The Gallery

ITV 1989 Generic Idents

More dynamic (February 2017)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WH
Whataday Founding member
One of the first presentation websites I ever came across was a single page dedicated to ITV's Generic Idents of 1989. At the time, the ITV hearts hadn't come along so this was the only attempt up to that point. Under each static image read the status of the idents (ie "Unused", "Used until 1993" or in the case of Grampian, "Still in use")

It's the unused versions that drew my attention the most, mainly because they were so dreadful to the point that you couldn't even make out the logo enclosed within the triangle of the V.

So a little mock here, pondering whether those unused idents would have worked any better if they were a little more dynamic, and weren't completely confined to the shape of a triangle.

(The actual unused idents can be found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjxGZYZ8jkg)

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AG
AxG
Certainly makes them stand out more, wouldn't look out of place next to the second Yorkshire version. Smile
LL
Larry the Loafer
It's a great idea. Some logos work better than others but that's something you can't really control without giving them completely new logos.
MF
MatthewFirth
These are very impressive.
:-(
A former member
Very good, Maybe TVS would look better if it was in the same style as the Chevron, I dont think that idea would work for Stv nor Central.

26 days later

JA
JAS84
These do look good. We know that Anglia's had the triangle colours the wrong way around, Granada's lacked the line between the arrowhead and the G, and Ulster's, TSW's, and TVS's were just plain unrecognisable (I think TVS's was based on the 3D bevel of the letter S, and completely ignored their actual symbol!). If these were what they were offered instead, perhaps only Anglia (who didn't want to throw out their year old ident package that ended up lasting 11 years) and TSW (who felt it didn't suit their image) would've rejected it, and the other regions may have kept theirs longer (Yorkshire, with it's edited version, was the second to last one to axe it, Grampian of course being last when they were forced by the ITV corporate logo change).
:-(
A former member
If there idents were better maybe there could have done What stv did and just use it along side its main idents?

It strange Stv and centrel went for this middle ground,
WH
Whataday Founding member
Perhaps TSW would have bitten had there been more compromise?

MF
MatthewFirth
Very good ident. 4/5
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Perhaps TSW would have bitten had there been more compromise?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCpA0NGY-DI


Hmm, personally I don't like that and I would probably suggest it defeated the point of the 1989 look as not all the logos were flexible like that one for TSW. That being said, the TSW logo was always going to be a pain to fit properly in the triangle and I suspect TSW would not be convinced either way.

But yes, the entire look looks better IMO with more recognisable logos and more of said logos. Great job Smile
WH
Whataday Founding member
I actually based the idea on this so called proto-type which suggests the original concept was to have the station idents morph into the ITV ident:

CW
cwathen Founding member
Perhaps a development of this could have seen the full logos resolve around and outside the V (or a bit more of them as you've done here) and then fade back to just leave the bit inside the V.

That way they could have retained the integrity of the V but you could still see where the portion of the regional logo in it had come from. More satisfactory than the solution they went for of going for abstract re imaginings of existing brandings to make it fit.

Does anyone know any more about how much different stations were consulted whilst these were being designed? Many stations ended up with their branding unsatisfactorily accommodated and so said no, even though the presentation had been made for them. It seemed in those cases that these were seemingly just sent to them and they have no input into the design.

Yet the Thames XXI branding from the summer before these idents launched clearly was designed in readiness for the corporate look, with the V-shaped Skyline symbol that could then be transplanted pretty much unchanged into the corporate ident. There's no way that was just coincidence. Clearly they knew what was coming and had the chance to be consulted and agree on the outcome so that they could update their branding in readiness for it, and the result was a corporate ident which worked much better than most others.

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