NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the most popular news channels around the world. This company was founded in 1926 as the first radio network in the United States, and throughout its history, they have changed its logos multiple times. Doesn’t matter whether it was to fit in the trend or make the company more popular, all of their logos were just iconic, and their audience always loved the designs.

Furthermore, all of the NBC logos never failed to represent them either, since their designs were always well-detailed and had many hidden meanings about the company. 

Currently, NBC has no plans to change its logo design since its peacock logo easily represents them. That’s why in this article we are going to look at the beautiful logo history of NBC so that you can learn everything about their fantastic progress!

Related: Famous Streetwear Logos & Brand Names

NBC Logos By Year

As mentioned before, NBC has changed its logo a lot throughout its progress, and below we have listed all of their logos by year!

1926 

In 1926, NBC started working, and at that time it was just a radio network. So to promote themselves, they designed their first logo, which included a microphone with some lightning bolts around it that resemble the sound coming out of it. The microphone had a cord too, which was shaped like the map of the United States, aka the place where NBC started their journey.

The company’s name was on top of this design, which had really minimal and simple looks so that the main microphone design stands out.

1931 

After 5 years, NBC changed its logo for the first time, and the new logo had a rectangular box with “NBC” written inside it in diagonal letters. The lightning bolts were present in this logo as well, but their number was decreased to five, and now they center the B.

This logo was much simpler than others, yet it stayed with the company for almost a decade.

1943 

In 1943 NBC changed its logo yet again, and this time they designed the same logo for both their television channel and radio network. This logo was a modified version of their first logo, with a larger microphone, the company’s name written inside it, and red lightning bolts on the left side and red wavy lines on the right side.

The left side represented the radio network, and the right side symbolized the television channel. Lastly, this logo was just a modern version of their first logo because they wanted to give a new start to their TV channel.

1946 

Sadly, after 3 years, that logo was replaced with a new and minimal logo that included only letters that spelled NBC. These letters looked a lot like the letters from the 1931 logo, but the only difference was the italic style.

Related: Nutella Logo Meaning & History

1952 

In 1952, NBC again avoided switching to a fancy logo and decided to go with another minimal and straightforward design. This logo looks really similar to the previous one; however, it is way bolder, doesn’t have an italic look, is designed with sans-serif fonts, and is colored white. 

They have thin back outlines along with shadows that give them a blocky look. This bold style represents the company’s reliable and confident personality.

1953

The 1953 logo is known as the “Xylophone logo,” as it looks exactly like a xylophone, with red, blue, and green rectangles and NBC letters inside them. There’s a hammer below this design too so that people can easily understand that it’s a xylophone. This logo was NBC’s first colored logo, and it was designed to represent NBC chimes.

1956

Finally, 1956 was the year when NBC’s iconic peacock made its first appearance; however, it looked way different than what it looks today. At this time, it was just a white peacock looking at the left side with 11 vibrant feathers in the background. NBC used this design because, at this time, color programming in the television world was increasing day by day.

1958 

It was NBC’s 50th anniversary, so designing a new logo was a really important topic. That’s why in 1958 they introduced the snake logo! It was created in the trapezoidal style, with letters growing from each other, which made it really unique from every other logo. 

1975

This was the time NBC changed its logo yet again, but this logo was really unusual and was really different from every other logo by this company. The logo had two cut rectangles, one blue and one red, which were inverted and connected to each other from the center. This design resembled the big N from NBC, but it didn’t last long.

1979 

After trying two different styles, NBC came back to the old peacock design with a modified version. This time the peacock looked a lot different, and its feathers were mirrored (the left and right side colors are the same), with a single blue feather in the center.

Instead of black outlines, NBC artists used a blue outline, and in the background, we could see the 1975 big N logo, but with blue outlines only.

1986 

After several years, they decided to change their logo again, but it wasn’t a major change. In this design, they removed the big N from the background along with blue outlines and reduced the peacock’s feathers to 6. 

Its colors were yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, and green, and it looks like a rainbow now. Lastly, the company’s name is written below the peacock in simple letters, and now the peacock faces right so that it focuses on the future.

2010

The design didn’t get much modification, but the company name was completely removed, and the logo got glassy. It also got contour, and white spaces are gray now.

2013

The 2013 logo is the current logo; it’s much shinier than before and looks like glass. The company’s name is added again for better representation and still remains one of the most iconic logos ever.

NBC Logo Meaning

The NBC logo has a beautiful peacock with six different colored feathers, and these feathers symbolize the various sections of NBC.

Yellow:  News
Orange: Sports
Red: Entertainment
Purple: Radio
Blue: Network
Green: Production

About NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American broadcast television channel that started in 1926 as a radio network. It was founded by David Sarnoff and is owned by General Electric. Today, CNN is America’s number-one news channel and one of the most well-known news channels worldwide.

Conclusion 

The NBC logo has undergone the most unique transitions throughout its years, and all of them have been beautiful and strong enough to make the company successful. Today, the peacock logo remains the best NBC logo because it represents them better than any other logo!

Related Posts: