One of the most recognizable logo brands of the 20th century, one that's still around (with modernized variations) here in the 21st, celebrates its 60th anniversary Thursday. It's the CBS eye, which, only in the most literal sense, is a black eye on the face of the CBS network. Otherwise, it's a marketing triumph that would make Don Draper weep with pride.
The CBS Eye, with the CBS Television Network identified in the pupil, and with the eye floating behind a sky of black-and-white clouds, was broadcast for the first time on Oct. 20, 1951...
It was a busy, unbelievably fruitful period for CBS. I Love Lucy, which would change the face of situation comedy and become the most popular TV program in the country, had premiered less than a week earlier (on Oct. 15, 1951). See It Now, the Edward R. Murrow newsmagazine that eventually would help topple the Communist witch hunts of Sen. Joe McCarthy, would premiere less than a month later (on Nov. 18, 1951).
According to the official CBS account, the CBS Eye was the brainchild of CBS creative director Bill Golden, who had been asked by network chairman William S. Paley to design a distinctive logo for CBS. Working with graphic artist Kurt Weihs, Golden came up with what was then a somewhat surrealistic, very modern design, with the suggested shape of a human eye floating in mid-air, staring back at the viewer.
As the CBS story has it, Golden was inspired by driving through the Pennsylvania Dutch country, and seeing all the bold, circular hex signs mounted or painted on the sides of barns to ward off evil. It's a nice story, and you'll probably hear or read it this week, as CBS trumpets word of its own logo's anniversary.
But the real inspiration for the CBS eye, I suspect, was something hung not on the side of a barn in Pennsylvania, but on a museum wall in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art:
Rene Magritte's The False Mirror (right), which presented a close-up view of a single human eye -- but instead of being sky-blue-eyed, this particular eye contained a blue sky, complete with clouds.
Magritte's The False Mirror was painted in Paris, and completed in 1928 -- a full 23 years before CBS unveiled its corporate logo.
CBS may insist the similarity to Magritte's surrealistic vision is mere coincidence, and perhaps it is...
But eye know what eye think.