SELECTED BY
WOODY PIRTLE
THE CBS EYE LOGO
DESIGNED BY
WILLIAM GOLDEN
The CBS symbol, designed by William Golden in 1951, is a modern classic that after decades of exposure to tens of millions of viewers every day, has proven to be one of the most enduring symbols in the history of graphic design.
Inspired by the illustration of an eye in an article on Shaker design by Alexey Brodovitch, Golden created the stylized icon just as television was emerging as the dominant medium of communication in America.
The symbol’s majestic simplicity and its ability to immediately connect the network with its audience has given CBS an identity that is as powerful and appropriate today as it was when it was designed almost sixty years ago.
In my view, it is unlikely to ever become dated because its reductive quality allows for infinite flexibility when applied across multiple mediums.
The Golden eye and its accompanying Didot logotype, which was hand-drawn by staff designers George Lois and Kurt Weihs, has established a benchmark of quality for all of us who create symbols, logotypes, and identity programs to aspire to. For me, this is the symbol and logo-type that always comes to mind when I ask myself if I have created a design that is simple, appropriate, and timeless.
Woody Pirtle established Pirtle Design in Dallas, Texas, in 1978. In 1988, he became a partner of Pentagram. For eighteen years Pirtle was a partner in the New York office. In 2005, he reestablished Pirtle Design. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Neue Sammlung Museum in Munich, the Zurich Poster Museum, and others. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious AIGA Medal for his career contribution to the design profession.