PBS

"Public Broadcasting Service" redirects here.

1970–1971


In October 5, 1970, National Educational Television was replaced by the Public Broadcasting Service. The logo has three words. "Public" was red, "Broadcasting" was yellow, and "Service" was blue. This logo was used as a placeholder logo, but short-lived.

1971–1984


This logo was designed by Herb Lubalin, who also designed the accompanying typeface, ITC Avant Garde Gothic. The "P" resembles a human head, which is named P-Head, while the "B" and "S" are more overtly geometric. The nickname for this is the "Tri-Colored Everyman P-Heads". The logo was still used on new episodes of PBS shows until 1985. The colors were changed as well. Now, "P" is blue, "B" is orange, and "S" is green. PBS Digital Studios brought back this logo (sans the company name underneath) in 2014 with the introduction of its new logo which includes the Tri-Colored letters.

Prototypes
The prototypes were used in Herb Lubalin talking about how he made the logo but not on television.

1984–1998
Chermayeff & Geismar designed a modified version of the "P-Head" from the previous logo and placed in a forward-facing position and added two additional facial outlines on the edge of the logo, one in negative space and one in positive space. The font used for the "PBS" identification was designed specifically for the network. The logo is used with PBS Home Video. The logo aired in September 30, 1984; the channel was shortened to PBS.

1998–2002


A minor amendment saw the logo placed in a circle. The first ident package used people putting up the symbol over their faces and with people in the background doing moves while being in the air.

2002–2009


In 2002, the logo redesigned the P-Head circle bigger than the text. This wordmark uses the font Caecilia 75 Heavy instead of Lubalin Graph Demi. This logo is still used as a 2D version of the logo.

2009–present


In 2009, the logo changed from 2D to 3D.