Valve Corporation

1st Logo

(1998)

Nickname: "The Valve"

Logo: We zoom in over the exterior of a big dark gray building (sort of like a jail), and go through one of the windows. We see a shirtless bald man wearing long pants getting ready to pull a lever that starts-up a weird-looking machine that looks kinda like a letter press. He puts his profile on the base and when the thing (which has the Valve logo on it) goes over his head, it plants a dark red valve on the side of his head. He gets up, strangely without any ache or pain whatsoever as if nothing happened.

FX/SFX: Nice animation for its time, showcasing the GoldSrc engine.

Music/Sounds: Various factory sounds. The next logo's music can be also heard, but it's very hard to hear without headphones.

Availability: It was only used as a tech demo for the GoldSrc engine.

Scare Factor: Medium; the valve going on the man's head along with the ominous music may creep some out. This is not the scariest logo used by Valve, however.

Nicknames: "Open Your Eyes", "(Scary) Valve Man", "The Valve II"

2nd Logo (1998-2004)

Logo: On a black background, we see a fading-in sepia tone picture of a young man with black slick back hair(or something like that) with a goatee looking at the camera with a red valve sticking out of his left eye. After the picture fades in, a withe box outline fades in in the bottom right corner of the picture, containing the word "VALVE" where the "E" is a superscript. Both the picture and the text then fade out slightly faster than the speed they faded-in.

Trivia: The man in the picture was that of a former Valve employee (his name was never disclosed). Both this picture of the man and the picture used in the next logo were taken between 1995 and 1996.

Variant: For Half-Life 2, the color of this logo has been toned down from its original sepia, the fade-in and fade-out are smoother, "trembling" effects are added to the photo and copyright stamps follow the fade-out.

FX/SFX: The picture and text fading-in and out, the choppiness.

Cheesy Factor: Is this even suitable for a logo?! The animation of the logo fading-in and out looks slightly choppy. And the valve in the man's eye is a very disturbing sight to see, but judging by the games that follow it, this is probably intentional.

Music/Sounds/Trivia: A fragment of "Hazardous Environments", a song composed for the company's first video game: Half-Life. See previous logo.

Availability: Uncommon. Seen on the non-Steam, original CD versions of Half-Life and Counter-Strike. The color toned variant is seen on Half-Life 2. Sadly, Steam versions of Half-Life 2 use the next logo, while Steam versions of Half-Life and Counter-Strike have no logo at all. However, the logo can be seen after the credits of Half-Life 2: Episode One, just before a trailer for Half-Life 2: Episode Two, on both the original CD and Steam versions (though it can't be seen on the PS3 and 360 versions (that are included in The Orange Box) since the trailer is omitted from those versions). Can also be seen on the Xbox versions of Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike.

Scare Factor: Medium to high; the strange picture of the man along with the disturbing, ominous music can unnerve many players, especially if they get caught off guard. However, this logo is harmless compared to the next one....

Nicknames: "Open Your Mind", "(Scary) Valve Man II", "The Valve III", "Coach from Left 4 Dead 2"

3rd Logo

(2006- ) Logo: On a black background, we see a fading-in sepia tone picture of a man's bald head (with most of his head and face silhouetted by darkness) with a red valve sticking out of it. Similar to the previous logo, after the picture fades in, a white box outline fades in in the bottom right corner of the picture, containing the word "VALVE" where the "E" is a superscript. Both the picture and the text then fade out slightly faster than the speed they faded in. On some games, the logo is followed by another logo saying "powered by source" (Valve's game engine)with an orange symbol surrounding the "E" and copyright stamps below.

Trivia: The man in the picture was randomly picked off of the street to pose for this picture. His name was never verified.

Variant: On Dota 2, and the Steam version of Portal 2 (after later updates), the man in the picture (slighty more life-actioned) briefly turns his head towards the camera near the end of the logo before cutting back to normal. The picture also fades in and fades out at the same speed. In addition, the Valve print logo (with the box outline and the letters now in a light tan color) doesn't fade into the picture or fade out with the picture, it instead fades in and out (via "wipe" effect) by itself after the picture fades out. This will presumably be seen on future games from the company.

FX/SFX: Same as previous, but the trembling effects is increased.

Cheesy Factor: Same as previous.

Music/Sounds: Same as previous.

Availability: Seen on all Valve games from Half-Life 2: Episode One onwards. The "turning head" variant appears in the aforementioned games above.

Scare Factor: Depending on the variant:
 * Original Variant: Medium. Like its predecessor, the picture along with the disturbing, ominous music can unnerve many players, but this logo is nowhere near as freaky-looking as the first one was.
 * "Turning Head" Variant: High to nightmare (although this was arguably intentional), the once-still picture of the man now turning his head towards the camera is bound to surprise players used to the original variant as well as first-time viewers. The retained ominous music doesn't help matters.