ITV4

I think he means the logo is joined like this [ i t v ] and not like this [ i ][ t ][ v ], nothing to get excited about though. I think I remember that logo floating around before the launch of ITV3, that's probably how it would've looked had they not changed everything in November.

So, is this whole 'starting with a lower-case letter' thing, like the 'i' in 'itv', out of date now or what? It seemed like a fad at the time but it's still with us. Lots of companies use it. I'm bored of it. Caps is the future!

I'm not sure that I have a preference. For me, it's just the look of the letters that the companies go for. In my mind, capital letters appear more harsh, and strong, such as the BBC. I don't think channels like five would look as friendly if a similar logo was created with capital letters.

Though thinking about it, isn't it ironic that the radio station 'Capital' use all lowercase letters in their logo!

When exactly does ITV4 launch and will it be on Freeview?

Heavens above. Type "ITV4" in Google, and the first link will give you the answer to both of your questions.

Ha!

Well the marketing speak b**locks which ITV used to justify their new logo in 1998 was that the uppercase was 'too formal'. Hence the move to lowercase, so ITV appeared all cuddly and friendly and gave you a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside - apparently.

It does appear the gramatically bankrupt 'graphic' design of recent years (a bit of a contradiction in terms given the dull text-based logos which are the norm now) which has seen using capital letters a big no-no might be dying off.

The througoughly daft rebrand of Abbey National to that stupid pastle coloured 'abbey' in 2004 has now been quietly abandoned and replaced with a sensibly capitalised version of the word and nice little graphic next to it.

Sense does seem to be slowly coming back into fashion again. Just waiting for C5 to announce that 'five could mean anything. We're a channel, and we want to convey that to our viewers. And you can do so much more with a numeral than you can with letters. Therefore, we are rebranding to Channel 5, in order to better touch our key demographic and appearing clearer, more coherent, and simpler so that our viewers might better associate with us'.


Talking of things going out of fashion, crying 'will it be on Freeview?' at every impending channel launch is so 2003...

I think you will find that Abbey National have been forced to change their logo (at great expense) in order to bring them into the Banco Santander "family" (the new owners). The new logo and typeface is merely the BS corporate look. I don't think it is a signal of their dissatisfaction with the 2004 re-vamp (although I agree it was AWFUL )

EDIT: The new look may cost them upwards of £3M to implement (what with stationary, branch frontages etc) but at least they now look like a bank rather than a kindergarten

I actually rather liked the soft "abbey" logo - it was very different and quite brave for a bank. It certainly made it stand out from the crowd. I also thought the branch frontages were really attractive. The new logo is awful, it looks so old-fashioned and so dull compared to the old look.

Talking about the lowercase logos, I really don't see a problem with them. I agree that most marketing speak about it being "more approachable" and "in-touch with the viewer" is complete nonsense, but in my mind it simply boils down to whether lowercase letters work better together in a logo than uppercase. There are certain letters that you can do much more with in creative terms, when in lowercase, than you can in uppercase, to end up with a more attractive logo.

cwathen - I notice you're not such a stickler for "sensible capitalisation" in your signature image, or indeed your username!

I also agree with benjy I liked the old abbey logo it was soft and modern looking but the new one is thrash and old fasioned

Anyway maybe ITV will remain with the blocks but have the iron/silver looking colour with dark blue ?