MTV Show Logos by Beau Tardy in 1992

MTV Show Logos designed by Beau Tardy
in the on-air graphics department at MTV in 1992.

During the regular course of daily duties at MTV as a designer in the on-air graphics and animation department, I was often tasked with coming up with logos for show opens. Often these would be animated, but sometimes the producer just needed a digital logo to take into an edit session and composite it with other footage. These were designed on Quantel V-Series Paintbox and Harriett. The better producers would come in and sit during the session while I designed the logos, others just phoned it in. Some producers became friends and we would spend countless hours in session coming up with great ideas for graphics. These logos are for the more typical MTV fare at the time and were used by the News or Promotions department for their shows. I don't know which ones of these actually made it to air simply because I couldn't afford cable at the time in my little shared tenement apartment on Ave. B in the Lower East Side. They payed us very little and worked us like crazy. But I was happy to get my work on MTV in front of millions of people. 

New painting for sale. ***SOLD***

***sold*** She's A Phoney ©Beau Tardy
Original acrylic on canvas 18x24" $200

MTV News graphics on Quantel Paintbox by Beau Tardy in 1992.

This one is for @DextersTechLab This is a screen grab from my work at MTV making news graphics on the Quantel Paintbox in 1992. Recued from thermal prints I kept all these years 🤯📺💫I will be making a video about this soon. 😀#MTV #paintbox before #Photoshop #90s #TV pic.twitter.com/E47uNmilvF

— Dizzy💫📺 (@DizzyTV) March 19, 2021

MTV on-air graphics created in 1992 by Beau Tardy.

On-air graphics made for MTV in 1992 by Beau Tardy.

Here's a good example of some of the behind the scenes design work that would go into on-air graphics. On the right the logo I liked for MTV's Most Wanted and on the left the one that was chosen for broadcast. I was already channeling vaporwave vibes back in 1992! This work was done on Quantel Hal as part of our everyday duties of providing producers with on-air graphics and original designs.

So grateful to ALT+CTRL+K for the amazing support. Check their work here -->ALT+CTRL+K

DizzyTV is one of my all-time favorite artists. So excited he’s minted his first piece!!! Would buy in a second if I weren’t a little low rn. https://bit.ly/3cRj1Al

— ALT+CTRL+K (@ALTCTRLK) March 16, 2021