VID

Background
"Vzglyad i Drugiye" (translation: Outlook and Others) was founded in 1987 by co-founders of the Vzglyad (Glance) TV program: Vlad Listyev, Alexander Lyubimov, Andrey Razbash, and others. Listyev wanted to use a strange symbol as the company's symbol, and his wife offered to try the death mask of Taoist philosopher Guo Xiang with a three-footed toad on its head in the Museum of Eastern Culture. When the museum forbade using it as a logo, Listyev modified it with CGI (and led to some...unique results). Tragedy struck in March 1995 when, not long after becoming head of the ORT network (now Channel One), Listyev was mysteriously shot dead in his apartment. To this day, the murderers have never been found or identified. For a whole day, ORT and many other Russian channels went off the air and only displayed a photo of him with the text "Vladislav Listyev has been killed". In October 2017, in order to start shifting from television to digital media, VID rebranded itself to VIDgital (ВИDgital) and debuted a completely new logo.

1st Logo (October 25, 1990-2002)
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Nicknames: "The Mask Of Guo Xiang", "The Scary Mask", "The Stone Mask", "The Mask of Doom", "Soviet Scary Face", "The SSF from Russia", "The Cursed Mask"

Logo: On an off-white background, we see a thick black line wipe onto the screen from the left side, going right. It begins vibrating horizontally as it continues moving, and then a gray ball comes from off-screen left and begins bouncing along it at a fast pace. It then falls off as the line stops moving. Then we cut to a large close-up of the ball from a bird's eye view as it falls down into the center and disappears. The black outline of a circle shoots out from the center, immediately followed by a entirely black circle that fills the screen, creating a black background, and then a creepy-looking stone mask with a mean-looking expression on its face and a three-pawed toad sitting on top of it fades in. Then "Times" fades in and shines underneath in large bronze letters, which is Russian for "VID", although it uses a Latin "Times" rather than a Cyrillic "Д". It kind of looks like "Times".

Trivia: This logo actually aired on U.S. television only once on August 24, 1991, when C-SPAN aired an episode of Взгляд (Viewpoint), right around the time the Soviet Union was about to collapse. This occurrence can be seen here.

Variants:
 * There is a variant of the full logo with the mask disappearing and gray text saying "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" (or "ПРЕДСТАВАЯЮТ) appearing afterwards.
 * A peculiar sub-variant, found on the very first episode of Поле Чудес (Pole Chudes, the Russian version of Wheel of Fortune) that aired on October 25, 1990, exists, in which the logo suddenly speeds up when the ball falls to the center, before returning to its normal speed after "Times" fades in. This is possibly due to an editing/compression error.
 * An abridged variant was also used at the end of some programs, in which the the ball-and-stick segment was cut and the logo started with the zooming circles. Only the five-note fanfare is used here.
 * There is another abridged variant that was used on Тема (The Topic) in 1992 where the ending theme plays and the last note of the fanfare then plays when the mask appears.
 * A "presentation" variant was used sometimes before the beginning of a special program. The variant consisted only of the mask and the company name fading in and the company name shining. Instead of the standard music, Andrey Rasbash says "телекомпания ВИD представляет..." ("VID Production presents..."). In 1999, this replaced the standard version due to concerns of epilepsy.
 * There's an extended version before Wait for Me! in July 17, 1998, where it has only the mask for 8 seconds, and the animation continues normally.
 * A silent version of the presentation variant has white text saying "представляет" under the mask, with or without the "Times" above it.
 * Another version of the presentation variant has the 5-note fanfare, which soon gets cut off by Razbash saying "представляет" when the "Times" appears.
 * There is a variant before Один на один (One on One) where the word "представляет" is written under the text "ВИD". Besides it has no sound.
 * In 1999-2001, a special Christmas variant was used that featured the mask fading in and slowly zooming in. As it zooms, it slowly grows a beard and Santa hat complete with a happy grin. Below the mask, it reads "Times" ("S novym godom!", meaning "Happy new year!") in the slab-serif font, and"Times" changes to "Times" in the corporate font. The music is a menacing chord fading from the closing theme.
 * From 1997 to 2000, another Christmas-themed variant of the presentation variant was also used, with snow falling around the mask and company name.
 * In 1993-1997 before L-club, the VID mask would morph into the face of Leonid Yarmolnik (the host of the show) and open its eyes, jiggling its eyebrows in the process. After it does this, it kind of looks like it is staring at you, looking tired.
 * At the end of a 1994 L-club episode on April Fools Day (this was reportedly done as a joke), when the text appears, the face on the VID mask morphs into a different face with creepy wide eyes and his tongue sticking out (it kind of looks the standard L-Club variant but except for the tongue sticking out), as if to mock or taunt at the viewer. This variant sometimes appeared at the end of other L-club episodes as well, including the one from 18 June on the same year. Also, the variant stays there for 12 seconds before finally cutting to black.
 * A spoof of the logo was seen on Оба-на! beginning with a man from the show superimposed over the ball/line animation, panicking and freaking out over it, and then sliding down as the ball falls off the line. It then proceeds normally, until a few seconds after the mask is seen, it then fades into a gray-scale version of the face of Russian writer/comedian Igor Ugolnikov, whom says in an electronically-distorted voice in Russian, "VID, VID. Nothing is viewed from your view!" and then smiles as we hear the opening theme.
 * Before Otdyhay! in 1992-1994, the standard variant plays out as normal, but the "Times" wordmark fades in with the mask (which is in the high-contrast monochrome tone used for the 8th logo, but colored gold) and the mask says in a high-pitched voice "Hey! Relax, though!" before smiling. Everything, except for ball-and-stick segment, is animated with computer graphics.
 * There is a variant from 1993 in Взгляд (The Glance), where there is the name of the show in the condensed serif font being spelled out with the sound of a typewriter in the background. After a pause, the 5-note fanfare plays while VID's telephone and fax numbers and the words "Вы смотрите" zoom out and the mask, albeit resized to the 80-85% of it, and wordmark appear above the numbers when they position.
 * There is a variant where the "Times" text is in a different font.
 * There is also a variant introduced around 2001 in which the "ВИD" text flips vertically and shines instead of simply appearing. Also, the text shines as a whole instead of a "glow line" moving down the text.
 * On the 1995 Pole Chudes video game for the ZX Spectrum, there is an 8-bit rendering of the logo with "Times" in its normal font, made up of several white lines and a yellow line bouncing up and down rapidly inside the text before eventually stopping in a horizontal position.

FX/SFX: The line forming, the ball bouncing, the circle zooming and background color change, and the mask and "Times" fading in and shining.

Music/Sounds: Starts out with an industrial whirring/jackhammer/film projector-like stock sound effect during the ball and line animation, and then when the black circle zooms in, a loud, dramatic 5-note fanfare, composed by Vladimir Ratskevich, is heard, ending with some ominous synth whirring as the text appears and shines.

Availability: Rare. It's seen before TV programs produced by VID in Russia such as Поле Чудес (Field of Wonders) and Ищу тебя!/Жди Меня (Looking for You!/Wait for Me) from 1990 to 2000. It was also seen on episodes of the show L-Club. Since архив записей and VIDgital's YouTube channel has started uploading episodes of these TV programs, it became easy to find it.

Editor's Note: The logo is possibly the most infamous Russian logo of all time, and has both been feared (and memed) in the logo community due to the extremely creepy mask, zooming circles, and the 5-note fanfare, and is declared as one of the scariest logos ever made, and it even started a screamer with the mask called "VID of Doom". The April Fools variant's mocking face is also seen under this light, as well as its several other variants, but they're slightly tamer. However, it has developed a cult following, especially in Russia.

2nd Logo (1992-1993)
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Nicknames: "The Shawl", "The Stone Mask Presentation"

Logo: We see a black room with projectors and an off-white shawl with Jin Chan part exposed. A man (played by a unknown actor) comes to the shawl, greets everyone, saying "Я снимаю!" ("I'll take it off!"), and starts to take the shawl off. The VID mask is under it. When the shawl is removed, the man goes off screen and the removed shawl turns into the word "Times". The projectors disappear and the name zooms in further.

Variant: There's an extended variant, where it starts with the white background fading in, then it crossfades to the white fabric background, and we zoom out to reveal that the background is actually a part of the shawl and the animation continues normally.

FX/SFX: Only the background turning black and "Times" zooming. Almost everything was live-action and flashing spotlights are done with computer graphics.

Music/Sounds: Crowd noises throughout, the man talking, ripping noises when the man takes the shawl off, and a 3-note fanfare near the end.

Availability: Probably extinct, unless there's retro networks in Russia, as this logo only lasted for about a year.

Editor's Note: One thing to note is that several of the logos below will look a lot like the 1st logo.

3rd Logo (1993)
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Nicknames: "Claymation Mask", "The Mask of Plasticine", "You Are Watching ВИD"

Logo: On a black background, with the video of the moving, tinfoil-like plasticine background surrounded by the shining orange outline, the words "Вы смотрите" (meaning "You are watching") in orange writes on the top inside the rectangle, while the gray plasticine mask and "Times" below, are forming from the background. Then the background stops moving and we zoom on the mask and the text, and everything flashes with colorful lights, making the picture more brighter and colorful, making the mask beige, then the plasticine background and the wordmark irises out until it reaches the mask, revealing the black background with the same wordmark as the 1st logo, and the plasticine mask becomes gray and high-contrast, and we finally zoom on the rectangle, while the mask becomes normal. The finished product is the last frame of the 1st logo, but with "Вы смотрите" above the mask.

FX/SFX: The background, the formation of the words, the formation of the mask.

Music/Sounds: A fast-paced techno beat accompanied by scribbling sounds when the mask forms from the plasticine background, ending with a reversed cymbal crash and a brass hit (which sounds similar to the opening note of "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson).

Availability: Ultra rare to extinct.

Editor's Note: The mask is a problem still, but it's a neat stop-motion effort nonetheless.

4th Logo (1993-1994)


Nickname: "The Поле Чудес Logo"

Logo: TBA

FX/SFX: A mix of stop-motion, live-action and CGI.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Only appears on the promo to Поле Чудес.

Editor's Note: The mask is once again the problem, but the promo does seem to be a funny one.

5th Logo (1994-1996)
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Nicknames: "The Claymation Newspaper/Radio/TV", "The Plasticine Mask"

Logo: On a black background with a golden frame, we see a lump of plasticine in the frame. Human hands appear, and they sculpt a newspaper.The black background slowly fades into a white background while the newspaper is being modeled. Then the hands sculpt a radio from the newspaper. The hands then press a button on the radio then to a television. During the modeling of the television, "Лучше один раз увидеть" ("It is better to see once" in English) is inscribed below the frame. Then it cuts to the hands modeling the right antenna of the television. Then when goes back to the original position of the camera. The hands press the center small button and turns the big button. Then the screen shows the tail end of the 1st logo. The background turns back to black. It zooms into the television screen when the color of its background changes. Then the "Лучше один раз увидеть" shrinks and then transforms into "VID" with a flash.

FX/SFX: A combination of stop-motion and pixilation.

Music/Sounds: A pop tune with newspaper sounds as the newspaper is almost formed (very similar-sounding to "Tied Up" by Yello). When the text transforms into "VID", we hear the last 2-notes of the 2nd logo's fanfare.

Availability: Seen after Field of Miracles.

Editor's Note: A very unique and fun logo which utilizes stop-motion techniques to great effect.

6th Logo (1994-1995)
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Nicknames: "The Countdown", "The Monochrome Mask", "Saint Petersburg's Mask", "Russian La Cinq"

Logo: On the black background, the number in the Times font, counting down from 3 to 0, then the number "0" morphs into a high-contrast monochrome version of the mask from before and in Otdyhay!, and finally "ВИDСПб" ("VIDSaint Petersburg") fades in below.

Trivia: The monochrome mask itself is actually VID's print logo, and can be found at the bottom-right corner of (defuncted) VID's website (surprisingly still the same despite changing their logo and name).

FX/SFX: The numbers appearing, the zero forming into the mask, and the text appearing.

Music/Sounds: A low sonic tone with wind blowing in the background, quiet pings in timing with the numbers counting down, followed by a rearranged, more dramatic version of the 1st logo fanfare.

Availability: Seen before two concerts: ВИD-АнтиСПИD (VID Anti-AIDS) in 1994, and Центр циклона (The Center of the Cyclone) in 1995.

Editor's Note: The mask being monochrome and the more dramatic fanfare really depend on your taste. You may find it a lot worse or maybe even less frightening surprisingly.

7th Logo (1995-2002)
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Nicknames: "Maskless Logo", "Where's the Mask?

Logo: On a black background, we see an orange rectangular border with "Производство телекомпании" (in the Pragmatica font), "Times" (in the weird serif font) and "по заказу ОРТ" (in the same Pragmatica font). Below it, there's "{{Font color|yellow|Наш адрес в {{Font|Times|{{Font color|yellow|INTERNET}}}}:" and a web address. After a few seconds, we cut to the shortened variant of the first logo.

Variants:
 * In its early years, there was no web address.
 * After Seryebryanny Shar (Silver Ball), there is a gradient {{Font color|blue|blue}} text saying "Телекомпания ВИD" (Telecompany VID), "по заказу АО ОРТ" (for AO ORT) at top and "наш адрес в Интернет" (our Internet site) with the address below at bottom.
 * Another variant has the text Телекомпания ВИD по заказу АО "Общественное российское телевидение" written in Pragmatica font on a black background.
 * Another variant which has been used after Женские истории in 2000-01has the top text "{{Font color|#EFEA17|Производство телекомпании ВИD по заказу ОРТ}}" in a rectangular and the bottom text "{{Font color|#EFEA17|Наш адрес в INTERNET: http://www.vid.ru/ }}" in Compact font.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show or Andrey Razbash's voice announcer saying "Телекомпания ВИD по заказу ОРТ".

Availability: Seen after Поле Чудес (Field of Wonders), Жди Меня (Wait For Me), Как это было (How It Was), Звёздный час (Stellar Hour), Час пик (Peak Hour),Здесь и сейчас (Here And Now) and Женские истории (Woman's History)from 1995 to 2002

Editor's Note: This is the first logo on the page without the mask.

8th Logo (1995)
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Nicknames: "Hand-Drawn TV", "Better See It Once II"

Logo: On a dark gray background, a sheet of paper with the black/gray gradient unfolds to cover the background. Then a white dot draws the television set with "bunny ear" antennas. The TV turns itself on, showing the static on the screen, and the antennas adjust themselves to show clips from Тема. A jump-cut occurs, causing the TV to move up and show the dark blue background with the mask with noticeably black edges around it, the words "Лучше один раз увидеть" ("Better see it once") to appear below the TV, and we zoom on the screen, causing the background on the screen to turn black and the wordmark from the first logo to appear below the mask and shine, forming the last frame of the first logo.

FX/SFX: A mix of CGI and a hand-drawn animation.

Music/Sounds: Sounds of the page turning and a drawing, followed by friendly-sounding music, which is the melody of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

Availability: Only appeared at the end of some episodes of Тема (Topic) of the time.

Editor's Note: Same as the 5th logo.

9th Logo (May 1996-2002)
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Nickname: "The Wonder Screen"

Logo: On a dark cloudy sky with the Spasskaya Tower on the right, several small searchlights scanning the sky, three projectors project the sky with the spinning circles divided into six pieces, and some gray zeppelins passing by, we see a huge TV-set with a large screen and the stage lighting truss with 9 spotlights hanging from it and the staircase on the right of it, where frames from VID programs: Один на Один, МузОБОЗ, Час-Пик, Взгляд, Поле Чудес, Тема, and Угадай Мелодию, are flashing, and the camera is moving. When the screen displays the VID mask, the screen "wipes" to the gray gradient background with the silver wordmark. Everything fades to black, and the word "ПРЕДСТАВЛЯЕТ" appears.

Variant: There was a still variant used at the end of programs with a copyright notice down below. The screen is frozen on the mask.

FX/SFX: The background details moving, and the screen of TV-set switching. Decent CGI.

Music/Sounds: '30s style patriotic music, similar to "The Sing Helps Us to Build and to Live" from the Soviet film Vesyolye Rebyata (Moscow Laughs).

Availability: Was ultra rare, but since VIDgital's YouTube channel started uploading 1996 episodes of Взгляд (Sight) the logo is becoming easier to find. This logo first appeared around May of 1996.

Editor's Note: The mask not having much of a presence makes it a lot calmer than before.

10th Logo (1997)
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Nicknames: "10th Anniversary", "New VID Television"

Logo: On a space background, three blurry colored lines fade in and move about. Then, a static-filled box shaped like a TV tube fades in and slowly zooms into the screen while 'displaying' blue-tinted clips from what seem to be more VID programs. A diamond-shaped flash then fills the screen as the TV then zooms back to reveal 8 more TV boxes surrounding it displaying titles of VID shows on a multicolor background (with the monochrome VID mask on the top center TV). The TVs zoom out two more times, with 49 screens total. The image blurs while the text "Взгляд 10 ЛЕТ "(roughly meaning "Viewing 10 years") fades in, with the monochrome VID mask on the top and smaller text reading "Новый Times телевидения" ("New Times Television") on the bottom.

FX/SFX: The space background, the multicolor lines in the background, the clips in the television, the television static, the flash, the zooming out of the television screens 3 times, the blurring and the fading of the VID mask and "Взгляд 10 лет. Новый ВИD телевидения".

Music/Sounds: A rearranged variant of Tatsuhiko Arakawa's Brand New.

Availability: Only appeared before the anniversary release of Vzglyad.

Editor's Note: A nice logo for their tenth anniversary, but the mask can be scary as usual.

11th Logo (January 17, 2000-March 2, 2013)
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Nicknames: "Modern Stone Mask", "The Tame Mask"

Logo: Against the black background, a gold line stretches outwards horizontally in the center of the screen, resembling a CRT television powering up. The line opens up and glows, containing the word "ТЕЛЕКОМПАНИЯ" in a black font (this word is also seen scrolling in faint large letters within the bar); this then shrinks into a dot, from which arises a thin black ring, containing within it the infamous stone mask (which has a thick black outline around it). The mask stops in the center of the screen, much smaller than before, and the ring fades to the glowing ring. The word "Times" appears. Some lines close in around the mask, and a faint gold line appears at the bottom-right; the word "Courier New" is typed in there upon in the black typewriter font. All of this happens in a span of about five seconds.

Variant: Sometimes a slowed-down version of the logo plays, but before the faint yellow line and "Courier New" appearing, it cross-fades to the close-up of the waving Russian flag with "Impact" ("Impact") written in front of it.

FX/SFX: Modern graphics & effects.

Music/Sounds: Same as the presentation variant of the first logo, except an echo effect can be heard on the announcer's voice.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * Before Жди меня, there is a different announcer (Aleksey Neklyudov) saying more than usual with some text appearing over the Russian flag (probably a text proving, that the show is financially supported by FAPMC). This is also sometimes used for the next logo below.
 * Sometimes, the announcer's words are "spaced out further" while being said.

Availability: Seen on some VID's TV programs (Взгляд, Поле Чудес, Жди меня, Звёздный час, Мой серебряный шар, Служу Отчизне! etc.) produced between 2000 and 2013. The shortened version of the 1st logo was used at the end of TV programs until 2002.

Editor's Note: An interesting (if somewhat unstable) take on the mask for the 2000's.

12th Logo (2003-2005)
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Nicknames: "VID and Krylya Media Productions", "Maskless Logo II"

Logo: On a red wireframe background we see the texts written in Evolventa font blur in and out by order: "ТЕЛЕКОМПАНИЯ ВИD", "КРЫЛЬЯ МЕДИА", "представляют".

FX/SFX: TBA

Music/Sounds: Andrey Razbash's voice announcer saying, "Телекомпания ВИD, Крылья Медиа представляют", accompanied by synth swooshes.

Availability: Rare. It's seen before the TV program 'Крылья' which is hard to find because VID has deleted most videos of it from YouTube.

Editor's Note: The second and final logo on the page without the mask.

13th Logo (March 7, 2013-September 30, 2017)
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Nicknames: "3D Stone Mask", "The New Mask", "Tame Mask II"

Logo: Same concept as 11th logo, but modified a bit. Against the cerulean gradient background, a gold line stretches outwards horizontally in the center of the screen, resembling a CRT television powering up. The line opens up and glows, the word "телекомпания" is scrolling in faint large letters within the bar; on the center of the screen, the new brown 3D version of the mask appears out of thin air instantly and zooms in and a thin black ring pulsates like a ripple. The mask stops in the center of the screen, as in the previous logo, and the circle reaches an optical gold circle. The word "Times" appears in the same typeface used in the first logo, some lines close in around the mask, words "телекомпания" and "представляет" appear over and under the mask respectively. Some light illuminates the mask from the right.

Variant: Like the 11th logo, it sometimes cross-fades to the close-up of the waving Russian flag with the text "Impact" ("Impact") after the finished product is displayed.

FX/SFX: Modern 3D graphics and effects, the 3D mask.

Music/Sounds: Same as the last logo, though both words are "spaced out further" while being said.

Music/Sounds Variant: Same as the 11th logo.

Availability: First appeared on March 7, 2013 before Pole Chudes, this logo was used until September 30, 2017.

Editor's Note: The logo has been sighted as ugly due to the somewhat strange version of the mask.

(October 5, 2017- )
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Nicknames: "Toad on the Mask", "The Redesigned Mask", "ВИDgital", "Friendly Mask", "Tame Mask III"

Logo: A reddish-brown toad walks on top of an off-white sculpture, which turns out to be a brand new version of the mask logo (with a less scary look that more closely resembles Guo Xiang's actual death mask than the old one did), particles fly around the mask as it smiles. The word "ВИDgital" appears in a brand new typeface as the toad turns into being part of an off-white stone mask sculpture. The company name kind of looks like "BNDgital".

Variants:
 * There is a version before Служу Отчизне (I Serve the Fatherland!) - like the last logo, it cross-fades to a close-up of the waving Russian flag with "При финансовой поддержке Федерального агентства по печати и массовым коммуникациям" ("With the financial support from Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications"), but without the announcer's voice.
 * Sometimes, the logo fades out and the white spaced-out text "Times" in a tall Times New Roman font fades in on a black background.

FX/SFX: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A hip-hop beat, or a rather dramatic theme with synths that begins with some banging sounds.

Availability: Current. Seen before TV programs Служу Отчизне!, Жди меня which is aired on NTV since October 27, 2017.

Editor's Note: This is the 1st time that the logo received an overhaul, this time with a focus on the toad and a mask that actually looks friendly.