ZDF Fault cards, Test cards, Presentation and History

[Flooski]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is within the scope of this forum, but I saw this programme the other day that discusses ZDF's presentation and related German broadcasting history, including how the East and West German broadcasters competed and eventually combined.

https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zdfinfo...o-102.html

It's geoblocked, but if you set your VPN to DE, there's a lot to enjoy, even if you don't speak German, as the imagery tells the story.

The highlights for me were:

• Voting shows that had viewers turning lights on to vote via national electricity usage changes

• Some beautiful Fault cards

• A brief meeting of the artist that created programme cards

• A review of teletext (how it works, how it was used and promoted across the West/East border, etc.), plus a namecheck to Ceefax!

Hope this is of interest!

[Onion Terror]

I always liked how ZDF was probably the first broadcaster to have its own custom typeface, used from the early 70s right up until the 90s. Could never find out if was made commercially available.

Anybody recall a series called Starparade? Shown on ITV late Saturday nights around 1981/2. This was a ZDF variety show centred around the James Last Orchestra, repackaged by STV with just the musical acts (and minus anything in German). There's a few original Starparades on YouTube.

[Flooski]

I turned up a bit late to the ZDF party (early 2010s), so didn't get to see that typeface in use. I'll have to do some googling!

[TheMike]

The ZDF Font, which was phased out during the late 90s and early 00s:
https://en.m.fontke.com/font/20621840/