American Broadcasting Company/Logos

The **American Broadcasting Company** (**ABC**) is an American television network owned by The Walt Disney Company through its Walt Disney Television division. The fifth-oldest major broadcasting network in the world and the youngest of the Big Three television networks, ABC is nicknamed **The Alphabet Network**, as its initialism also represents the first three letters of the English alphabet (A, B, C), in order.

It was founded on January 1, 1927, as a radio service named **NBC Blue Network** and was spun out from NBC on January 9, 1942. It was subsequently renamed to the current name on June 15, 1945, and launched television service in 1948.

## 1956–1962

In May 1956, just before the television network began its first color broadcasts, the ABC logo consisted of a tiny lowercase "abc" in the center of a large lowercase letter **a**, a design known as the "ABC Circle A".

## 1962–present

In 1962, graphic designer Paul Rand redesigned the ABC logo into its best-known (and current) form, with the lowercase letters "abc" enclosed in a single black circle. The new logo debuted on-air on October 19 of the same year. The logo's simplicity made it easier to redesign and duplicate, which conferred a benefit for ABC. A color version of this logo was also developed around 1963, and animated as a brief 10-second intro to be shown before the then-small handful of network programs broadcast in color. The "a" was rendered in red, the "b" in blue, and the "c" in green, with the same single black circle. A variant of this color logo, with the colored letters against a white circle, was also commonly used throughout the 1960s.

Despite the introductions of this logo's many variations since then, this is still used alongside the current logo and as a corporate logo (including some of its divisions, and even on its broadcast headquarters at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA), as well as Localish and on a handful of ABC affiliates' logos, particularly those owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tegna. This logo was also featured in the Disney+ short "The Simpsons in Plusaversary", as one of the many brands of the streaming service showcased by Lisa Simpson.

This logo has undergone various tweaks to its design elements in its 60 years of use (most significant being in 1988 and 2021), all of which can be seen below.

### 1988–2007

The original Paul Rand logo was slightly modified in 1988. This version of the design was presumably meant to make the logo clearer at smaller sizes (as evidenced by the thinner strokes on the letters and the short ascender on the "b"), but was also frequently used at larger ones. Some ABC affiliates (and formerly the ABC Family [now Freeform] cable channel) continue to use the 1962 design in their logos.

This logo was still used on the ABC Kids block on ABC until it was replaced with Litton's Weekend Adventure. Until late September 2021, this was also still used as the favicon of the ABC News website. This logo still appears on some logo variations of the network's affiliates, especially on-air.

### 2007–2013

In time for the new television season in 2007, ABC rolled out a new identity package with a new tagline and a new interpretation of its logo. The new slogan, "Start Here" (used until 2010), was presented at the upfronts in May and in trailers/promos for that season. The slogan aimed to position ABC as a multi-platform brand, which can be watched on television, as well as on a computer, a mobile device, or a media player (as evident by the 4 respective icons used in its IDs).

In the new graphics package, the ABC logo would always appear in 3D as a glossy black disc with the 1962 wordmark. The new design, created by Troika Design Group, ran from September 22, 2007 to May 29, 2013. It still remained in use by plenty of ABC affiliates' logos for a time after the following logo replaced this one.

### 2013–2021

**On-air graphics:** Loyalkaspar (2013-2016), Troika Design Group (2016-2018), The New Blank (2018-2021)

In 2013, ABC came out with yet another iteration of its 1962 logo and debuted a custom on-air font (called ABC Modern). This logo first appeared on the all access website (semi-defunct as of 2021) and in trailers for 2013–14 programs before fully taking effect on May 30.

As of September 2022, this is still used by its ABC Signature production division, as well as ABC Owned Television Stations and ABC News' YouTube banner and thumbnails. Additionally, this is still used for the time being on most of its affiliates (including O&Os), such as WKRN-TV and KABC-TV.

* Loyalkaspar

### 2021–present

This logo was first teased on May 18, 2021 in promos of new series in ABC's fall 2021 lineup. It uses slightly bold and smaller rendering of the letters, a lowered ascender on the "b" (similar to the 1988 logo), and a smaller gap in the right side of the "c", the typeface itself being slightly re-modified to be as circular as the "c". An outlined version of this logo is used as an on-screen bug. This officially took effect as a primary logo on-air and on social media on August 9, 2021, and was adopted on the website a few days later.