Valve Corporation

Background

Valve Corporation, also known as Valve Software, is an American video game developer and distributor that was founded in 1996 in Bellevue, Washington by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. They are best known for their 1998 debut product Half-Life and its sequels, the Source engine used for production of their games, and the Steam digital distribution platform. They are also known for the Counter-Strike series, the Team Fortress series, the Left 4 Dead series, and the Portal series.

Contents

1st Logo (1998)	2nd Logo (Open Your Eyes) (November 19, 1998-June 1, 2006)	3rd Logo (Open Your Mind) (October 10, 2007-)	4th Logo (VR variant) (April 5, 2016)	5th Logo (November 28, 2018-March 1, 2022)	6th Logo (VR variant) (March 23, 2020)

1st Logo (1998)

Visuals: The camera zooms in over the exterior of a big dark gray building (sort of like a jail or factory), and goes through one of the windows. There is a shirtless bald man wearing long pants (mrvalve.mdl) getting ready to pull a lever that starts up a letterpress-esque machine. He puts his profile on the base and when the press (which has the Valve logo on it) goes over his head, it plants a dark red valve (spiggot.mdl) on the side of his head. He gets up, strangely without any ache or pain whatsoever as if nothing happened.

Technique: 3D animation rendered in GoldSrc.

Audio: A portion of the ambient/trip-hop track "Hazardous Environments", composed by Kelly Bailey for the company's first video game, Half-Life.

Availability: It was only used as a tech demo for the GoldSrc engine.

2nd Logo (Open Your Eyes) (November 19, 1998-June 1, 2006)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a fading-in sepia tone picture of a young man with black slick back hair with a goatee looking at the camera with a red valve sticking out of his left eye. After the picture fades in, an orange box outline fades in the bottom right corner of the picture, containing the word "VALVE" where the "E" is a superscript. Both the picture and the text then fade out slightly faster than the speed they faded in.

Trivia:

The logo itself was designed by Gabe Newell and Ray Ueno.
The man in the picture was a former Valve employee (unconfirmed, possibly Mike Harrington).
Both this picture and the one used in the next logo were taken between 1995 and 1996.
The concept behind this logo was "Open Your Eyes".

Variants:

There is a variant where the picture is zoomed in to fit the screen.
Starting in 2004 with the release of Half-Life 2, the color of this logo has been toned down from its original sepia, the fade-in and fade-out are smoother, trembling effects are added to the photo and copyright stamps follow the fade-out.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: Similarly to before, a fragment of "Hazardous Environments" plays.

Availability:

Seen on the original CD versions of Half-Life and Counter-Strike, as well as the Steam version of the former title as of the 25th Anniversary Update.
The color down-toned variant is seen on the original Half-Life 2.
Steam versions of Half-Life 2 use the next logo, while Steam versions of Half-Life (before the 25th Anniversary Update) and Counter-Strike have no logo at all.
It can also be seen on the Xbox versions of Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, and Codename Gordon.
This logo was going to be used in Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (as evidenced by this logo's AVI file inside the game's directory), but ended up not being used for an undisclosed reason.

3rd Logo (Open Your Mind) (October 10, 2007-)

Visuals: On a black background, there is a fading-in sepia tone picture of a man's bald head (with most of his head and face silhouetted by darkness) with a red valve sticking out of it. Similar to the previous logo, after the picture fades in, the Valve logo fades in at the bottom left corner of the picture. Both the picture and the text then fade out slightly faster than the speed they faded in. There are more trembling effects than in the last logo throughout.

Trivia:

The man in the picture was randomly picked off of the street to pose for this picture. His name was never verified.
The concept behind this logo was "Open Your Mind".
Both this picture and the one used in the previous logo was used on Valve's website as early as 1998.

Variants:

Like the previous logo, a variant exists where the picture of the man is zoomed in to fit the screen.
On 64-bit versions of Team Fortress 2, the Valve logo fades in with the picture rather than fading in a few seconds after.
On the Counter-Strike: Global Offense beta, Dota 2, and the Steam version of Portal 2 (after the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC release in May 2012), the man in the picture (slightly more live-actioned) briefly turns his head towards the camera near the end of the logo before cutting back to normal. The picture also fades in and fades out at the same speed. In addition, the Valve print logo (with the box outline and the letters now in a tan color) doesn't fade into the picture or fade out with the picture, it instead fades in and out (via a "wipe" effect) by itself after the picture fades out.
On the Free to Play movie, the "Turning Head" variant is cut to the point where the Valve logo fades in and out.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: Same as before.

Audio Variants: On the turning variant, the music is edited, including other sections of the song.

Availability: Seen on most of the Valve games from The Orange Box onward. The "turning head" variant appears on the aforementioned games above.

4th Logo (VR variant) (April 5, 2016)

Visuals: The logo is set in a room filled with red valves. The Valve logo is situated in front of them, in white and 3D. Everything that happens involves the player looking around in a VR headset.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Eerie factory sounds, mixed with the same fragments of "Hazardous Environments" from the previous logos.

Availability: Seen on The Lab. It is not seen on Half-Life: Alyx, instead being replaced with the sixth logo.

5th Logo (November 28, 2018-March 1, 2022)

Visuals: It starts off with rapidly flashing footage of many Valve games, which zoom out in a box on a black background. The box glows and stretches horizontally as letters of the "VALVE" text fly towards it. The footage fades to white and the glow effect fades out. The logo transitions to the opening of the game.

Variant: On Aperture Desk Job, the logo is still.

Technique: Live action and computer animation.

Audio: The opening theme of the game.

Availability: It made its first appearance on Artifact, and also appeared on Aperture Desk Job.

6th Logo (VR variant) (March 23, 2020)

Visuals: Similar concept to the third logo, now in 3D, taking place in a dark room. a bald man similarly to the third logo fades in, however, he is now in 3D and in a darker environment. The Valve logo is also shown, this time being completely filled in with red. The man slowly turns his head as the logo fades out.

Trivia: The guy can be viewed as a model in the HLMV (Half-Life Model Viewer), included with Source SDK and Source Filmmaker software. The man's face can be seen, showing whited out eyes. This was likely done due to his face not being seen normally from the logo's angle

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The theme from the third logo.

Availability: It appears on Half-Life: Alyx. It is unknown if it will be shown on newer VR games from Valve.