Prior to 1993, PBS' children's programming used the regular PBS branding. The first PBS Kids logo was based on PBS' 1984 logo and animated by Gene Mackles as part of PBS' ongoing transformation of its children's strand into a service known as Ready to Learn, which was launched in eleven test markets at that time. It consisted of three stylized P-Heads with different colors and patterns, depicted as living things, complete with appendages, named the P-Pals. Although the logo was retired in 1999 on TV, the ID still appeared on some VHS releases until 2004.
1993–1999 (secondary)
PTV
1994–1999
Designer:
Unknown
Typography:
Unknown
Launched:
July 11, 1994
On July 11, 1994, PBS began naming its children's strand PTV. This was not a major rebrand, as the P-Pals remained until 1999. The P-Head was based on PBS' second logo from 1971, but with the "B" and "S" replaced with a "T" made of pink circles and a "V" inside a green box.
The name "PBS Kids" was conceived in early 1997 as a rebranding effort for PBS as part of its ongoing changes of its profiles. This logo was used for on-air promos, bumpers and idents (animated by FableVision) until 1999, even though some stations still had the PTV branding until 2001. Select stations used the PTV branding as late as 2005.
On September 6, 1999, the same day Dragon Tales premiered, PTV was officially rebranded as PBS Kids, ending the P-Pals' six-year run. PBS Kids' mascots Dash and Dot were also introduced. This logo was designed by Richard McGuire (designer of characters for The New Yorker magazine) and Bob Shea, with network branding being produced by Lee Hunt Associates and some network IDs being animated by Passion Pictures and King Camera. Starting in 2000, new IDs were produced by Primal Screen.
On September 1, 2008, new branding elements were introduced, and their flat animation style was changed to a collage-like style. The logo itself remained the same, except it was often seen with textured appearance that matched the new "scrapbook" look. Dot and Dash themselves also officially became green characters (before, the colors of the characters usually matched any color of the backdrop). This new style was previously used from 2006-2008, exclusively during the PBS Kids morning preschool block.
2009–2013 (secondary), 2013-2022 (primary)
Dash
Dot (2009–2013)
Designer:
Primal Screen (2009–present) Interface Media Group (2016–2019) Karptoons (2019–present)
Typography:
PBS KIDS Headline
Launched:
Fall 2009
In the fall of 2009, a minor change to the previous logo was made. The "Kids" text was moved into the thought bubble, making it bigger, and the face smaller. Until late 2013, this logo was used in tandem with the previous logo (mostly on IDs). On October 7, 2013, coinciding with the premiere of Peg + Cat and the closure of PBS Kids Go! as part of a program restructuring strategy, PBS Kids received a major rebrand. With it, the Dot variant of the logo was officially retired and the Dash variant became the sole logo for PBS Kids. One minor adjustment was made to include a white line on the perimeter of the logo,[1] which had been used in certain instances previously, but not consistently until 2013.
Despite the Dash variant being used until 2022, Dash himself was retired from the main mascots. Dot was redesigned and remained as one of the PBS Kids mascots outside of the logo. She was aged up slightly, given pink eyes, as well as a white shirt. Along with this, she was joined by new characters: younger twin siblings, Del and Dee.[2] The overall branding and style switched back to flat animation, albeit more simple and flat, and rendered with computers.
The primary producers of PBS Kids' on-air branding since 2008 have been Primal Screen (2008-2015; secondary since then), Interface Media Group (2016-2019; secondary from 2012-2015) and Karptoons since 2019.
On June 30, 2022, PBS Kids announced a major redesign to its logo for the first time in more than two decades, removing the Dash mascot and incorporating the blue from the 2019 PBS logo, but otherwise keeping the branding elements that have been in use since 2013, albeit altered to include the new logo and altering the camera placement on the balloon bumper.[3] The new logo took effect on July 19, 2022.