Sesame Workshop Logo

Sesame Workshop Logo PNG

Over many years, the Sesame Workshop logo has changed repeatedly until it became a concise and clear image associated with a feeling of a pleasant home atmosphere. And how else, given that the channel’s purpose is to promote family values, development, and kind interpersonal relationships.

Meaning and History

The project was initially not large-scale, so it did not aim to acquire a personal logo. The founders only needed an impressive screensaver for the Sesame Street TV series for which it was created. However, over time, the owners thought about continuing the program and expanding the list of broadcasts for which they needed an entire TV channel. This fact explains the later appearance of the emblem, as the company was established in 1968, and the logo appeared in 1969. The studio was long named Children’s Television Workshop, or CTW for short. The current name came to it in the summer of 2000, after which the management redesigned the emblem.

What is Sesame Workshop?

Sesame Workshop is a nonprofit organization that owns the eponymous television channel with children’s educational programs. It was founded in 1968 by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, who had spent two years beforehand studying methods of teaching preschoolers, their psychology, and how they assimilate knowledge. The result of their painstaking labor was the TV series Sesame Street, for which they created their own thematic channel. Its headquarters are located in New York.

1969 – 1983

Although the logo is text-based and consists of the organization’s name, it is backed by an amazing bas-relief in an old-fashioned style. It’s used to confirm that this is a workshop that literally carries out manual labor, producing a unique product with no analogs. The simple inscription, stylized as a child’s wall “painting,” testifies to the playful nature of the project. The letters look as though they were painted with a brush on a fence, which is confirmed by uneven lines, carelessness, and streaks, as from paint. Yet, the architectural element looks very solid. It takes the form of a horizontal scroll, behind which a human (at the top) and an animal (at the bottom) peek out.

1975 – 1978

In this version of visual identity, text predominates. The inscription is made with a calligraphic font in an old-fashioned style. The curves and elongated legs of the glyphs add a personal touch of magic to it. The letters are unconnected, black, thin, and are in lower case, except for the first symbols, which, according to grammar, are preserved as capital letters.

1978 – 1983

This symbol is a modernized abbreviation of the TV channel’s name. It looks like a monogram composed of the lowercase letters “c,” “t,” and “w.” The first letter is positioned diagonally; the second and third are horizontal. All glyphs are massive, super bold, geometric, and black. They have straight lines, precise angles, and smooth edges. In this way, the educational TV channel wanted to create a serious atmosphere.

1983 – 1997

The word logo consists of a three-level inscription in upper case. The title is set in an original font and is aligned on both sides. The letters represent a harmonious combination of smooth curves and proportional angles. The separating comma at the top has a teardrop shape, “E” looks like a Ukrainian “Є,” and “W” overlaps the neighboring “O.” The creator of this emblem is Milton Glaser.

1997 – 2000

The media organization’s leadership decided to return to the children’s style – cheerful and relaxed. For this, they chose a bright emblem with a semi-circle in a double frame. In the center of the yellow background is the abbreviation “CTW.” The red letters are outlined with black trim. They are semi-bold, uppercase, and sans-serif. Above the composition in a semi-circle is the full name of the TV channel, executed in thin glyphs. The authors of this idea are the agency Pittard Sullivan and the design studio Pentagram.

1999

The logo appears as an inscription styled like children’s doodles, laid out by an uncertain hand on a white sheet. It reads “CTW family workshop,” indicating that educational programs now have a family aspect to broaden their viewer base. The abbreviation is colored in carrot-red, while the rest is in black.

2000 – 2007

In 2000, a significant step took place: the media company acquired its current name. In the new logo, it is written as one word in a single line. To differentiate the two words, they are colored differently: “sesame” in green and “workshop” in blue. Above them is a geometrically disproportionate house, as if drawn by a small child. This is how the designers visualized the concept of “family.” And to indicate that a future genius grows within these walls, they added a yellow star with a zigzag tail.

2007 – 2018

The house and star disappeared from the logo. The primary focus now is on the word “sesameworkshop,” written in lowercase letters and colored in two shades of green.

2018 – today

The emblem resembles the sign from the Sesame Street show, which is where Sesame Workshop started. The text is split into two lines and placed between two lines: a straight bottom one and a convex top one.

Font and Colors

Various fonts were used in the Sesame Street logos, including Busorama, Interstate Bold, Helvetica, DIN Round Pro Bold, and others. The color palette is also diverse: black, red, blue, gray, yellow, and various shades of green.

Sesame Workshop color codes