Longman Video

Credits

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Background

Longman Video was the video distribution arm of Longman Press, a British publishing company, founded in 1982. It was later sold to the Pickwick Group and in 1986 it became a sub-label of Pickwick's own children's/classic brand Screen Legends.

(1982-1987)

• 

  The nearly finished logo

• 

  The finished logo

Logo: On a black background, a white abstract sail (basically a square but with the bottom edge pushed up) appears and zooms out, quickly spreading into 7 different sails colour-shifting red, green, and blue. As they spread and fixate their colours, 2 blue triangles, representing sails, and a hull that shifts from red to green, fade in and zoom out as well, forming the Longman logo at the time. The colour of the sails also finish changing, resulting in this: the middle sail is green, the sails in the main cardinal directions are red, and the bottom corner sails are blue, matching up the triangle. A white rectangle, which quickly fades to an RGB gradient, opens up on the bottom as "LONGMAN VIDEO" in a white Rockwell font, fades in on the bar, and the logo fades to white.

Technique: Computer animation.

Music/Sounds: A soothing string melody is first heard, which is followed by a synth "wah" and an echoing trumpet fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variant: An extended version also exists as well.

Availability: Very rare.

• Tapes from Longman have an RGB bar on the top of them, so find tapes with those.
• Can be seen on early prints of Nursery Rhymes, Postman Pat tapes, Little Miss, Battle Of The Planets, and more.
• It also appears at the start of the 1983 UK pre-cert VHS release of Princes and Princesses and both the 1984 UK pre-cert VHS releases of Trumpton and Camberwick Green, respectively as well.
• It also appears at the start of the 1986 UK VHS re-release of Nursery Rhymes and the 1987 UK VHS release of Beethoven's Fidelio, respectively, both after the 1986 Screen Legends logo as well.