BY Armin

Thunderous Pictures

Few Hollywood movie studios or production houses are as tied to a single film as RKO Pictures is to 1941’s Citizen Kane. Perhaps it’s simply the fact that it is one of the most widely celebrated movies of all time and the animated radio transmitter has been played over and over. It also seems that, despite RKO pictures and its logo being around since 1928, there has been no logo other than that nostalgic beep-beep-beeping, black and white rendition. The before logo shown above has been in use since 1997. Selective film and identity memory, I guess. Recently — and for anyone that might know if this is not so recent, feel free to let us know — RKO introduced a new, simpler logo.

“End” logo that appeared at the closing credits of a film, it would take on the different flavors of each movie.

When it comes to the RKO Pictures logo, not everything is black and white though, since there have been numerous renditions of both the opening animation logo as well as a secondary static logo that appears at the end of the film. The best compendiums of these logos can be found at the fabulous Closing Logos wiki, and another album here. The closing logo may be the most resembling of a traditional logo and perhaps would have been more appropriate to use in the Before/After image, but since it is used as the main identifier I opted for the animated version.

Original 1929 animated logo.

1997 animated logo.

We will have to wait for the next RKO Pictures movie to come out to see how the new transmitter animation plays, if it plays at all. In the meantime: the new logo, in my mind, has enough of that nostalgic visual naivete that made the old logos memorable, after all, who uses thunders in their logos anymore? The typography is simple and Gothamish, which makes it feel immediately of the twenty-first century. The shine is a little unfortunate and I hope it’s just a web impulse. Also, before anyone dismisses this all as a copy of RCA’s old logo, I would suggest taking a minute to read through this.

Overall, I think it’s a decent logo that may be a century away from its origins but, let’s face it, so is RKO Pictures… unless Are we Done Yet? is the new Citizen Kane.

Thanks to Chris Dunshee for the tip.

\n\nFew Hollywood movie studios or production houses are as tied to a single film as RKO Pictures is to 1941's Citizen Kane. Perhaps it's simply the fact that it is one of the most widely celebrated movies of all time and the animated radio transmitter has been played over and over. It also seems that, despite RKO pictures and its logo being around since 1928, there has been no logo other than that nostalgic beep-beep-beeping, black and white rendition. The before logo shown above has been in use since 1997. Selective film and identity memory, I guess. Recently — and for anyone that might know if this is not so recent, feel free to let us know — RKO introduced a new, simpler logo.

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