Truly a timeless logo for sure, stylish and confident, but not overbearing. It somewhat reminds me of a predecessor to the PlayStation logo, actually, similar colours and both were originally made out of 3D shapes to show off technology of the time (CGI being new in the 80s for C4 and real-time 3D graphics for the PS one as it'd be rendered in real time when starting up a game). Both also were made primarily two-dimensional and monochrome later in their lifecycles as design trends simplifed. Wonder if the folks over at Sony were inspired by Channel 4's wonderful logo or if it was just a fun coincidence ; ^ )
I will never be able to unsee this association now. Thank you for making me dislike the blue and yellow era of ITV even more than I already did (although not really, I love Ikea)
that spoiled ITV for me. growing up in the 70's and 80's I loved seeing the different regional contractors with their individual identity and programme style/expertise. And how the newcomers would fit in with the established old guard. I only experienced that once in 1982 and then only on networked output. The 1989 corporate makeover placed the emphasis on the ITV brand for the first time, which was really the beginning of the path to where we are now. It was inevitable in the multi channel landscape that was coming, but the old ITV had a more friendly personality.
@@michaelmcdonald2348 My love for the 1989 logo notwithstanding, I do really miss the local identities and wish they were still with us. Growing up, I had Central (strictly pre-Carlton) and Tyne Tees and I was fascinated by the former's "cake" ident and had the 'pleasure' of seeing the latter being rebranded as "Channel 3 North East" (🤢). Thankfully TTTV came back after a couple of years with a fantastic identity right before it disappeared with the garish blue and yellow ITV logo. It would be brilliant if they brought them back...
Channel 5's history can be described as 5 in a circle five word art Five word art in a circle 5 in a circle using Microsoft paint Channel 4 logo off of Wish
Channel 5's logo history is even worse than ITV's, a good majority of their logos looked whipped up by a kid in MS Paint on a school computer instead of doing their history report. Current one is incredibly generic
Another great video! You probably want to keep your videos UK-focused, but the logos used by Antenne 2/France 2 (and the other France France Télévisions channels) would make for an interesting video. And in the UK, you've got Channel 5 and Sky, of course.
That latest gradient logo reminds me of old Amiga demos from the late eighties where suddenly there were 4096 colours to play with on screen and boy are we gonna use them... funny how fashion comes around and around... gradients are out of style, let's just keep it simple... no, let's bring it alive with a riot of obnoxious colour... no let's reign it in again and have a corporate palette.. good vid!
I think one thing to think about when looking at the very basic ITV logo, is that even though it didn't do very much, it was still very visually distinguishable from the BBCs logo, so telling the channels apart at a visual glance was easy. Also I really love the mid 70s ITV linework logo, for some reason this one sticks in my mind more than the other early ones. It also reminds me of the Tempo Video ident on their VHS releases.
I've never thought using lower case lettering for the ITV logo is a very good idea, it doesn't really make the channel look as important as a logo with capital letters would, I could never imagine the BBC ever using lower case letters for their logo! The 1989 ITV logo had a very retro feel, personally I quite liked the 1998 one too and it had a lot of good idents that accompanied it during the logo's run like the heart themed idents and the celebrity idents that were used from 2002 to 2004.
Interestingly, still used on the endcap for what is supposed to be one of ITV's flagship series 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' despite said logo not normally being used for endcaps.
Looking back at the 1989 variant, it might have worked better if it started as ITV and then morphed into each company logo and would have solved the V problem.
I love the always ready or get ready for ITV theme tune from 1989. I think that it's genuinely better than much of modern music. There's several videos of it on TH-cam
A lot of those 70s logos were never used on screen, only in IBA Yearbooks. Every season's promo design would display the ITV name in a completely different way. It was not a "brand" then, just a name.
The 1989 logo was intentionally about as corporate as you could get. The logo itself is very bland, like that of a bank, but the form up and music of the ident is fantastic, and really made its mark in 1989, taking a huge step forward. The tie-in with each regional company was a great idea (from a corporate perspective), but was only partially successful, meaning that it failed to do the job it set out to do. Even in regions that adopted it, having their brand identity reduced to a stylized squiggle in the 'V' revealed the limitations implicit in such a corporate design. The fact that regions had the autonomy to reject the branding wholesale shows how far removed they were from the ITV of today.
You guys might hate me for this, but I personally think the 2024 ITV logo is the best one they've ever had. It's simple yet positively complicated, it's sleek yet beautifully powerful, it's muted but not too desaturated, it's very cutting-edge and I'd say I prefer it over the 2013 logo they had. While I do think the ITV 1989 logo is also really good (atleast on-screen, I really enjoy a good mix of white and blue on black) the recently-produced 2024 logo just has something to it that just makes it recognizable in my eyes.
ITV Network Limited was formed in 1958 (at the time called Independent Television Companies Association Limited) and all franchise holders were members. So, there has always been a physical business called ITV (of sorts), even before the merger of Carlton and Granada.
Always love your videos. Actually.... Channel4.... If you include the E4 and more 4 and others then it'll give some interesting conversations. Do you remember on E4 they used the 4 as a little animated thing jumping to avoid the lasers...? It was something like that!
I'd be very interested in seeing you going over the UTV logo which differs quite a bit from it's GB sister logo 'itv'. Always enjoy your explainer videos!
Nice review Adam. I have to say, as iconic as the 1989 logo was, and remains so to this day, that angular early 1970's logo was my favourite. I'm not too keen on their current logo, as I don't think it conveys much in the way of authority, but I much prefer the single colour versions that the individual channels use.
There was no ITV plc until 2004. So before then it was just a name for a federalised commercial television consortium. It sort of makes sense that there wasn't a coherent identity. The ITV logo that English Markel and Pockett designed in 1989 was the first attempt to create a coherent identity. There was some viewer research conducted by Thames that found that despite Thames having an iconic logo and ident, a large percentage of viewers didn't know Thames was the London weekday ITV contractor. The three slashes in the V of ITV represents Channel 3 (which Yorkshire-Tyne Tees used as an identity for Channel 3 North East.) The 2013 logo represents a bit of a reinvention as it was designed in-house by ITV. That's unheard of UK broadcasting.
Huh, I wondered why I felt the yellow-blue logo of the 00s made me think it made the channel feel old-fashioned. Now I know - blue-yellow was the rage in the 70s. Bless!
The 89-98 logo worked best as the channel ident. It had great sonic branding from David Dundas and the visuals really showed what ITV programs were about Some regional companies didn't like relegating their branding to promote the network so they messed around with or even refused to show the ITV indents. This was a great shame and set back the integration of the network by a good few years.
There never was a plan for integration in ‘89 so that’s a non-starter. That came much later. This ‘89 look was just trying to bring a somewhat cohesive nature to the structure, franchises were at their own will to accept or decline. Anglia had the year beforehand spent a LOT of money rebranding with Martin Lambie-Nairn and created something (as was MLNs way) absolutely flawless so declined as this look would have been a retrograde step.
@@robustreviews cohesion is perhaps a better word than integration but the network was already using centrally produced overnight sustaining services with various names. EG ITV Nighttime. The whole Get Ready for ITV promotion and branding in '89 was well conceived. The regional broadcasters name was on screen all the time and the ident started with their own logo. Anglia's flag rebrand the year before was unfortunate timing. It was a very nice flag. I think that, with some tweaking the ITV idents could have satisfied most regions, if the will had been there. HTV had an interesting variant, keeping their logo on screen for all of the announcement, only animating to ITV at the end. That could easily have be used by more regions. I think the V triangle picked the wrong part of the Border logo to end on. It wasn't distinctive enough. Same with Tyne Tees. You could hardly see what was in the triangle. Border ended up using the ITV music but keeping their own logo with no animation. Yorkshire used the full animation but it ended with the whole of the Y in the triangle of the V and the Y growing to fill the screen again - going full circle from Y to ITV to Y again. Again, this was a model that could have been used by other regions. (Central mangled it royally, putting their own music over the ITV visuals. It was horrible.)
It would help if the designs in the triangles were correct. Granada's lacked the line joining the arrowhead to the G, so they only used an edited version. Anglia's had the colours of the triangles the wrong way around. TVS's completely omitted it's symbol, only showing the wordmark at the start and having a triangle based on the bevelling of the S. Ulster's and TSW's were unrecognisable.
I don't think ITV as such _had_ much of a corporate identity when the regional companies were strong; about the only time you saw it was on engineering announcements, when there was a fault, and schools. The one exception was the news - but that was ITN. Personally, I'm not keen on abbreviations/acronyms going lower case (except where they become a word, like radar); itv makes me think it's a word - pronounced itver or something?; also, that in my memory is associated with the destruction of the regional companies, which I wasn't keen on. (I do agree that the version that looked like an early character generator - with the i with the sidebar and t with floating bit - was the worst font. Sort of trying to be modern with technology, when the rest of the world had moved on from that.) But I'm impressed that you made a nearly 20 minute programme about a static logo!
Did you ever watch Victor Lewis Smith's TV shows about UK channel idents, like Ads Infinitum and TV Offal? You might get a kick out of them, they should be on TH-cam :)
I did watch TV Offal agessss ago and loved the style of humour! Still need to get round to Ad's Infinitum though! Take it there's never been a release on DVD or anything like that?
@@AdamMartyn I don't think there were sadly, it might be on iPlayer as there's some great obscure stuff on that, but there's quite a few of his shows I wasn't even aware of. He also bought the rights to Rediffusion, which was cool, I'd love to buy the rights to a long defunct company someday! :)
1989 logo for me. The tune was called Get ready for itv. As a Yorkshire lad our logo had the Yorkshire tv logo placed into the V on the itv logo. Think Adam should cover tvam some point soon
ITV logo which does it for me out of the two you said were your favourite I suppose, is 2024. It just looks nicer and sleeker. The colours merge well together
The one at 13.00 approx was the one on ITV towers on the south bank, well that is what we called it when it changed its name from the South bank tv studios to the London studios. Originally built for London's weekend franchise, London Weekend Television. It is now in the process of being pulled down. It will be replaced with a hotel and housing.
In the early days it was also known as the ITA- a much more accurate description I think since it was an association of proudly independent regional companies. (Old TVs had the third button down marked as ITA.) I grew up and spent a good deal of my adulthood in this era and miss the regional structure very much! In my view it delivered a much better service to the viewing public. Not perfect, but over all better.
Networked Sports coverage always began with Independent Television Sport/ITV Sport Presents and some non sports ITV programmes ie Highway and About Britain always began with Independent Television/ITV Presents
The current logo has got to be one of the worst in the broadcast industry. As many said at the time of the original logo from 2013 that this is still based on, it is quite simply childish. I'd expect my kids to annotate their nursery drawings with these lower case curves, not a national professional broadcaster.
Got to say... up until the brilliant 2013 and current branding, the 1989 look is superb. Bold, authoritative to stand up against the BBC of the time, and its ambitions to unify the regions (even if not fully done) was impressive - especially when the triangle shape in the V had its own symbol for each region. It truly was a great effort for unifying ITV imo. Add the sonic branding and idents too? Masterpiece. The 2013 rebrand following the one before it was right on the money though being unrestrained and creative - tying in with their programming - but as another user said each of these logos reflects a different time and rationale of ITV, from regions to one brand to a collection of brands (X, 1 (tv channels) and Studios), so for me it'd be hard to pitch one against the other - unless just personal taste, then, fairs 😄
I still have a soft spot for the 1989-1998 logo, purely as it was the one I grew up with, along with Tyne Tees (or Channel 3 North East, as it was briefly known for a bit)
I've got an old Christmas programme trailer from 1986 I found on an old VHS that uses a colour version of the ITV logo at 5:27. That's the generic version of that ITV logo at 6:25, I think all the regions were different as the blue part of the logo on the V was filled in with a different colour scheme and design for each region. Tyne Tees started using a version like the one at 7:14 with their original logo in the centre but at some point modified it to include pictures from around the region rather than that generic background seen on that Granada version.
Because I live in Scotland we rarely ever see the ITV logo it's really just on the news and the ITV Studios logo. But I seem to see that and the STV logo more and more on the BBC.
Just whittling it down to the "official" ones, I think 1989 is the best, even if it is dated by today's standards, but it's arguably the most striking and even had a sort of commanding presence if that makes sense. That said, I've always had quite a soft spot for 1998, partly cos that's the one they used when I was a kid so that's the nostalgia talking, but also cos I just quite like that design, despite representing the time when regional identity was gradually being decimated. 2013/2024 I quite like, it's got a lot of character to it for it's vibrancy and versatility, compared to its predecessor from 2006, which was just dull as dishwater.
Am I the only one who prefers the 1989 - 1998 ITV logo? Cause I'll be honest none of the logos after the 1989 - 1998 ever works for me, They're all just dull and underwhelming, It's almost the same reason at 10:07 why I like this BBC logo, Sorry people but the 1989 - 1998 logo I love and remember the most.
89 logo is the best with the best music…the current logo from 2013 onwards is the only other one that’s decent. I kind of like the corporate ITV1 music from the early to mid 00’s though.😂
Great video did you know there is an episode of the simpsons were Homer is watching tv and before the tv show he is watching starts you see the Thames television logo. Didn't expect to see that in the simpsons.
You know things are bad when ITV decided to copy the BBC’s corporate logo by having the letters separated in 3 boxes. Also, i think for the first attempt of a logo that could be used by it’s regional piers, the 1989 logo is not bad, in fact I like it, but I do agree it’s painfully outdated. Well done Adam.👏👏 NOTE: I think ITV should hire you to change their logo, and I don’t mean just change the colour, but change it in general.
I've never liked the more recent ones, even though I'm about your age so I don't have that nostalgia round the 89 one, I think its still my favourite, with the yellow in second. I think I don't like the more recent ones because ITV is a name, as in the letters stand for words which form a company name so should be written in capitals, if that makes sense, so the lower case ones irritate me , I'm not the grammar police normally I swear😂 Also the cursive, staring at it on a white background to me it started to look like a shape as opposed to three separate letters. The only redemption for me on the 2013 one is that is that it's used on the buildings so it reminds me of going to the Coronation Street tour last year.
Perhaps look at the Sky logos? At least for Sky 1. Also, maybe Maybe three kids block/channel logos, CBBC and CITV? They've been through interesting changes.
On the three boxes, the box around the i and the 1 look fine. The boxes around the t and the v just look - fundamentally - wrong to me. I don't like the current logo - Something about the font and the presentation makes the i and the t read more like a w on first glance and it always takes me a second to process it as itv rather than wv. And the three colour variant - while better - doesn't fully fix it for me. And the monochrome version makes it much worse (which the gradient doesn't quite help with) Have you done a tier list of ITV region idents? That feels like it would make a fun tier list (sound required - Thames Television's ident is as much the sound as the visuals)
@@Tudify Indeed. Remember Talking Telephone Numbers? I certainly don't as TSW refused to ever show it (though that might have been a good thing, who knows!) The problem is that each region more or less had free reign as to which programmes they wanted to show and ones they didn't, which often meant that you'd might miss out on certain shows that someone in another region would end up seeing every episode of, before you do.
@@cjs95Gus Honeybun > Talking Telephone Numbers. You got the better deal upon reflection. Although TSW had folded by TTN - would have been Westcountry by then?
Yes love it ty so much ❤❤❤❤ Yorkshire was my area ( when I was a kid in the 80s )and the ident scared me well the music … which was the chorus from ilkley moor bar tat 😮
Itv logos have changed enough over the years, glad kept same logo ! Just need gradient shading on letter's and numbers on channels looks more effective than just one set flat colour
First off I know its 35 years ago, but trying to insert part of each ITV's logo into the V never worked. I always thought it would have been better starting with the ITV logo and then morphing into each company logo in full at end. Anyway, its all history now!
Was just about to type "you're a bbc biased defender" then you took the keys from my keyboard 😂 Maybe a video on sky logos but with the amount of rebrands, yearly at some points, especially with the movie channels, it might end up your longest video ever haha
I don't like the new itv logo because it just becomes a blob when I unfocus my eyes. I know that some regional ITV idents did that, (like Tyne Tees) but they also tended to include the name underneath. The newest three colour gradient one distinguishes it best though so I'm glad they changed it to that.
The yellow and blue era was just plain ugly. When they introduced the current shape to the logo, initially I thought the colours were a little much. Since they changed up the palette so much, in practice it wasn't so bad.
ITV wasn’t a brand, it was simply the name for the independent television service. It’s complicated. The regional franchises were the brands - well until that ‘89 bullshit.
Channel 4 has such a great logo design, no need to ever change it.
it is iconic, the original coloured animation is still the best variant and still looks as good now as it did on launch.
The music was good too. Fourscore.
Truly a timeless logo for sure, stylish and confident, but not overbearing. It somewhat reminds me of a predecessor to the PlayStation logo, actually, similar colours and both were originally made out of 3D shapes to show off technology of the time (CGI being new in the 80s for C4 and real-time 3D graphics for the PS one as it'd be rendered in real time when starting up a game). Both also were made primarily two-dimensional and monochrome later in their lifecycles as design trends simplifed. Wonder if the folks over at Sony were inspired by Channel 4's wonderful logo or if it was just a fun coincidence ; ^ )
8:30 plot twist: ITV stands for Ikea television
😂
I will never be able to unsee this association now. Thank you for making me dislike the blue and yellow era of ITV even more than I already did (although not really, I love Ikea)
Pretty much agree with all your comments EXCEPT on the 89-1998 ITV logo! I absolutely love that one and it hasnt been bettered!
The 1989 logo, for me, will always be the best 👌🏻 The corporate ident and the music will immediately take me back to being a child. 😍
that spoiled ITV for me. growing up in the 70's and 80's I loved seeing the different regional contractors with their individual identity and programme style/expertise. And how the newcomers would fit in with the established old guard. I only experienced that once in 1982 and then only on networked output. The 1989 corporate makeover placed the emphasis on the ITV brand for the first time, which was really the beginning of the path to where we are now. It was inevitable in the multi channel landscape that was coming, but the old ITV had a more friendly personality.
@@michaelmcdonald2348 My love for the 1989 logo notwithstanding, I do really miss the local identities and wish they were still with us. Growing up, I had Central (strictly pre-Carlton) and Tyne Tees and I was fascinated by the former's "cake" ident and had the 'pleasure' of seeing the latter being rebranded as "Channel 3 North East" (🤢). Thankfully TTTV came back after a couple of years with a fantastic identity right before it disappeared with the garish blue and yellow ITV logo. It would be brilliant if they brought them back...
You've mentioned the BBC ITV and Channel 4, time to give channel 5 the love
Channel 5's history can be described as
5 in a circle
five word art
Five word art in a circle
5 in a circle using Microsoft paint
Channel 4 logo off of Wish
Channel 5's logo history is even worse than ITV's, a good majority of their logos looked whipped up by a kid in MS Paint on a school computer instead of doing their history report. Current one is incredibly generic
Another great video! You probably want to keep your videos UK-focused, but the logos used by Antenne 2/France 2 (and the other France France Télévisions channels) would make for an interesting video. And in the UK, you've got Channel 5 and Sky, of course.
That latest gradient logo reminds me of old Amiga demos from the late eighties where suddenly there were 4096 colours to play with on screen and boy are we gonna use them... funny how fashion comes around and around... gradients are out of style, let's just keep it simple... no, let's bring it alive with a riot of obnoxious colour... no let's reign it in again and have a corporate palette.. good vid!
I think one thing to think about when looking at the very basic ITV logo, is that even though it didn't do very much, it was still very visually distinguishable from the BBCs logo, so telling the channels apart at a visual glance was easy. Also I really love the mid 70s ITV linework logo, for some reason this one sticks in my mind more than the other early ones. It also reminds me of the Tempo Video ident on their VHS releases.
I've never thought using lower case lettering for the ITV logo is a very good idea, it doesn't really make the channel look as important as a logo with capital letters would, I could never imagine the BBC ever using lower case letters for their logo! The 1989 ITV logo had a very retro feel, personally I quite liked the 1998 one too and it had a lot of good idents that accompanied it during the logo's run like the heart themed idents and the celebrity idents that were used from 2002 to 2004.
I think the logo from 1999-2006 is the best.
Like wise then went down hill sadly 😥
No, it's an awful logo. Shockingly bad.
I remember the turquoise, black, brownish green, purple and yellow ITV logo from back in the day (early 2010's).
Same here
Interestingly, still used on the endcap for what is supposed to be one of ITV's flagship series 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' despite said logo not normally being used for endcaps.
The 1989 logo IS A MASTERPIECE
Looking back at the 1989 variant, it might have worked better if it started as ITV and then morphed into each company logo and would have solved the V problem.
@@rtc9063 maybe the V is the regional logo?
@@rtc9063Which is exactly what Yorkshire TV did on their second version.
I love the always ready or get ready for ITV theme tune from 1989. I think that it's genuinely better than much of modern music. There's several videos of it on TH-cam
A lot of those 70s logos were never used on screen, only in IBA Yearbooks. Every season's promo design would display the ITV name in a completely different way. It was not a "brand" then, just a name.
Channel 5 has changed its logo a few times. You could do a video on that.
And there’s the overall Sky company branding.
The 1989 logo was intentionally about as corporate as you could get. The logo itself is very bland, like that of a bank, but the form up and music of the ident is fantastic, and really made its mark in 1989, taking a huge step forward.
The tie-in with each regional company was a great idea (from a corporate perspective), but was only partially successful, meaning that it failed to do the job it set out to do. Even in regions that adopted it, having their brand identity reduced to a stylized squiggle in the 'V' revealed the limitations implicit in such a corporate design. The fact that regions had the autonomy to reject the branding wholesale shows how far removed they were from the ITV of today.
You guys might hate me for this, but I personally think the 2024 ITV logo is the best one they've ever had. It's simple yet positively complicated, it's sleek yet beautifully powerful, it's muted but not too desaturated, it's very cutting-edge and I'd say I prefer it over the 2013 logo they had.
While I do think the ITV 1989 logo is also really good (atleast on-screen, I really enjoy a good mix of white and blue on black) the recently-produced 2024 logo just has something to it that just makes it recognizable in my eyes.
Loved itv school's Itv school's on Channel 4 and the music . 1989 to 99s was my fav 😍
I really love these types of videos! Maybe do CBBC logos next! Id love to see it!!!
Excellent video, Adam. The research, scripting, graphics, production values, presentational style etc. Really enjoyed watching.
Thank you so much!
Small thing but critical - ITV Plc didn’t exist until 2004. There never was a business called ITV until this point.
That’s right it was Carlton and Grenada.
Yes trashy Carlton.
ITV Network Limited was formed in 1958 (at the time called Independent Television Companies Association Limited) and all franchise holders were members. So, there has always been a physical business called ITV (of sorts), even before the merger of Carlton and Granada.
@@southcalder That was a trade association. Not really the same thing.
Always love your videos.
Actually.... Channel4.... If you include the E4 and more 4 and others then it'll give some interesting conversations.
Do you remember on E4 they used the 4 as a little animated thing jumping to avoid the lasers...? It was something like that!
I'd be very interested in seeing you going over the UTV logo which differs quite a bit from it's GB sister logo 'itv'. Always enjoy your explainer videos!
What about STV?
I like how over time the blue in the itv logo has slowly moved away from the V in it with the 1998 the 2001 and the nowadays one
I'm loving this series, well done Adam! Would be nice if you can do videos for Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky!
Well, for the first decade the general way of referring to the network was usually "ITA Television". ITV was a phrase used more by the press.
Nice review Adam. I have to say, as iconic as the 1989 logo was, and remains so to this day, that angular early 1970's logo was my favourite.
I'm not too keen on their current logo, as I don't think it conveys much in the way of authority, but I much prefer the single colour versions that the individual channels use.
There was no ITV plc until 2004. So before then it was just a name for a federalised commercial television consortium. It sort of makes sense that there wasn't a coherent identity.
The ITV logo that English Markel and Pockett designed in 1989 was the first attempt to create a coherent identity. There was some viewer research conducted by Thames that found that despite Thames having an iconic logo and ident, a large percentage of viewers didn't know Thames was the London weekday ITV contractor. The three slashes in the V of ITV represents Channel 3 (which Yorkshire-Tyne Tees used as an identity for Channel 3 North East.)
The 2013 logo represents a bit of a reinvention as it was designed in-house by ITV. That's unheard of UK broadcasting.
Why do I like the 2006 and 2013 ones so much? I also really like the 1973 one, I can imagine it with some nice colour!
Huh, I wondered why I felt the yellow-blue logo of the 00s made me think it made the channel feel old-fashioned. Now I know - blue-yellow was the rage in the 70s. Bless!
The itv logo is reflects its content pretty much perfectly, bland and unimaginative. The 2024 screen idents are especially terrible!
The 89-98 logo worked best as the channel ident. It had great sonic branding from David Dundas and the visuals really showed what ITV programs were about
Some regional companies didn't like relegating their branding to promote the network so they messed around with or even refused to show the ITV indents. This was a great shame and set back the integration of the network by a good few years.
There never was a plan for integration in ‘89 so that’s a non-starter. That came much later. This ‘89 look was just trying to bring a somewhat cohesive nature to the structure, franchises were at their own will to accept or decline.
Anglia had the year beforehand spent a LOT of money rebranding with Martin Lambie-Nairn and created something (as was MLNs way) absolutely flawless so declined as this look would have been a retrograde step.
@@robustreviews cohesion is perhaps a better word than integration but the network was already using centrally produced overnight sustaining services with various names. EG ITV Nighttime.
The whole Get Ready for ITV promotion and branding in '89 was well conceived. The regional broadcasters name was on screen all the time and the ident started with their own logo.
Anglia's flag rebrand the year before was unfortunate timing. It was a very nice flag.
I think that, with some tweaking the ITV idents could have satisfied most regions, if the will had been there.
HTV had an interesting variant, keeping their logo on screen for all of the announcement, only animating to ITV at the end. That could easily have be used by more regions.
I think the V triangle picked the wrong part of the Border logo to end on. It wasn't distinctive enough. Same with Tyne Tees. You could hardly see what was in the triangle. Border ended up using the ITV music but keeping their own logo with no animation.
Yorkshire used the full animation but it ended with the whole of the Y in the triangle of the V and the Y growing to fill the screen again - going full circle from Y to ITV to Y again. Again, this was a model that could have been used by other regions.
(Central mangled it royally, putting their own music over the ITV visuals. It was horrible.)
It would help if the designs in the triangles were correct. Granada's lacked the line joining the arrowhead to the G, so they only used an edited version. Anglia's had the colours of the triangles the wrong way around. TVS's completely omitted it's symbol, only showing the wordmark at the start and having a triangle based on the bevelling of the S. Ulster's and TSW's were unrecognisable.
I don't think ITV as such _had_ much of a corporate identity when the regional companies were strong; about the only time you saw it was on engineering announcements, when there was a fault, and schools. The one exception was the news - but that was ITN.
Personally, I'm not keen on abbreviations/acronyms going lower case (except where they become a word, like radar); itv makes me think it's a word - pronounced itver or something?; also, that in my memory is associated with the destruction of the regional companies, which I wasn't keen on. (I do agree that the version that looked like an early character generator - with the i with the sidebar and t with floating bit - was the worst font. Sort of trying to be modern with technology, when the rest of the world had moved on from that.)
But I'm impressed that you made a nearly 20 minute programme about a static logo!
Did you ever watch Victor Lewis Smith's TV shows about UK channel idents, like Ads Infinitum and TV Offal? You might get a kick out of them, they should be on TH-cam :)
I did watch TV Offal agessss ago and loved the style of humour! Still need to get round to Ad's Infinitum though! Take it there's never been a release on DVD or anything like that?
@@AdamMartyn I don't think there were sadly, it might be on iPlayer as there's some great obscure stuff on that, but there's quite a few of his shows I wasn't even aware of.
He also bought the rights to Rediffusion, which was cool, I'd love to buy the rights to a long defunct company someday! :)
This video is more interesting than any non football programming that's ever come out of ITV
1989 logo for me. The tune was called Get ready for itv. As a Yorkshire lad our logo had the Yorkshire tv logo placed into the V on the itv logo.
Think Adam should cover tvam some point soon
That's a later re-edit. They did use the provided version initially, then created that edit which was used until 1994.
ITV logo which does it for me out of the two you said were your favourite I suppose, is 2024. It just looks nicer and sleeker. The colours merge well together
The one at 13.00 approx was the one on ITV towers on the south bank, well that is what we called it when it changed its name from the South bank tv studios to the London studios. Originally built for London's weekend franchise, London Weekend Television. It is now in the process of being pulled down. It will be replaced with a hotel and housing.
Awesome video Adam my favorite itv logos is 1989,2013, 2022 itv 1 ident. do sky television
In the early days it was also known as the ITA- a much more accurate description I think since it was an association of proudly independent regional companies. (Old TVs had the third button down marked as ITA.) I grew up and spent a good deal of my adulthood in this era and miss the regional structure very much! In my view it delivered a much better service to the viewing public. Not perfect, but over all better.
Networked Sports coverage always began with Independent Television Sport/ITV Sport Presents and some non sports ITV programmes ie Highway and About Britain always began with Independent Television/ITV Presents
I do miss the 1989 ITV Logo & it’s regional logos. They’re better than the ones we have today.
The 1989 ITV logo would look very outdated by today's standards. Clearly it wouldn’t fit in today
This was a great video. I would love to see your thoughts on the family channel\challenge tv logos. Those were interesting in my opinion.
The current logo has got to be one of the worst in the broadcast industry. As many said at the time of the original logo from 2013 that this is still based on, it is quite simply childish. I'd expect my kids to annotate their nursery drawings with these lower case curves, not a national professional broadcaster.
Got to say... up until the brilliant 2013 and current branding, the 1989 look is superb. Bold, authoritative to stand up against the BBC of the time, and its ambitions to unify the regions (even if not fully done) was impressive - especially when the triangle shape in the V had its own symbol for each region. It truly was a great effort for unifying ITV imo. Add the sonic branding and idents too? Masterpiece.
The 2013 rebrand following the one before it was right on the money though being unrestrained and creative - tying in with their programming - but as another user said each of these logos reflects a different time and rationale of ITV, from regions to one brand to a collection of brands (X, 1 (tv channels) and Studios), so for me it'd be hard to pitch one against the other - unless just personal taste, then, fairs 😄
ITV wasn't really a national brand until the end of the 1990s so you expect the corporate brand to be bad back then
I still have a soft spot for the 1989-1998 logo, purely as it was the one I grew up with, along with Tyne Tees (or Channel 3 North East, as it was briefly known for a bit)
I've got an old Christmas programme trailer from 1986 I found on an old VHS that uses a colour version of the ITV logo at 5:27. That's the generic version of that ITV logo at 6:25, I think all the regions were different as the blue part of the logo on the V was filled in with a different colour scheme and design for each region. Tyne Tees started using a version like the one at 7:14 with their original logo in the centre but at some point modified it to include pictures from around the region rather than that generic background seen on that Granada version.
Interesting to see the pre itv plc and itv plc logos.
Which, of course, are two very different things.
Because I live in Scotland we rarely ever see the ITV logo it's really just on the news and the ITV Studios logo. But I seem to see that and the STV logo more and more on the BBC.
Didn't they have one for a little while with 3 small boxes, each with a letter in, and a big yellow box underneath for the 1?
Just whittling it down to the "official" ones, I think 1989 is the best, even if it is dated by today's standards, but it's arguably the most striking and even had a sort of commanding presence if that makes sense. That said, I've always had quite a soft spot for 1998, partly cos that's the one they used when I was a kid so that's the nostalgia talking, but also cos I just quite like that design, despite representing the time when regional identity was gradually being decimated. 2013/2024 I quite like, it's got a lot of character to it for it's vibrancy and versatility, compared to its predecessor from 2006, which was just dull as dishwater.
The yellow and blue one is how the text appears on teletext.
You should do an ident review of their 1998 to 2001 idents, and their celebrity idents from the early 2000s?
Personally I disliked those as they were cheesy and self indulgent.
Is it just me who sees the NBC “Peacocks” in the relief of the ‘89 logo?
I’ve been convinced of this for years but nobody else sees it!
i always loved the 2013 one loved the colors and the color merge
The 1989 Logo is the best imo. It's before my time,but it's weirdly nostalgic
Heres a idea for a future video. I think you should do the history of ITV Schools including Channel 4 up to June 1993.
4:05 I'm Sharp *POP*
ATV was the best as it was our service in the Midlands until 1982.
Am I the only one who likes the 2006 itv print logo. I guess its nostalgia talking
The interlocking circles of the "itv group logos" animation is reminiscent of ATV.
Am I the only one who prefers the 1989 - 1998 ITV logo? Cause I'll be honest none of the logos after the 1989 - 1998 ever works for me, They're all just dull and underwhelming, It's almost the same reason at 10:07 why I like this BBC logo, Sorry people but the 1989 - 1998 logo I love and remember the most.
89 logo is the best with the best music…the current logo from 2013 onwards is the only other one that’s decent. I kind of like the corporate ITV1 music from the early to mid 00’s though.😂
i feel like LinkedIn stole their logo from the 2006-2013 itv logo
Yeah, that would be nice.
Great video did you know there is an episode of the simpsons were Homer is watching tv and before the tv show he is watching starts you see the Thames television logo. Didn't expect to see that in the simpsons.
Channel 5 Would be a Good logo to take a Look at. Been a Few now since it started all the way back in 1997.
You should do the history of the UKTV logo as well as Sky and C5
You know things are bad when ITV decided to copy the BBC’s corporate logo by having the letters separated in 3 boxes. Also, i think for the first attempt of a logo that could be used by it’s regional piers, the 1989 logo is not bad, in fact I like it, but I do agree it’s painfully outdated. Well done Adam.👏👏
NOTE: I think ITV should hire you to change their logo, and I don’t mean just change the colour, but change it in general.
Thames LWT has a wild logo journey
I've never liked the more recent ones, even though I'm about your age so I don't have that nostalgia round the 89 one, I think its still my favourite, with the yellow in second. I think I don't like the more recent ones because ITV is a name, as in the letters stand for words which form a company name so should be written in capitals, if that makes sense, so the lower case ones irritate me , I'm not the grammar police normally I swear😂 Also the cursive, staring at it on a white background to me it started to look like a shape as opposed to three separate letters. The only redemption for me on the 2013 one is that is that it's used on the buildings so it reminds me of going to the Coronation Street tour last year.
Perhaps look at the Sky logos? At least for Sky 1. Also, maybe Maybe three kids block/channel logos, CBBC and CITV? They've been through interesting changes.
For some reason the new "1" really bugged me. Even now i'm not much of a fan. It's like they tried to make a 1 too wide, as the letters are wide.
On the three boxes, the box around the i and the 1 look fine. The boxes around the t and the v just look - fundamentally - wrong to me.
I don't like the current logo - Something about the font and the presentation makes the i and the t read more like a w on first glance and it always takes me a second to process it as itv rather than wv. And the three colour variant - while better - doesn't fully fix it for me. And the monochrome version makes it much worse (which the gradient doesn't quite help with)
Have you done a tier list of ITV region idents? That feels like it would make a fun tier list (sound required - Thames Television's ident is as much the sound as the visuals)
Colour gradients are very much the trend right now. Our work's latest branding guidelines includes a colour gradient that we can use creatively.
Bring back the regional companies!
God no.
@@Tudify Indeed. Remember Talking Telephone Numbers? I certainly don't as TSW refused to ever show it (though that might have been a good thing, who knows!) The problem is that each region more or less had free reign as to which programmes they wanted to show and ones they didn't, which often meant that you'd might miss out on certain shows that someone in another region would end up seeing every episode of, before you do.
@@cjs95 exactly
@@cjs95Gus Honeybun > Talking Telephone Numbers.
You got the better deal upon reflection. Although TSW had folded by TTN - would have been Westcountry by then?
@@cjs95I don't think a lot of people mind about it, after all, the regional companies did represent the culture of the region
Yes love it ty so much ❤❤❤❤ Yorkshire was my area ( when I was a kid in the 80s )and the ident scared me well the music … which was the chorus from ilkley moor bar tat 😮
The stations had good logos but ITV never did.
the blue and yellow ITV 1 logo feels very much like a Cadbury's logo
Try looking up the South West Trains logo from 1997. It looks like ITV breeded with LWT.
You say about not doing Channel 4, but what about doing Channel 5 over the past 27 years?
👀
Itv logos have changed enough over the years, glad kept same logo ! Just need gradient shading on letter's and numbers on channels looks more effective than just one set flat colour
Hopefully, they will roll out in July.
First off I know its 35 years ago, but trying to insert part of each ITV's logo into the V never worked. I always thought it would have been better starting with the ITV logo and then morphing into each company logo in full at end. Anyway, its all history now!
Hey, Mr Martyn! Do you think you can do logo videos on other fields of entertainment? I've got a good one: Ubisoft!
Was just about to type "you're a bbc biased defender" then you took the keys from my keyboard 😂
Maybe a video on sky logos but with the amount of rebrands, yearly at some points, especially with the movie channels, it might end up your longest video ever haha
That 70s logo though! 👌
Where my ITV schools crew at?
Do a video for ant and Dec's Saturday night takeaway as its just finished
The early 2000s ones remind me of the ITV Digital Disaster.
It ruined the football as well.
I like the first universal logo
"I just think their neat "
-Marge simpsons
The ONLY logo was the Central cake!
the 1999 one looks like the 2006 utv logo
Do the evolution of the CITV logos 😂 cus that’s shocking
89-98 was the best ITV I dent
ITV's colours have always been yellow, blue and black for me 😊 late 90’s/early 00’s kid here
Good heavens, the liney 70’s one is a headache isn’t it
I don't like the new itv logo because it just becomes a blob when I unfocus my eyes. I know that some regional ITV idents did that, (like Tyne Tees) but they also tended to include the name underneath. The newest three colour gradient one distinguishes it best though so I'm glad they changed it to that.
The 1989 logo was the best, they should go back to it with a modern twist about it
The logo with the blue corner is the first one i remember so i dont hate it lol
The yellow and blue era was just plain ugly.
When they introduced the current shape to the logo, initially I thought the colours were a little much. Since they changed up the palette so much, in practice it wasn't so bad.
I like the 1989, 1998, 2001 and 2013 logos.
wow why is old itv so complicated to follow in terms of brand identity
ITV wasn’t a brand, it was simply the name for the independent television service. It’s complicated.
The regional franchises were the brands - well until that ‘89 bullshit.