One thing I found "distinctive" about the studio as a child was that strip of colour at the top of the desk, which was yellow for daytime bulletins but red for evening bulletins. I don't know the significance of using those two colours amid a sea of blue (!) but was it possibly a nod to the News at Ten logo of the time? You know, the red/yellow bars next to the text?
Wow, I never thought of that! Again, as a spotty adolescent at the time, I probably didn't pay as much attention as I would now. I think you're probably right there, as the News at Ten logo did have hints of yellow and red.
The titles were also great, and I can't even tell whether it's CGI or a physical model of the clock tower. Great stuff from Lambie-Nairn, and with that Hewson theme, well, you've pretty much got the best cohesive branding. The 1999 branding was nice to see at the time as I recall, but looking back, I really don't think it has aged as well as the previous look.
Yes, it was magnificent. We were lucky growing up in the 90s. On one side we had the awesome BBC "virtual era" with its cut glass virtual reality studio and impressive orchestral themes; and on the other we had this fantastic presentation for ITV News. I feel sorry for the kids growing up today as news presentation is a bit lame these days. I can't see many people looking back on the current ITV News branding with admiration in 15-20 years.
Robert thanks for starting the topic as you've thrown light on some oddities - was there any particular reason for the overnight service sticking with the '95 look for more than a year after the '99 relaunch? Revamping in stages just seems to be something they did back then, I guess!
No problem, Nicky. I always love to discuss old ITN presentation

I've never really come to a conclusion with that one either. The 1999 revamp coincided with a move from the atrium-side studio to Studio 1 in the basement for the main bulletins. One can only assume it was easier/cheaper to run the other studio overnight? But they moved into the basement eventually so I guess that's not really a valid excuse. I'm fairly sure the overnights were probably kicked out just before the launch of the ITN News Channel in August 2000, which then occupied that studio space (now home to ITV London). Another guess might be that they knew the News Channel was on its way in 1999 and wanted to keep the studio and control room operational so left overnight news to broadcast from there until the time was right to start building a new set? I wish someone could provide a conclusive answer!
While we're on the subject, didn't the look of News at Ten undertake several "amendments" after the initial November 1992 relaunch? There were at least two different sequences showing the studio in the newsroom (one from inside the newsroom and the other looking in from the atrium IIRC). There were also changes to the music - the music used in the first year or so sounds almost "too" subtle! It was re-recorded but seems to have been changed yet again at some point after that, to add in the long drumroll at the top of theme. I don't think it settled until 1995 or so. Weird - this kind of thing would never happen now, would it!
You're right, those changes did happen. I know the first version of the 'new' News at Ten theme tune wasn't used for very long at all. It launched in November 1992 and it was certainly gone by January or February 1993 as I recall seeing a YouTube video of a programme from that time and it was using the re-recorded version. That version, as far as I can tell, lasted until some time in mid to late 1993 when the drum roll at the start was extended. And yes originally they used a pre-recorded flying shot over the newsroom towards the studio (you can tell it's pre-recorded as Trevor has the same clothes on each time!) but this was replaced in 1993 (I think) with a new 'live' shot from across the atrium (well, I say 'live', but the opening titles were most likely recorded 'as live' each night). I think these changes coincided with the dropping off the full-screen frontcap. More changes happened in 1995... the ITN logo changed; the voiceover altered (dropping 'From the headquarters of ITN...'); and the bong sting at the end of the headlines was also dropped. And if memory serves, it remained like that until 1999. Remarkable that so many changes happened to one programme in such a short space of time. We'd have had a field day with all that had TV Forum existed back then.
Sorry to drag this topic back a bit from its remit, but I just wanted to say that although I love the 1995 (and NAT 1992) music, some of my all time favourites come from the previous era:
http://youtu.be/zHXKnWUXk5A?t=17s - this is one heck of a news theme! That takes me right back to my childhood on Saturday and Sunday evenings!
http://youtu.be/SYnCKolFYAw?t=16s - and this one takes me back to my grandparents' house. We always used to watch Blockbusters before tea and this would come on straight afterwards.
And of course...
http://youtu.be/12kk6WfoIvM?t=2m9s - definitely a classic! So simple and understated yet quite authoritative. They don't make 'em like these anymore.