Background[]
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. (commercially styled Rai known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is Italy's national public broadcasting company founded in 1954.
RAI became one of the 23 founding broadcasting organizations of the European Broadcasting Union.
1st logo[]
1983-1986[]
Nicknames: "The Three Shapes"
Logo: On a black background with a yellowish ground made of squares there's an floating azure flat version of the Rai logo from 1983-2000. We scroll in while a blue sphere, a red square and a green tetrahedron (original symbols of the 3 Rai generic channels) come in one at times and goes up the letter "A" of the words "RAI". The camera follows the shapes until the Rai logo is framed on the screen along with the squared ground. we see the 3 shapes going away from the screen and then the squared ground rotating away in the black background. The words "RADIO TELEVISIONE ITALIANA" appears one word at time.
FX/SFX: Early CGI.
Music/Sounds: An calm eerie and three sounds when "RADIO", "TELEVISIONE" and "ITALIANA" appears.
Availability: Extinct, used for a short time on several Rai transmissions
Scare Factor: None
2nd logo[]
1986-1988[]
Nicknames: "The Three Shapes II"
Logo: On a blue/purple/azure smoking background, we see the same three shapes of the logo before flying right to the screen releasing contrails of their color. they pass a glass version of the "RAI" wordmark of precedent logo that rotates and zooms down in almost the center of the screen and "RADIO TELEVISIONE ITALIANA" fades one word at time while the three shapes goes in the place of the words "RADIO", "TELEVISIONE" and "ITALIANA".
FX/SFX: A better CGI than the precedent one.
Music/Sounds: A piano-like notes who ends with three notes
Availability: Used on several transmissions to the 1985 to the 1988
Scare Factor: None, the piano-like notes can be favorite of some.
3rd logo[]
1988-1993[]
Nicknames: "The Three Shapes III"
Logo: On a orange background, we see the three shapes from the precedent logos. them flies right to the screen where we see the letters of the wordmark of the precedent logos. the background became blue and the sphere becomes white. all the three shapes become horizontal or vertical lines which represents the flag of Italy, the glass words "RAI" goes to the center of the screen and the lines goes to replace the horizontal line of the "A".
Variants: On 1991, the vertical line are now horizontal to represent more like the flag of Italy.
FX/SFX: Same CGI of before
Music/Sounds: Notes who always ends with three notes who resembles the ones of the precedent logo
Availability: Used on several transmission on late 80's to early 90's
Scare Factor: None.
4th logo[]
1993-2000[]
Nicknames: "Crystals", "Crayon", "No Three Shapes"
Logo: On a yellow background we see some crayon paints of various colors coming out. when the screen is filled by crayon paints a barrier made of crystals lines comes from down of the screen and "RAI" in the same fonts of the precedent logos made of glass with the vertical line on the "A" with the colors of the Italian flag fades.
FX/SFX: The crayon paints moving
Music/Sounds: An collision of 7 notes with 3 different musical instruments (Piano, Electric Guitar and Sax) with the same notes
Availability: Used on several transmissions until 2000
Scare Factor: Absolutely none, this logo is a favorite of many who watch Italian television, the music sounds very upbeat.
5th logo[]
2000-2010[]
Nicknames: "The Rai Butterfly"
Logo: On a blue background we see the half part of the 2000 Rai butterfly logo. it opens it's second part, the words "Rai" fades in and 2 seconds later the logo fades away.
FX/SFX: The butterfly opening and the fading
Music/Sounds: A short dramatic fanfare
Availability: Used on programs broadcasted by Rai until 2010
Scare Factor: Minimal to low, depending what you think of the fanfare.
6th logo[]
2010-present[]
Nicknames: "The Rai Square", "Still Square", "Square of Boredom"
Logo: We just see the new Rai logo (a blue square with the words "Rai" in white in the same wordmark of before) fading in and fading out on a white background with a light orange gradient on the bottom.
FX/SFX: The fading in and the fading out
Music/Sounds: None
Availability: Currently in use in some Rai's programming after the Eurovision logo.
Scare Factor: None, it's just simple.