The Star of ITV...
In 1998, ITV decided to rebrand their network logo and idents. The rebrand coincided with ITV’s move towards entertainment programming, launching alongside key formats such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Pop Idol, which went on to define ITV’s current output (both of which were among the first few formats to be commissioned by the network, rather than by an individual region).
Once again calling on English-Markell- Pockett, the designs went through a number of revisions, before being scrapped and remade for the new audiences that ITV were targeting. The heart motif was retained and the film sequences re-edited for the sequences eventually shown on the air.
Once again calling on English-Markell- Pockett, the designs went through a number of revisions, before being scrapped and remade for the new audiences that ITV were targeting. The heart motif was retained and the film sequences re-edited for the sequences eventually shown on the air.
A frame from ITV's generic look. This version is the ITV1 ident from 2001.
Carlton refused the new generic ITV style, believing them to be somewhat drab, and lamenting the fact they weren't 'flashy or glossy'. Michael Green’s ambitions for the rest of the Carlton business meant that Carlton did not take the unified ITV look.
“There was a resistance from having something imposed from above. They wanted to be their own show. They wanted to have something that had more meaning for them. And so we were asked to devise a way of referring to ITV and having the ITV name there, but being proudly Carlton.” (Eley, 2017)
Carlton initiated the project in the middle of ITV’s heart rebrand. The company asked Lambie-Nairn to alter the proposed ITV hearts identity for them;
“[...] Can you do something with this, what can you do? What can we save for ours?” (Eley, 2017).
Whilst the Carlton objected to having something imposed from above, the panicked response into the branding of the television is a clear understanding of the importance of branding by the executives at Carlton. They didn’t want their company to be associated with the ‘bland and boring’ message that the Granada/ITV appeared to be inadvertently transmitting to audiences.
Rather, they responded to it by combining it with their own distinctive look, unifying their own businesses, as well as aligning themselves with the rest of the ITV network. The project was known internally as ‘Weddings’ designed to be a ‘marriage’ between the ITV and Carlton brands, as well as unifying the three Carlton regions. Creative Director of the project Brian Eley suggests that the logo and idents were a way of branding Carlton Television as the ‘star’ of television, within the ‘heart’ of ITV.
Rather, they responded to it by combining it with their own distinctive look, unifying their own businesses, as well as aligning themselves with the rest of the ITV network. The project was known internally as ‘Weddings’ designed to be a ‘marriage’ between the ITV and Carlton brands, as well as unifying the three Carlton regions. Creative Director of the project Brian Eley suggests that the logo and idents were a way of branding Carlton Television as the ‘star’ of television, within the ‘heart’ of ITV.
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Alongside the new television idents was a new logo. Using the Gill Sans logotype designed by Lambie-Nairn in 1992, the designers added a star over the top right corner, with a gradient overlay. The project became a rebrand for the entire Carlton Media Group.
"A single new suite of on-air identities has been produced for use across Carlton's three terrestrial TV companies including Westcountry Television and Central Television. The new idents illustrate Carlton's key role in the ITV Network by including both the Carlton star and the ITV hear" (Carlton, 1999)
Carlton Visual Entertainment ident/sting.
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At the same time, Lambie-Nairn also branded the rest of the rest of the Carlton Media business, including all of their ITV regions, worldwide distribution operations, facilities companies and Carlton Screen Advertising.
Carlton's digital channels (Carlton Food Network, Carlton Cinema, Carlton Select, Carlton World, Carlton Kids) did not receive the star logo as part of the rebrand.
Carlton's digital channels (Carlton Food Network, Carlton Cinema, Carlton Select, Carlton World, Carlton Kids) did not receive the star logo as part of the rebrand.
Each ident would start with a sequence of the heart motifs, which were a mixture of CGI and Live-action models shot in a studio.
"The new identity brings an enhanced style and elegance to the environment for advertisers. Not only does this create an improved image association for the advertiser's product, but it increases flexibility by offering multi-media advertising opportunities. In an increasingly dynamic global marketplace, where brands transcend both territories and media, Carlton now has a single, recognisable public face that reflects its development into a world class media company." (Carlton, 1999)
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IDENTITY detailsPackage - 1999 'Stars'
Date - 1999 Creative Director - Brian Eley Designer/Director - Jason Keeley Music - Unknown |
Lambie-Nairn delivered a set of 10 idents on launch - this was considered quite lavish – some projects only had 4. Each ident was designed to precede a certain strand of programming – there were idents for drama, comedy, factual, sports, news, daytime etc.
Continuity
Naturally, the entire on-air brand toolkit was updated with the new style. Endcaps and menus were given the star living hold background. Again, each living hold was assigned a programme genre, although the orange/yellow versions were used as the generic backgrounds.
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Central & Westcountry
When Carlton launched their new package across the Carlton network it was hardly surprising that not everyone in Central and Westcountry regions appreciated the new identity. The material delivered to the local stations was designed to remove and replace the local identities of the stations with that of Carlton (now clearly, Television for London, the Midlands, and the South West). Their visually indulgent array of swans, strawberries and stars was introduced at the expense of the local company name, the flashy graphics an attempt to justify the new foreign name to viewers.
“Of course you’re in the face of a lot of local opposition from people who want the local... the sense of locality... the sense of being from Birmingham in the case of Central. [...] To some extent the work we were doing was about homogenising what was on offer, but the it was business led, not design led. These were design solutions to business problems. So if you give us a problem which is basically a business problem, then it’s usually this kind of balancing act, this kind of compromise between this plus this you can’t have one without another you have to have both, so you’ve got to find a neat way of tying them together.” (Eley, 2017)
Squaring the design challenges with the political challenges with this project was difficult enough for the design team. Before the material was rolled out across the Carlton network, designers and directors from Lambie-Nairn were tasked with explaining to the regional staff why they would be rebranded as Carlton Television.
"I remember we did a meeting at Central to explain to them how they would now be using Carlton’s idents. It is very difficult because... this often happens to me, it happens to every designer in television is that you convince the client to make a big dramatic change and then you point out that it’s not good enough to send out a memo to everyone to say this is what is going to happen, you’ve got to really get them to buy into it, to believe it, and they said ‘ok well you’ve made me believe it, you go and tell them’. And so, you end up being the one who ends up going on a sort of roadshow to explain to people why you’ve done this, and people will sit there, in a boardroom - heads of departments, heads of drama, [...] producers of sports programmes, dramas, comedies and so on ‘convince me, what is so cool about these, why should we be having this shit on our screens’ and you have to stand up and say this is the logic, this is where you are as a business, this is what your parent business thinks is right in this market. It was at a point where you had this patchwork of different franchises throughout Britain, which were all competing with one another but which as far as the viewer was concerned, were all offering the same product.
In this case, Carlton won. But of course, they didn’t win forever, and like all these things, they wear out, they outlive their usefulness, and they get retired."
To allay fears that the rebrand would result in changes to the local service, Carlton outlined their reasoning behind rebranding the two regions.
"The change will be most obvious to the 11.34 million viewers of the former Central and Westcountry Television regions. These award-winning regional stations now broadcast as Carlton; sharing the same impressive new on-screen identities as their sister station in London. So does this mean the end of Carlton's commitment to regional programmes? Clive Jones, Chief Executive of Carlton Television, is quick to allay fears. "Absolutely not. We're as committed as ever to making great regional programmes. To demonstrate this, our regional news shows Central News and Westcountry Live remain at the heart of the regional schedules. The brand change is a positive image investment".
"The change will be most obvious to the 11.34 million viewers of the former Central and Westcountry Television regions. These award-winning regional stations now broadcast as Carlton; sharing the same impressive new on-screen identities as their sister station in London. So does this mean the end of Carlton's commitment to regional programmes? Clive Jones, Chief Executive of Carlton Television, is quick to allay fears. "Absolutely not. We're as committed as ever to making great regional programmes. To demonstrate this, our regional news shows Central News and Westcountry Live remain at the heart of the regional schedules. The brand change is a positive image investment".
Image provided by RetroRerun
Despite their success at the time, Eley suggests that retrospectively, “some of the Carlton idents now seem absurdly over-the-top.”
