AVID:About

AVID Sans

We are the Audiovisual Identity Database, an archive for on-screen logos and motion graphics. Since 2007, our wiki's purpose has been to document trends, history, and other aspects of this form of visual design, from around the world and spanning numerous decades. We preserve many forms of audiovisual identity, and we have over 10,000 articles in our database.

What's a logo?
According to Michael Evamy's "Logo", a logo is one of the most powerful resources which brands have to attract attention from a global public rushed lives. They're identity marks designed to be easily recognized. Most people consider logos to be symbols containing any type of abstract or pictorial meaning, like the paramountain or Walt Disney's castle. Otherwise, a logo can also be a combination of pictorial elements, like HBO or 3M. In fact, a logo is defined as: a "unitary typographic element". Evamy points that "It can be a new name and slogan, the development of a new "brand architecture", a number of visual and corporate brands (...)".

Okay, so what kind of "logos", or audiovisual identity does AVID preserve?
AVID is a collaborative database that archives on-screen logos, vanity cards, idents, bumpers, and other related media such as warning screens, bootscreens and trailer snipes. We invite anyone to contribute and share their finds to the site.

So, why does this wiki exist?
There's a lot of the historical TV and cinema information which needs to be preserved. We preserve those corporate idents from becoming lost to time or plastering here. We provide text descriptions of its animation as well as having it in video and image form. We can also be a reference for any graphic designer, historian, industrial designer, architects and publicists.

But wait... Why is this wiki grouped by the method of transmission of the logo and not, for example, by colors or shapes?
Our wiki is first of all grouped in general by the type of transmission of the logo, if it was designed to be broadcast on TV or displayed on cinema. Then, on every section, we group the logos by the mother company (e.g., National Amusements owns Paramount Global), so those logos will be under the banner "National Amusements"). Then every logo company is listed by country.

And why do most of your logo articles not have the name of the logo designer?
Many marketing products in the film industry come from old ancient designs executed by anonymous designers who thought it won't be convenient to put their name or signature on the design. Today, the figure of exclusive designer like once were Saul Bass or José Cruz Novillo tends not to exist. Usually are large companies, working in the hundreds, if not thousands, of designers, and who knows if the logo itself was made by the top designer themselves or the third draftsman in the western sector of the company. In these cases we usually include the consultant who designed, given this information is available on the Internet. Others are so rare that we cannot know for sure who designed them, and we can only provide vague speculation.

Recommended bibliography

 * EVAMY, Michael, "Logo", Laurence King Publishing, New York, 2007
 * BASSAT, Luis, "El libro rojo de las marcas", Random House, Barcelona, 2006