First sketches

I wanted the ITV logo to get off the fence and stand for something. Alongside the informative BBC and the provocative Channel 4, ITV is friendly and warm. It brings about shared emotional experiences. I felt that the logo should be based on handwriting, and also I thought that the letters might be lower case and joined up.

In the drawings below I was thinking about the flowing rhythm along the bottom of the letterforms. The little stroke flowing into the first letter enhanced this sense of flow, but it tended to make the whole unit feel less like a logo. I explored different levels of ‘life’ and energy within the marque.

First digital drawing of the logo.

Group Director of Marketing and Research (and former Marketing Controller at Channel 4) Rufus Radcliffe lead this process. His brief acknowledged that there was a great deal of love for much of the network’s content, but largely antipathy or even animosity towards the ITV brand itself. The mission was to reinvent the ITV brand so that people would extend the love they feel for the network’s content to the ITV brand itself.

Rudd Studio was invited to take part in this pitch. Our work involved getting to know the brand, the content, ITV’s aspirations for the future and people’s attitudes towards the network. We were looking at how it had behaved and how it could change. Our pitch proposal talked about behaviour more than it talked about colour or typography or logo design.

We won the pitch and it was decided to create a ‘pop-up’ studio, big enough to house a team of about 15 creatives and producers. The pop-up team consisted of Rudd Studio people, senior ITV Creative talent, and select freelancers. The Rudd Studio team consisted of Matt Rudd and key associates – Sylvie Minois, Eleanor Ridsdale, Tony Linkson, Jo Dillon, Iancu Barbarasa, Paul Farrington, Oscar Gonzalez and Paul O’Neill.

Prior to Phil Lind starting as ITV Creative Director in July 2012, Matt Rudd led the team in the pop-up. It was during this period that he conceived the logo design and the principle of  ‘colour-picking’. Fontsmith were commissioned at this point to help Matt finalise the logo and to develop a custom typeface.

The collaboration in the pop-up studio brought about a lively and enjoyable process which lead to exciting and appropriate solutions. The creatives from ITV Creative, including Mark Gouldie, Jason Ford, Neill Pitt and Joe Lewis, knew ITV inside out and understood the complexities of the business, the vast array of content and the history of the network. Matt Rudd and his team had not worked with ITV before and were able to approach the challenge with fresh eyes. Matt’s most significant creative relationship prior to this project was with Channel 4, where design and branding had always been valued highly. Although ITV was quite a different company, he was able to bring to this project many lessons that he learnt in his work with Channel 4.

A bonus for me was that my judging team-mate was Nat Hunter. Nat is one of the founders of Airside (1998 – 2012). It was great talking with her and asking her about her work. Now she is Co-Director of Design at The RSA. Also she is a creative director at Tokyo Digital.