Cartoon Network

1991 (pre-launch)


Before Cartoon Network started broadcasting in 1992, this logo was used in its marketing to cable operators and advertisers. The middle of the logo could be edited to feature characters from shows that were planned to be aired on the network.

This logo was designed by J.J. Sedelmaier Productions.


 * Click here to see the Cartoon Network pre-launch advertisement reel for more variations of this logo.

1992–2004


On October 1, 1992, Cartoon Network officially launched. It debuted its now-iconic logo, featuring a black and white 7x2 square grid with each letters of the company's name on it. Around this time, Cartoon Network launched to only a handful of cable operators.

This logo is still used occasionally on bylines of logos, title sequences such as The Amazing World of Gumball and as a closing logo on home video releases. It is no longer used as an onscreen logo, but it is still used on Cartoon Network-licensed consumer packaging.

2004–2010


On June 14, 2004, Cartoon Network launched a new on-air look, and a new logo replaced the one that had been used since the network launched nearly 12 years earlier. The logo's design was made up of two black and white cubes with the network's initials ("CN", borrowed from the previous logo) written on them, and the network's full name underneath it, also in the same typeface as the previous logo. The development of the network's new on-air identity was led in-house in association with Animal Logic in Sydney, Australia.


 * While our programming has always been innovative and fluid, the on-air packaging surrounding the original and acquired material has remained relatively unchanged over the lifespan of our median age viewer, typically a child between the ages of 6-8 years old. So we embarked on this significant undertaking a little more than a year ago to be ready to reveal an all-new environment in time for peak viewing and sampling during the summer months.
 * The new logo, simply provided a more contemporary, flexible, design-driven option for our animators to use or manipulate in a variety of creative ways on-air.


 * — Jim Samples, executive vice president and general manager of Cartoon Network Worldwide in a press release

The on-air graphics at the time consisted of a city made of both realistic and CGI elements (mostly of places in the network's shows) with characters from various CN shows. The time period this set of aired during was nicknamed the "CN City era".

In April 2006, in addition to adding more "CN City" bumpers, a new set of graphics with the slogan "YES" was introduced. It was replaced in June 2007 with a new theme simply titled "Summer '07", and again in September of the same year as "Fall '07" (with the slogan "Fall is Just Something Grown-Ups Invented"), with part of the graphics sharing the same elements of the Class of 3000 intro. The graphics were changed for the last time to the "Noods" theme, which consisted of "blobby" characters with a CN show's character design frequently appearing on it.

Although the logo stopped usage in May 2010 in the United States, this logo was still active in certain countries up until late 2010 and early 2012. Cartoon Network Too would be the last network to retire from using this logo, when it started using the 2010 logo on May 15, 2012. It was also featured on the 2006 Cartoon Network Movies logo.