Carlton's different sized logos

Has anyone noticed that throughout the life of Carlton's 1999 Hearts idents, the size of the 'CARLTON' logo has changed three times?

At first, it was quite large:

http://www.tv-live.org.uk/wb/media/inthepast/carlton/24.jpg

Then made drastically smaller and shifted slightly to the right:

http://www.tv-live.org.uk/wb/media/inthepast/carlton/28.jpg

Before finally growing slightly but not as large as originally:

http://www.tv-live.org.uk/wb/media/inthepast/carlton/50.jpg

Any reason for this? It's a bit strange why they thought they needed to change it. Pointless, you might even say. And the package was only on air for three years!

You're slightly wrong there, the the smaller Carlton* logo was the first one to be used in September 1999, then by November 1999 or so it had been increased to the larger size. Carlton intially broadcasted these idents in 4:3 until C-Day on 1st July 2000 when (along with all adverts) the idents went fully 16:9, hence why the logo may look a bit smaller in the last picture. But I don't think the logo size was changed when 16:9 happened or when ITV changed to ITV1.

That would make more sense, I thought about the sizes of the images after I'd posted it. But still, why change it in the first place? To make the Carlton brand more prominent? If so it's a bit ironic considering what happened in October of 2002.

Always put it down to the result of cropping/reducing 16:9 versions to 4:3 (apparently applying no logic whatsoever ) but when placed side by side like that (and in the order Steve stated) it's clear they decided the initial version was too small in relation to the ITV logo; ever proud of their identity Carlton remained at that point, having just got shot of Central and Westcountry.

Here's an overlay of the the widescreen version over the larger text 4:3 one showing that it remained the same size post "C-day" though:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/cn9900.jpg

The differing image ratio makes it look smaller/larger in separate caps.

Note also that in the second version, the ITV(1) logo is centred with the Carlton* logo as a whole rather than just the "Carlton" part, making it appear less off.

I do have a life, yes.

Was the music re-recorded when the logo was changed? I ask because, until fairly recently, there was a version of the eye/fire ident with the initial logo that seemed to have a different theme arrangement to the one I remember.

IIRC correctly the music was different for each ident, but I don't think it was re-recorded when they changed to 16:9.

However, it could've been the case that in 'Carlton Westcountry' we only ever received the 16:9 version.

I do miss those idents.

I wonder if Carlton were persuaded to change carlton.com to ITV.com, or was it their own idea?

They were in to it. Carlton and Granada had wanted to merge for years before they finally got clearance. Remember Carlton gave up their own identity altogether a good while before the merger.

Their logo still appeared on the ITV1 regional idents in 2002 whereas all other regions just had their name in a standard generic font.

If they wanted to remain a separate entity, they would have had their logo on every junction. They weren't forced in to it, they were a willing participant.

I don't think so...they very much stressed the Carlton name in their newly-named regions. I got the impression that they gave it up under duress.

I think it was more to do with the relaunch of ITV.com at the time. Before this the main ITV website was at itv.co.uk and most programmes had their own address (itv-football.co.uk, thismorning.co.uk etc).