Channel 4 Clock 1996

Apologies for the somewhat ropey picture quality




This originated from an idea to create a fully-functional clock based on the 1996 look - the first C4 era which didn't use a live on-screen clock - and whether it could be made to plausibly look like it was aired for a short time in September, which required a bit of editing...

The little analog clock icon that was used prominently on trail endboards and appears in the Schools sequences... I thought it could be nice to create something to tie-in with that. At larger size, some of the features looked too 'chunky', so needed just a bit of slimming-down.

I had some trouble getting a suitable existing copy of the logo to match up in a way that looked right at the smaller size, and so opted to redraw a version of the logo with spacing that seemed to fit, and hopefully looks close enough.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/90636698/C4-LOGO-96-T.png
Recreated Channel 4 logo

After getting the clock up and running, the rest of the design is where the problems were (or possibly still are) - I had considered how to link it in with the 'four circles' connections idea which was part of the majority of Pres; I wasn't sure if it was lacking without it -- in the end, it seemed like linking the two 'missing' circles into the design without any purpose and empty looked unnecessary, so decided against it.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/90636698/C4-CLOCK_4CIRCLES_DRAFT_REJ.jpg
A basic design idea incorporating the four circle connections into the clock; this was rejected

Re: the background, the plan was to go for a bronze-gold colour similar to the main generic ident, but it was a problem getting it to look right! The first version had a texture that looked awful translated to VHS. I settled on soft-blurring it.

The junction mockup actually started out as a bit of April Fools fun I played last week, to see if it looked the part - and it worked well The clock was written to disc, dubbed to tape, brought back in to edit (with a sneaky bit of audio tweakery...), and then the whole thing dubbed to VHS again for capture. Bit fiddly, but quite fun to assemble!

Click on the image below to see the clock - in widescreen - currently ticking away:

Wow! I'm really impressed! Really good mock Paul! 4/5

As always Paul, absolutely fantastic.

Really like that!

Great mock, and nice of you to include a detailed description of how you made it.

Fantastic stuff, Paul. Design and transitions are spot on and agree with your decision to drop the empty two circles. Effort well spent transferring to/from VHS also.

Good effort, though I would say the rather pointless extra circles should be retained for consistency with the branding. Also the hands on the clock a bit too thick IMO - and wondering if those two extra circles could perhaps be iintegrated into the hands of the clock (though it may look a bit ****!)

I have to say that the execution is really good - I love the fact it's a working clock, and I think it looks authentic. I'm not a massive fan of the design however - of course, you're designing for 1996, but I think the clock hands could do with some refining, and the background could be a bit less Election 83 brown (not a massive change).

Overall, I'd give it a 4/5.

I wanted to give this 5 stars - I mispressed- assume my vote was 5 not 4...

A good piece of work let down only by the fact that the little triangle in the 4 is actually too big and therefore out of line with the diagonal and vertical blocks below.

Excellent work

Top triangle on the four is an easily rectified mistake. I'm only overlooking it because you've put the effort in to animate your work.

4/5

Tips for improvement:
- Animated background would give this a bit more life, and get you 5/5.