CNN+ bookends shows with vanity production card

CNN+ began streaming its first bytes March 28, 2022, one day ahead of its official launch.

This is CNN+: How a plus sign was created using the iconic cable news brand’s logo look

Each show on the streamer, which includes a back library of CNN-produced documentaries and series as well as original live and taped programming, is sandwiched by a production vanity card featuring an animated version of the streamer’s logo.

The logo, first introduced in July 2021, features the familiar interconnected CNN letters with a distinct plus sign crafted to match the same design elements found in the original logo.

Both cards feature the same animation, with the letters tracing themselves out into a subtle embossed element that fades in to the bold red background, but a different musical cue is used on the one that is included at the start of the program than at the end.

Opening version

Closing version

The vanity cards appear to be “baked in” to the video files, rather than inserted dynamically, because many shows actually use complex animated wipes to transition from the card to their own opening graphics or shot.

CNN is notable in that it has used essentially the same logo since it launched, albeit with a countless variety of slight modifications and different textures and appearances applied to it over the years.

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