From 1999: Court TV by Lee Hunt Associates

Founded in 1991 to air non-stop courtroom proceedings, Court TV rose to prominence in the sleazier period of the '90s where numerous trials dominated American news. It would then spend a decade trying to get away from that reputation to feature more documentary-style programming, before finally changing its name to truTV.

One of the first attempt to broaden the network's remit was the 1999 rebrand by Lee Hunt Associates that saw the introduction of the thumbprint logo. The project was headed by creative director Bob English and designer Kylie Matulick.

In addition to the thumbprint logo, the team also created a series of idents based on still photography, with knives, guns and other crime scene objects for the night-time programming and scales and law books for the courtroom proceedings during the day.

The new look was announced on April 2 and launched on April 12, 1999.

LHA was formed in 1990 and would become one of the many prominent TV branding agencies that flourished as the number of cable channels exploded. This was one of the last projects under the Lee Hunt Associates banner. Later in 1999, the agency would be acquired by Razorfish who would operate it as their broadcast design unit for a few more years.

Previous logo.

This logo lasted until 2005, when Court TV relaunched again. Maybe we'll cover that one in the future.

Below are a few idents from YouTube channel PastMeetsPresent, recorded in the year 2000 but most likely from the 1999 graphics pack.

Press release
Lee Hunt