Scottish Television/STV (UK)

Logo descriptions by mr3urious and rj4712
Editions by Mr. Logo Lord, Michael Bass, PerryLuv2001, and Thisisanswer

1st Logo
(1957-1960)

Logo: Against a black background, we see the text:

SCOTTISH
TELEVISION
PRESENTS

in a serif, jumbled-up font.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extinct, just like lots of old logos from the UK. Additionally, several copies of early STV programs were destroyed in a fire around some time in late-1969.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo
(1960-1965)

Logo: Against a black background, we see four white squares, each of which are split by two white lines arranged in a cross shape. Inside the squares are (clockwise, starting in the top-left): an "S", the lion rampant, a "V", and a "T", all of which are black. The letters are written in a wide serif font. "CHANNEL TEN" is written below that in the same font as the letters.

Variant: Sometimes, there would be no text below at all.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: An eight-note horn and drum fanfare, followed by the announcer saying, "This is Scotland".

Availability: Extinct.

Editor's Note: The fanfare, announcer, and sheer darkness may spook some.

3rd Logo
(1965-1969)

Nicknames: "Spinning Lion Rampant", "Zooming Lion Rampant"

Logo: For a split second, we see a white background, which is wiped away horizontally on both sides, revealing a white box opening up on a black background. The words "SCOTTISH" and "TELEVISION" (also in white) drop in from the top and bottom sides of the screen, respectively. Then, a white Lion Rampant (the symbol found on the flag used by the King of Scots) spins in counterclockwise.

Variants:

In later years, due to complaints from the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the man in charge of protecting Scotland’s heraldry, the logo was re-filmed with the lion simply zooming in instead. This version also appears to have a slightly smaller box and text.
A colour version (with a dark blue background) was used around 1969.

FX/SFX: The text moving into their usual positions and the lion spinning in. Lots of choppy animation.

Music/Sounds: A rearrangement of the last logo theme played on the flute, followed by additions of a drum roll and a cymbal crash as the lion spins in. Composed by Geraldo, arranged by Ray Terry.

Availability: Extinct. Though the news program Scotland Today did show a brief portion of the zooming variant as part of a montage back in 2007 commemorating STV's 50th anniversary. Andrew Wiseman's TV Room on 625.uk.com has a Flash remake of both the spinning and the zooming variants, so it's worth a look for nostalgia's sake.

Editor's Note: The loud music isn't very nice with the cymbals and the lion spinning in with the choppy motion is very jarring.

4th Logo
(1969-1985)

Nicknames: "STV Tartan", "Zooming STV", "STV Color", "Boxing STV", "stv"

Logo: Against a black background, we see the letters "stv", in a blocky font, zooming in. At the same time, an outline of a second set of the same letters zoom out. As the letters merge, the logo fades to blue.

Variants:

For areas that hadn't yet switched to colour, the logo is entirely in black-and-white, with the background fading to gray.
The blue color became slightly brighter in 1974.
In 1977, an additional version was added were we see 6 blue rectangles and 4 purple rectangles moving in from all sides of the screen. They briefly form a tartan pattern before colliding to form 9 light blue squares and rectangles. When then disappear fully, the lines retract to form a light blue STV logo. "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" then slide from within each other and rest when fully separated. This was dropped by 1980.

A variant used at the end of shows simply had the STV logo against a black background with "PRODUCTION FROM SCOTLAND" and a copyright date below it.

Another variant excludes "PRODUCTION FROM SCOTLAND" and a copyright date.

There was a still version with the STV logo inside the tartan pattern with the blue rectangles solid and surrounded by 4 light blue squares.

In the 1980s, there was a rotating version.

FX/SFX: The zooming letters and the fade to blue/grey. The blocks forming the logo for the tartan variant.

Music/Sounds: A French horn fanfare or none.

Availability: Extinct for the original and animated version of the additional version which was so far only seen before Scotland Today. The production variant was seen on a few shows and maybe seen on VHS of those shows. Has a Flash remake of both versions on 625.uk.com.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo
(August 31, 1985-December 1988)

Nicknames: "The Thistle", "CGI Thistle", "The Colorful Thistle"

Logo: Against a black background, we see six gray cubes, one long rectangular column, one teal sphere, and a magenta cone shape zoom-out to the left and arrange themselves onto a sheet of metal, forming an abstract thistle shape. "SCOTTISH TELEVISION", in white, fades-in below.

Variants:

For STV's 30th anniversary in 1987, after the usual thistle animation, the metal sheet is quickly replaced by a black background, and the thistle is surrounded by a small purple/blue grid. "1957" and "1987" (in white) fade in at the top, then "30 YEARS OF SCOTTISH" (in blue) fade in below.
A special Christmas variant was used in which we see a shot of snow, and a snow-sculpted thistle fades onto it. "CHRISTMAS on Scottish" wipes in above and below the thistle in a dark blue script font.
During the summer of 1988, there was a special ident identical to the Christmas ident, but with a shot of a desert before manning down to the thistle made of sand.
During 1988 there were a number of idents where the thistle is on different colour backgroud.
At the end of shows, it would show the thistle, but smaller on either the metal sheet or a black background with either "SCOTTISH TELEVISION PRODUCTION" or "SCOTTISH TELEVISION PRODUCTION FOR CHANNEL FOUR" below. It may contain the copyright date.

FX/SFX: Top-notch CGI for its time. The Christmas and Desert variants are mostly live-action.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic synth bass line with a mellow nine-note woodwind fanfare with an autoharp-like flourish. The Christmas variant uses a soft chime tune, and the desert variant uses a tune with bongos, flutes, and guitars. Sometimes, the end theme of the programme plays over the logo.

Availability: Saved on shows from the era. The animated version was seen on some prints of Taggart.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo
(January 1989-December 31, 1992)

Nicknames: "The Tiddlywinks", "The Thistle II", "CGI Thistle II"

Logo: Against a dark cloudy sky with a shady purplish floor, three plastic discs called "tiddlywinks", one red, one green, and one blue, roll forward and the camera follows them. They all fall down, one-by-one, in the appropriate order, and the camera showing that they are forming the "head" of the thistle as seen before. As the tiddlywinks fall, they all turn the thistle into their appropriate colors. The camera slightly turns upward to view the final product.

Variants:

A still variant was used at the end of programs, in which we would see the thistle in blue against a black background with "A SCOTTISH PRODUCTION FOR" and the ITVlogo below.
In early 1990, an additional variant is introduced. In which the blue thistle is shown, before the camera panned upward as a series of tiddlywinks come from the top and bottom of the screen to form the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" in a tall serif font. An abridged version of the music was used here.
From January 4th up until August 30th, 1991, there were numerous variants in which we see an aerial of Scotland including the Forth bridge, which fades to the thistle logo against a black background.
During 1992, there were a variant that takes place on a marble-like background. The thistle, appearing to be made out of glass, flips out from the right of the screen, and the screen starts to form "frost".
There is a variant for the end of the program featuring a semi-animated logo (with the thistle shimmering) and the text "SCOTTISH TELEVISION PRODUCTION (C) 'year of programme's production'", accompanied by a short jingle.
There is a variant for the version that features the ITV generic ident, which adds a copyright date underneath the ITV logo.

FX/SFX: The cloudy sky and the tiddlywinks.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized tune with a series of chimes that are timed to the falling tiddlywinks. A traditional Scottish-like tune plays for the "bridge" variant. The "frost" variant uses a cheery harp-like tune. The ending variant uses a dreamy, four note jingle.

Availability: The production variant appeared on several shows, such as Taggart. The animated end variant is used on season one episodes of Fun House. The version with the ITV logo and copyright can be found on season two episodes of the UK version of Wheel of Fortune.

Editor's Note: None.

7th Logo
(September 1-December 1989)

Nickname: "ITV Generic"

See ITV for description.

8th Logo
(January 1, 1993-October 5, 1996)

Nicknames: "Silver Thistle", "The Thistle III", "CGI Thistle III"

Logo: Against a stylized purple background, the "head" from the thistle, in silver, zooms out and slowly flips around, and as this happens, the other parts of the thistle unfold from right to left, and the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" do the same.

Variants:

A nighttime variant shows the thistle animating (slowly) against clips of Glasgow or Edinburgh scenery at night.
Christmas ident in 1993 and 1994; The logo looked like a flashing Christmas lights time with several colored lights light up around the still thistle. 1995 was a gold thistle.
During the end of it's life, it was seen without text.

FX/SFX: The background and the flipping, as well as the effects used in the other variants.

Music/Sounds: A four-note horn fanfare. The nighttime variant used a jazzy saxophone rendition of the normal music. The Christmas variant uses a gentle Christmas-like tune with harps and jingle bells.

Availability: Saved on Taggart episodes and other shows.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo
(October 6, 1996-February 27, 2000)

Nicknames: "Silver Thistle II", "The Thistle IV", "CGI Thistle IV"

Logo: Against a cloudy purple background, several large glass thistles pan back to reveal the silver thistle from before. A blurry white cloud below sharpens up to reveal the words "SCOTTISH TELEVISION" in white.

Variants:

During the nighttime, the background is a darker purple.
There is an version seen before movies with several names of genres in many different fonts. The background also darker and there are many words and objects in the background that are translucent and there are also 2 black bars, making it resemble a 16:9 ratio screen.
The production variant had the logo still with "A SCOTTISH TELEVISION PRODUCTION" or "A SCOTTISH TELEVISION ENTERPRISES PRODUCTION FOR ITV" with the ITV logo below. The former has a copyright in Roman numerals and the latter has the thistle smaller with a rhombus around it. In later years, the ITV logo was removed.

FX/SFX: The thistles and the "focusing".

Music/Sounds: A more calm-sounding version of the 8th logo's music. The nighttime variant has a soothing rendition of the music and the movie variant has a majestic theme.

Availability:

Saved on original programming, including Taggart episodes and several TV-movies.
The version without the ITV logo appears onSherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, although it is removed on most prints of the series or plastered with other logos (like Les Studios Tex on DIC Kids Network/Qubo airings, or Buena Vista International Television on some European spanish prints), although it was preserved on the first three episodes of the series found on theTV Guide Spotlight: Super Action Animation DVD from Mill Creek Entertainment, as well as some other DVD releases.

Editor's Note: None.

10th Logo
(February 28, 2000-January 5, 2003)

Nicknames: "scottishtv", "The Shiny Scottish Logo", "No Thistle"

Logo: We see a short film relating to Scotland, which culminates in the appearance of a modified version of a large square on top with several lights flashing inside it and "scottish tv" (the blue color around "tv" being slightly lighter) below appearing via a "focusing" effect.

Variants:

A production version was used, which shows the square with no lights inside it against an ethereal blue background with "scottish television production" below it.
"An SMG business" byline would by added in late years.

FX/SFX: The live-action footage and lights in the square.

Music/Sounds: A rather futuristic techno tune.

Availability: Saved on programming from the era.

Editor's Note: None.

11th Logo
(January 6, 2003-May 30, 2006)

Nicknames: "scottish tv II", "STV People"

Logo: Like the then-current generic ITV1 ident, we see a montage of various ITV1 personalities, which ends with a shot of the STV logo from before, minus the square on top, against a series of blue panels. The logo zooms toward us a bit.

Variants:

There is a different variant in which the Scottish TV logo slides toward the bottom right in pieces before coming together. Once again, this is just like the then-current ITV1 generic ident.
A regional variant was used featuring various Scottish TV personalities, and a national variant was also used featuring various ITV personalities.
Production version features only the blue bar accompanied with the smg logo. Sometimes only the smg logo appears.

FX/SFX: The panels and zooming.

Music/Sounds: A rather uninspired jazz-like tune, or an equally uninspired guitar tune. This is sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.

Availability: Saved on programming from the era.

Editor's Note: None.

12th Logo
(May 30, 2006-March 22, 2009)

Logo: In each variant various people are seen grabbing and looking around a blue "S" on different places. One of them puts the "S" on the center, and it flashes and the word "stv" appears at the left of it's bottom area.

Variant: In August 2007, The "S" was gold for the station's 50th birthday.

FX/SFX: Mostly live-action.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Can be found on programs from the era.

Editor's Note: None.

13th Logo
(March 23, 2009-June 1, 2014)

Logo: There is a random clip shown at the beginning at the logo. Later, it flips to a still picture, followed by a series of them. When the logo zooms out to the left, it reveals that they are inside of a diamond-shaped photo album on a dark blue background. The diamond then shows different colors before closing into a white arrow and bands of the colors appear in the background. "stv" in the same font then fades and flips onto the arrow as the URL appears on the bottom right corner.

Variants:

Numerous idents for various TV shows were created including South Park, Underbelly, Taggart, The X Factor, the 2010 World Cup, Downtown Abbey, STV Appeal, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Dancing on Ice, and Britain's Got Talent.
There's also variants for each season of the year.
The endcap had the "stv" text with "productions" in a different font with the "o" having the arrow in it, which may be in the background.

FX/SFX: The clips, the arrow and text flipping into place.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: The television ident is extinct, but the production logo is seen on last seasons of Taggart and other original programming.

Editor's Note: None.

14th Logo
(June 2, 2014- )

Logo: TBA

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Current.

Editor's Note: None.

Scottish Television/STV (UK)

Navigation menu

Search