Echo of Moscow (Эхо Москвы) was a Russian round-the-clock radio station that broadcast from 1990 until its liquidation in March 2022. Its visual identity, a rectangular typographic wordmark in black, gray, red and white, became one of the most recognized media logos in Russia. The mark was designed by Semyon Levin, a prominent Russian television designer also known for creating the famous “green ball” logo for the NTV channel. [1]
Design and History
The logo was created by Semyon Levin, whose studio “NTV-Dizayn” developed visual identities for NTV, NTV-Plus, TNT and Echo of Moscow radio. [2] Levin, who died in 2005, was also the author of the NTV “green ball” logo and designed styles for the RTR and “Kultura” television channels. [2]
Before Levin’s design, the station used an earlier logo created by artist N.M. Novikov. [3] The current mark, attributed to Levin, became the station’s long-standing visual signature.
In 2015, the station’s St. Petersburg bureau received a new logo developed by the studio Notamedia, which had also redesigned the station’s website in 2011 and 2014. [4] The design preserved the main Echo of Moscow identity while adding graphic elements, including symbols of St. Petersburg placed within the ring of the logo. [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The logo is rectangular in shape. The word “radio” enters the letter “Э” through a red letter “o”. The word “Эхо” is presented in letters of varying sizes, with each subsequent letter twice as large as the previous one. The letters “э” and “Х” are gray, while the largest letter, a black “О”, contains three more letters “М О С” within its opening. The red “О” is three times larger than the black “М” and “С”. A white letter “К” sits on the black circle of the “О”. The final part of the word, “вы”, is black and matches the size of the letters in the word “radio”. [5]
The station’s slogan, “Слушайте радио — остальное видимость” (“Listen to the radio, everything else is just appearances”), attributed to Sergey Buntman, was featured on the logo and was protected as part of the trademark registration. [6]
Typography and Design
The wordmark uses a typographic approach with letters of deliberately varied sizes, creating a distinctive visual rhythm. The design incorporates the station’s name into a single rectangular composition, with the word “radio” integrated into the initial letter “Э” through the red “o”. [5] The Moscow Times described the logo as a “black-white-and-red” mark. [7]
In March 2025, the state media group MIA “Rossiya Segodnya” registered the Echo of Moscow logo with Rospatent, receiving exclusive rights to the trademark until 2033. The name and logo are identical to those of the liquidated radio station. [8] The registration covers advertising, radio broadcasting, entertainment and music programs, and educational activities. [9]
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