The CBS Television eye logo, introduced on October 20, 1951, is one of the most enduring symbols in American broadcasting. Designed by William Golden, creative director of CBS’s Advertising and Sales Promotion Department, the mark was created to give CBS Television a distinct identity separate from the company’s radio network.[1]
Design and History
In 1951, CBS president Frank Stanton asked Golden to design an on-air symbol that would function as the face of the network. Golden attributed his inspiration to hex symbols resembling the human eye on Shaker barns, featured in a 1950 article in the publication Portfolio. With the help of graphic artist Kurt Weihs, the Eye was drawn.[2] Design historian Steven Heller has noted that the “driving through Pennsylvania Dutch country” story may be apocryphal, with Golden’s colleague George Lois recalling that Golden found the hex symbol in an antiques magazine and showed it to Weihs to redraw and clean up.[3]
The Eye was first introduced to the public during the network’s station breaks on Saturday, October 20, 1951.[1] In its original animated incarnation, the Eye’s center was a camera iris that opened and shut, and the first still version set the Eye against a background of clouds.[1] Golden later described the initial reception: “I had submitted three identifications to a dozen or so people who attended the original viewing. I can’t report that any of them – including the ‘eye’ – were received with uncontrollable enthusiasm.”[2]
Originally conceived as the network’s logo for just one season, Stanton opted to keep it, reminding Golden of an advertising axiom: “Just when you’re beginning to get bored with what you have done is probably the time it is beginning to be noticed by your audience.”[2] Stanton had the clouds removed and emblazoned the symbol on cameras, curtains, buildings, jewelry and rate cards.[1]
Over the years there have been different colors and sizes of the Eye, but the perfectly balanced design has remained unchanged.[1] During the 1960s, the Eye entered the era of color television. In the 1970s, an anniversary edition was designed to celebrate the network’s 50 years of broadcasting. The 1980s brought the first fully computer-generated CBS Eye, and in the 1990s the Eye returned to its original simplicity.[4]
In October 2020, CBS unveiled a new brand identity developed with agency Gretel. The ubiquitous CBS Eye logo remained central to the new identity in a unique animated way, with the mark deconstructed into distinct elements as building blocks of the design system.[5][6] The refresh also introduced a five-note audio cue derived from the “This is CBS” voiceover slogan.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
Kurt Weihs, who helped create the logo, recalled: “We saw the eye as symbolizing CBS ‘looking at the world.'”[8] The Eye also became symbolic of the fundamental quality that set television apart from radio, as a purely visual identification for the new medium.[2]
Typography and Design
Gretel, the agency behind the 2020 rebrand, noted that William Golden created the Eye in 1951 using only circles, yet the positive and negative shapes within the mark can be seen many ways.[6] The logo has been recognized for its design longevity: in 1998, The New York Times Magazine included the Eye in a roundup of the century’s “greatest design hits,” and a 2011 TIME magazine story on evolving corporate logos stated that “in the case of CBS, sometimes companies get it right the first time.”[1]
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