John Downer Productions

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

John Downer Productions is John Downer's production company, specializing in wildlife documentaries. According to their website, the company's acronym, JDP, stands for Jaw-dropping Imagery, Dynamic Storytelling, and Pioneering People.

Logo (December 3, 2000-)


Visuals: On a steel blue background, three white, rectangular boxes wipe in while gaining transparency. Simultaneously, a cut out of a dolphin is seen swimming through the second and third boxes. This is followed by three more dolphins emerging from the bottom left of the first box and both the top left and right of the second box respectively, the third of which almost passes through the third box with its tail sticking out on the bottom right. During this sequence, the bottom text "John Downer Productions" fades in. After the third dolphin freezes, within the latter box, the text "jdp" fades in. Throughout the logo, co-producers such as BBC, Discovery Channel, or Animal Planet would appear underneath it as well as the copyright info.

Variants:

  • An early version of the logo has the bottom text bigger and include "Ltd" at the end. It was shrunken later on before being cut starting 2004.
  • John Downer's name may be included with the upper text "Produced by Directed by" on top of it.
  • A YouTube variant has the company's Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts below the logo, complete with the sites' respective icons in print form.
    • Starting with the video "Lost Otter Pup in Blizzard - Will Mum Find Him In Time?", the cursive text "Subscribe here" with a curved arrow pointing downward is added to the bottom right corner of the screen.
      • Strangely, on "Polar Bear Football - Will SnowballCam survive?", the "Subscribe here" text is missing.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None or the closing theme of the program.

Availability: Thanks to its long lifespan, it was seen on numerous nature documentaries from the 2000's and 2010's as well as the company's YouTube channel.

  • The logo made its debut on the BBC wildlife special Lions - Spy in the Den and was later seen on more specials part of said series such as Elephants - Spy in the Herd and Penguins - Spy in the Huddle. It was also seen on miniseries such as Weird Nature and Earthlight, among others.
  • The YouTube channel variant was first seen on "Robotic Warthog Groomed by Mongoose".
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