ITV Rebrand and New Logo

I am also excited, and it will be a major thing for ITV this. I know many people say "oh its just another rebrand, big deal" etc, but for someone like me who loves TV pres this is my christmas!

I really hope they do pull it all off well, and actually do launch everything on the same day, so new ITV(1), ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV, ITV News, ITV Sport (if any sport stuff is seen on the day), itv.com and any other ITV branded stuff.

The one thing I am really quite worried about is the new ITV(1) idents, I know we haven't seen anything, and haven't really heard much, but I am really worried its going to be the 'Emotions' idents all over again, with live action footage of people doing normal everyday boring stuff, with the logo just slapped on over the top!

What I would love to see (which won't happen) is for the logo to be the focus point, and even made into a major feature, a bit like the current I'm A Celebrity break bumpers and the ITV2 Christmas ident. These both focus on the logo itself, and it works extremely well.

Also, on the night before the new look launches, will we get a compliation of the current look? I know they've never done this before, but I think it would be lovely if they did. Bit like when BBC One did it with the Dancers idents... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhNhEwzKt0
It would be a nice fairwell to what has been, overall, quite a good look for ITV1 (for me anyway). And of course they can play that famous ident music in full throughout the playout

Anyway, best of luck to ITV with this, I really do want it to go well for them, but somewhere in the back of my mind I am really worried about it all, as if it is bad, we are stuck with it on all channels and have lost a good package on all 4 main channels.

Prepare for disappointment!

Tomo, I would also love to see them use the logo in a creative way within idents. Part of me feels that more of this should have been tried before throwing away the current logo. I just feel like we're going to end up in a vicious circle, and wind up in 2006 with different logos.

BBC2 did it with the yellow 2s as well. Scroll to the bottom: http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/bbctwo/2001_idents.html

OMG how could I forget the 2!! Its only like the best example of how to use a logo in an ident! Loved those.

I also like it when a channel with a number in it (BBC2, Sky1 etc) use just the numeral in the idents, like the Sky1 idents from 2008 http://www.theidentgallery.com/sky1-2008.php
No Sky logo in sight, they just rely on the '1' (and 2 & 3) and it worked really well. TV3 (Ireland) does this well as well http://tv-live.org.uk/wp/index.php/world/ireland/tv3/tv3/2009-2011/

It'll be great if ITV can do it all in one day - one of my pet hates is relaunches in stages, though I think for some they'll have to wait a little bit longer for new regional news studios, but will presumably get a relit studio in the interim. To be honest though I doubt it'll do much to change perceptions of ITV - ITV2/3/4 are all in fairly good shape while apart from dropping it's 1 and new branding we're not expecting any major changes to ITV1.

It's an obvious answer but I really do think to rebuild ITV they need to do it from the ground up, so that's starting in the regions and re-establishing that local connection with viewers again, something that's arguably more important than ever with dozens of TV channels around plus the impending launch of local TV stations. We know already these local channels will be run on the cheap, so ITV pushing the quality and trusted angle with their regional news service (even if it is run on the cheap) and perhaps making the effort to get at least one flagship local series in the schedules each year could help re-establish that connection with viewers in the regions.

To add to comments from Tomo and fanoftv -- it's also been my view for a long time that the logo itself should be the focus.

ITV has got stuck in the 'small logo beside some edited footage' approach for too long, since the low of 2006; and it's that style - one that honestly has never put the 'ITV' on screen brand front and center - which I've always felt has been the real problem here - not the logo per se.

The I'm A Celebrity stings especially, and idents such as Christmas 2010, are great examples of what can be done with the logo as the focus in a way that is, IMO, more engaging and could have been a step forward.

The mention of how colour would work and change with the new ITV logo, and what seemed to be a particular focus on this in the earlier press release, gave the impression that the logo itself was the key feature, perhaps being placed at the fore. After all, why have the apparently most interesting concept applied to a logo, only for it to then be completely (and literally) sidelined to make way for dull stock-esque clips?

Sadly, from the stills and info, it honestly looks like they've done just that, all over again.

Of course there may be some masterstroke that saves this from the previous pitfalls, or a genius branding element that makes up for everything else. But with regards to idents, this looks on course to repeat the mistakes of 7 years previous. I just sense another wasted opportunity... Hope I'll be proved totally wrong on all this, but I doubt it.

It's all the design consultants seem to know thesedays. Presumably because they can't put a load of marketing claptrap behind an ident like say the ones Carlton had at the end, but can when they are carefully choosing some imagery to slap a logo on.l

What a women walking through an eastern street market means to viewers of ITV1, I don't know, yet time and time again those in charge seem to buy it.

It would be interesting to know what some of these so called branding experts make of some TV classics - I suspect things like the Central cake and C4 logo would never have got off the ground with them around. After all, what on earth does a logo in the shape of a 4 say about C4.

Really can't wait to see what they've come up with for the news and regional news, the latter I don't think they've ever got quite right since they all took on the same look back in the 4 squares era.

Don't go overboard on the optimism guys.

I think the 2006 teal-era was a wonderful cohesive branding for ITV news and current affairs. They all had their own specific looks (national, regional, political programming) but were tied together with the colours and the graphics used. Yes, the rectangular ITN atrium on the national news may have looked too awkward in the circular studio used at the time, but I think the entire look seemed marvellous in that initial design.

IMO it all fell apart when they decided that ITV News was too separate from ITV1's own image, and began unpicking the entire branding one by one - first by recolouring the national news studio without changing any of the teal graphics/titles (and indeed leaving the regional news mostly untouched), and secondly by later removing ITV News' key branding device, the big ben clock. It wouldn't have been as bad, but ITV News taking on elements of ITV1's identity made very little sense to me - ITV1 has never really found it's own particular identity, and is perhaps weaker as a brand than ITV News.

I'm glad to see they're not making that mistake again with this rebrand, and giving news/current affairs a specific branding all of its own. I'm intrigued as to what they've come up with this time...