Random House Home Logo PNG
The Random House Home logo reflects not only the brand name but also its essence. The designers have filled the emblem with bright colors, just as the company brings stories from books to life by producing a range of entertainment shows, films, and cartoons based on them.
Random House Home Video grew out of the publishing house founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. Before launching Random House, they had bought the Modern Library series from Boni & Liveright. Cerf later explained that the name referred to publishing books “at random.” Rockwell Kent drew the house logo.
Random House became one of the major U.S. publishers, with authors such as Dr. Seuss, Truman Capote, and William Faulkner in its catalog. RCA acquired the company in 1965, and Advance Publications took control in 1980. In 1983, Random House created a video division, initially called Random House Video, which was renamed Random House Home Video in 1984.
Its first major move was to buy the rights to 17 years of Sesame Street episodes, a logical step because related books were already part of the Random House catalog. In 1986, the company worked with Children’s Television Workshop on My Sesame Street Home Video, a preschool series with 16 releases that continued until 1994.
The catalog later included The Berenstain Bears in 1988, The Busy World of Richard Scarry in 1993, and Arthur in 1996. In the children’s home video market, it competed with Disney Home Video. From 1994, distribution was handled by Sony Wonder, which continued to use the Random House Home Video logo on Arthur tapes and DVDs until 2004. Bertelsmann bought Random House in 1998, and Penguin Random House was formed in 2013 following the merger of the Penguin Group. The division’s logo kept the parent brand’s house image, adding a rainbow and serif lettering.
Meaning and History
Speaking of the parent company, Penguin Random House was established almost 60 years before the subsidiary film studio was registered to produce video content based on novel plots. Throughout Random House Home’s period of operation, users were presented with several logo variations. New options complemented the previous ones, making the logo more modern and friendly to the target audience.
What is Random House Home?
This is a subsidiary of Random House, which was engaged in producing films and TV series based on plots of books published by the present publishing house.
1983 – 1984
The original version of the Random House Home logo was introduced in 1983, almost immediately after the subsidiary’s launch. However, this option lasted only a few months before a redesign was carried out. It was a lively and eye-catching logo in black and white. It consisted of two elements: the emblem and the verbal inscription beneath the image. The emblem consisted of several painted houses located inside the square. The left part was conditionally divided into several horizontal lines. The brand name was set in two lines: on the top, “Random House,” and on the second line, “Home Video.” The wordmark was in a classic bold sans-serif typeface with thick lines. All letters in the name are capitalized, which adds confidence and strength to the logo and makes it more attractive to the target audience.
1984 – 2006
The first redesign made the logo more elegant and modern. The layout of the elements remained identical, but the word inscription was set in a new font. It was a modern typeface with serifs and tall letters. Even though the bold type remained, the characters’ lines became much narrower, so in users’ eyes they looked more convincing and confident.
The graphic part received a new color palette. If only horizontal lines were located on the left side in the first version of Random House Home, the space between them would have become colored. All colors of the rainbow were used. The image of the houses has also become clearer.
1988 – 1989
In parallel with the previous version of the logo, another one was used for a short time. Here, the logo was presented on a light purple background. The emblem occupied the central zone, while inscriptions made in white letters were presented above and below. It said “Random House Presents” at the top. The graphic part has not changed much but has become less elegant.
2008 – 2009
Before the Random House Home Video project was closed, it was decided to return to the 1984-2006 logo. It was an identical logo variant, with a smooth font, serifs, and two-line wording.
Font and Colors
During the studio’s existence, several font types were used. It was originally a classic bold sans-serif typeface. Subsequently, the most requested version from 1984 to 2006 used an elegant serif typeface with tall letters.
The logo uses a black-and-white color palette. At the same time, in certain cases, all the colors of the rainbow are used, with the help of which the space between the horizontal lines is painted over. Thus, representatives of Random House Home indicated that they were ready to implement stories in various directions in video format.