattern.

FX/SFX: Really good animation.

Music/Sounds: Same as the first logo, but a bit louder.

Availability: Extinct. This ident was resurrected in 2017 commercial jingles for France 2, celebrating its 35th anniversary.

1st Logo (1975-1983)
Nicknames: "Psychedelic Electronic Pendulum", "That Weird Closedown from France"

Logo: On a psychedelic vector background, a TV antenna is formed from two white lines. The antenna then turns into the word "NTENNE" and an "A" which fly around the screen in a psychedelic manner before forming the word "ANTENNE" in white. An orange copy appears above the word "ANTENNE", flies around it, and forms the number "2". The "A" grows and slowly becomes a triangle without a bottom line, with the "2" becoming white and settling inside of it. The "2" then becomes violet and flies around the "A" as the background turns blue. The vector background returns.

Trivia: The logo was created by Peter Foldes, who created the 1956 anti-nuclear war short film A Short Vision, and was also known for pioneering in the field of computer animation with The Hunger, a 1974 short film.

FX/SFX: An early example of Scanimation.

Music/Sounds: Composed by Francois de Roubaix, we hear a loud descending pulse-wave synthesizer at the beginning, that then fades into an electronic warble with another electronic dripping sound once the antenna appears. Four ascending synth bell notes then play with a piano, then a different electronic warble, then the same synth notes and piano, but in a higher pitch. Another high electronic warble then plays, followed by the same synth/piano in a more higher pitch, then an even more higher repeat of the same 2 notes. This is followed by arpeggiating synths.

Availability: Extinct. Was used for programming announcements.

Legacy: This logo gained infamy and popularity in the logo community due to its tense music and vector-animated nature.

2nd Logo (1975-1983)
Nicknames: "The Flying People"

Logo: In a space full of planets, a red planet and approaches the viewer. Then, various men in blue uniforms fly and settle on the planet. Then we see a rising "2". As that happens, the planet flies away, unveiling the whole image, and the men start flying. They then regroup themselves above the "2" and turn around to reveal the letters of the word "ANTENNE" on their coats. The men then fly away.

Variant: A closedown variant exists where we see one of the men flying towards the others as the two is slowly unveiled, before turning around and flying away like in the normal variant

Trivia: This logo was designed by Jean-Michel Folon.

FX/SFX: Hand-drawn animation.

Music/Sounds: A melancholic oboe and horn piece composed by Michel Colombier, titled "Emmanuel".

Availability: Extinct. This was used as a startup and closedown. This ident was also resurrected in 2017 commercial jingles for France 2.

3rd Logo (1978-1980)
Logo: On a black background, a more twisted sketch of the previous logo is drawn with "A" in red and "2" in green. "ntenne" is seen after the "2" and behind it are multiple curves and lines bursting out of the logo. "presente" can be seen to the bottom right.

Variants:
 * On Heidi, the logo is smaller to make room for a curved trapezoid containing the stylized letters "rtsr". A2's logo is different than the normal one with "ntenne" in white and a written font and more detailed curves and line bursts. "presentent" can be seen underneath it and overlapping with the "rtsr" logo.
 * On Cro et Bronto, the logo appears as an in-credit logo with the curves and lines removed and simply containing "A2ntenne" with a black outline.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct. This can only be found at the beginning of some French programs from this period such as Heidi and Cro et Bronto. However, they have become increasingly hard to find after they have stopped airing on the channel.

4th Logo (1983-1990)
Logo: We see a black background with pink lighting on the top half and brown lighting on the bottom. One of the brown lights then moves to the right until it stops, and various geometrical shapes fly around it. Then some color-changing circles appear on the brown light as the shapes fly around it. As that happens, the circles separate themselves from the orbit and form an orbit of their own. Then we see a bubble as the logo transitions to a black body of water under a dusk sky. At the top we see rectangles with stripes on them, while bubbles fly around the screen. The rectangles then move to the lower part of the screen, as the sky becomes a morning sky, turning to a diagonal angle as it does. Then the screen moves away to reveal a water background, which zooms out to reveal the Antenne 2 logo.

Trivia: The sequence is intended to represent the transition from night to daytime.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: An instrumental piece consisting of oboe, drum and violin for the closedown variant. The startup is a more upbeat version of the closedown, with keyboards and drums.

Music/Sounds Variant: There is another variant with a drum and synth theme.

Availability: Extinct.

Legacy: The logo has been noted for its peaceful music and abstract artistic vision.

5th Logo (1987-1988)
Logo: We see red stripes flying by forming lines. Then we see a "2" and an "a" appear, then the "2" turns 90° and the a becomes flat.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: A synthesised song with the singer at the beginning singing "A A A2".

Availability: Extinct. This is most likely a prototype for the 5th logo.

6th Logo (1988-1990)
Logo: On a dark grey background with black stripes, a spotlight traces out a faint "2" shape in white, which greatly resembles the future 1991 BBC Two logo in design. As a "a" flies in from the right. As it approaches and rests on the "2", the screen brightens into a light grey color, although the "2" remains in grey and gains a white drop shadow.

Variant:
 * There is a startup variant that consists of the a2 logo sliding from the bottom to the center. Then a slide puts it away to reveal the same logo. Then a slide puts that one away to reveal rendered lines while the logo slides in from the left to the center. Then a slide flies by and the slide gets re-rendered revealing the logo sliding down from the top to the center. Then the process starts again from the same logo revelation onward six more times. All the time we hear an extended version of the track, though it lacks the "passionately" part.
 * There is a Christmas variant where the A gets packaged in by the 2. The theme is also shorter.
 * There is a winter variant in which a strange puppet, which appears to be an anthromorphic polar bear, hops in from the right on snowy ground, holding a sign featuring the Antenna 2 logo covered in snow. It then cuts to a close-up to him signing (which is a deep male voice) and then looking at the sign, zooming in as well.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: After a few seconds, a pop music-styled tune plays with a lady singing "A2, A2. Passionnément. A2, A2."

Availability: Extinct. This logo was also resurrected in the 2017 commercial jingle for France 2.

7th Logo (1990-1992)
Logo: On a night sky background with exploding fireworks, a blue rectangle appears and a red-yellow "2" is formed on it. Then, from above, the word "Times New Roman" appears.

Variants:
 * There is a startup variant that plays out like a sort of music video where people sing "La 2" constantly.
 * There is a 1991 variant that consists of a harp and flute theme where the components of the 2 form the 2 together.
 * There is a 1992 variant that consists of the logo zooming in while a 2 is getting beatboxed.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: A chorus.

Availability: Extinct.

1st Logo (1992-1995)
Logo: Consists of several sequences that are either fully shown or shown in half with text on the other half. First it shows a "dring" and then "Youpi", the channel's children block, with a lion at the end, with a "gr" later appearing on the side of the screen. Then it shows sequences of people with the words "we", "you" and "all". Then it shows a man with a note on the other half saying "qui?". Then it shows the news ident with the logo. Then the weather report, noted with a °C, followed by several live-action sequences. After it we see singers with on the other halves words such as "do", "si" and "la". After it a running man with only the words "publi" and "cit" shown. Then sports while the word "top" and "chrono" gets shown. After it it is followed by more live-action before devolving into more random sequences with even more random symbols (such as " "). Then later we see announcers speaking while on the other half of the screen the word "scoop" gets shown, cut in half. It then later cuts to a man jumping to obtain a key while the word "fort" gets shown on the other half. Then it devolves into even more random sequences half with text and with live-action on the other half and then shows more live-action. At the end, after a bit more of those sequences, it ends with the France 2 logo.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: A theme that includes drums, a beatbox, an accordion, an electric guitar, opera singing and an acoustic guitar.

Availability: Extinct. The logo was resurrected in the 2017 commercial jingle for France 2.

2nd Logo (1998-2002)
Logo: We see a block puzzle forming a "2", before it disassembles itself and returns to its initial position.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: A drum and violin theme.

Availability: Extinct. Was used when there was no transmission signal.

3rd Logo (1999-2000)
Nickname: "The Dancers"

Logo: We see dancers dancing with Rhythm and Movement, and at the top we Can see a "2" fading to the word "PUB", meaning that this is a Breakbumper (jingle pub)

FX/SFX: Live action from French design agency Gédéon. and Choreography done by Philippe Decouflé.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant.

Availability: Extinct, Used for break bumpers at the time.

4th Logo (2002-2006)
Logo: We see the France Télévisions logo flipping over and switching to the color of France 2.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant.

Availability: Extinct.

5th Logo (2002-2009)
Logo: We see a scene where a humorous illusion takes place. The word "publicité" with the France 2 logo beside it is on the right side of the screen.

Variant: In 2008, the logo was moved to the bottom and the text was changed to say "france 2 publicité" (with the 2 as the France 2 logo).

FX/SFX: Live action from Gédéon, the same design agency who created the 1992-1999 idents throughout.

Music/Sounds: A calm theme with a voice singing a 5-note tune. This may change slightly depending on the variant.

Availability: Same as the 3rd logo.

6th Logo (2006-2008)
Logo: We see a white square fly by, after it a large "2" becomes visible. In that one a "2" gets formed which writes "France 2 présente".

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: Violin and a xylophone noise at the end.

Music/Sounds Variant: There is a variant with wind sound

Availability: Extinct.

7th Logo (2008-2010)
Logo: We see squares with different colors flipped over. It then zooms in and ends with a square in the center forming the logo against a red background.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct.

8th Logo (2010-2011)
Logo: We see 5 differently colored light flashes set against a dark blue background. They then fuse together to form the France 2 logo while the background color changes to red.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct.

9th Logo (2009-2011?)
Logo: We see two different scenes split in half of different people going on with their daily lives. As the people meet in one location, the scenes merge into one scene.

FX/SFX: Live action.

Music/Sounds: Depends on the variant, each having a six-note jingle at the end.

Availability: Same as the 3rd and 5th logos.

10th Logo (2015-2016)
Logo: We see a red flash that cuts to a red background. It then splits into multiple squares before a flash comes by, which paints a white lining to the left of where the logo stands.

FX/SFX: A mix of CGI and traditional animation

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Extinct.

11th Logo (2016-January 28, 2018)
Logo: A red screen splits in half, unveiling the France 2 logo.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: Piano.

Music/Sounds/Variant: There is a variant which uses drum and violin instead.

Availability: Extinct.

12th Logo (January 29, 2018-)
Logo: We see a red dot growing until it turns into a red wave across the screen. Then a 2 is revealed in the sidelines.

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: Same as the 8th logo.

Availability: Current.