To begin this blog, I'm taking you back to 1998, when ITV was still relatively regional, although practically all of the smaller regional companies had already been taken over by either Carlton or Granada.
At this point, each regional company still had its own idents and presentation graphics, as most of the elements that made up the 1989 generic branding had been abandoned (Although Border and Grampian made extensive use of their respective variants throughout the 1990s). Of course, since that package had been launched, some of the regions had changed hands, thanks to the controversial round of franchise renewals in 1991. When the new companies took over their regions in 1993, they weren't provided with any of the idents or graphic elements from the 1989 package, thus, the individual identities of ITV started to return.
By 1998, TV had evolved, with the growth of satellite and cable broadcasting and the launch of Channel 5. Also, digital TV was now on the horizon and as the end of the 20th century was around the corner, ITV wanted to stand out as a strong brand.
The decision was made, once again to try and implement a uniform look across the regions, together with a complete redesign of the ITV logo. Perhaps it was felt that as most of the regional companies now had the same "parents", there wouldn't be any of the problems encountered in 1989, when some companies refused outright to adopt the branding. The new ITV logo appeared on our screens during the Autumn of 1998. A complete presentation package had actually been designed and was ready to launch with the new logo, but for some reason, the idents originally designed for it never made it to air. The graphics for use at the end of trailers and for menus etc. did air in 1998. So, what had happened?
In the years since, various clips have surfaced online, showing some of the unused idents and in 2014, the You Tube channel "TVBits" uploaded a 48-minute video containing an almost-complete set of these idents...
Now, the first 4 minutes of the above video appear to show a later evolution of the hearts concept, which is very close to what eventually made it to air from November 1999. You can find a clip of one of the used versions here (with thanks to Transdiffusion for uploading) to compare it with.
Some things of note, regarding this first section of the video, are that firstly, the Café scenario was never used in the final ident package (unless anybody knows otherwise? Please get in touch if you do!). Secondly, the majority of the Café variants show the Carlton logo at the end. Carlton never adopted the ITV 'Hearts' package, instead having their own, more explosive set of heart-themed idents produced. Thirdly, at 1 minute in, there is what appears to be a half-finished ident in this style, which uses the visuals from the Foundry sequence, but with the audio from one of the Café variants.
Finally, we come to the music, of which there appears to be two variants. The first one, is rather explosive and full of punch, although the bed for it does appear to include the sound of a Firefighter using their breathing apparatus. The second one is the "chilled" variant and indeed, the only one that works with the relaxed scenario of going to your local Café...
Compared to the final product, I prefer these versions, as the music has a bit more of a kick to it and the logo form-up displays some actual imagination, but as we - and indeed the video - moves on to what appears to be an even earlier concept, the original graphics package from 1998 starts to make sense and like myself, you may find yourself wondering why they threw some lovely concepts away, in favour of a rather bland final product.
The first example is the Granada variant of the 'Serious' ident. Of course, the initial form-up and music also appear in the section at the start of the video, but here it is in its original form. The visuals are beautiful and the music triumphant, combining to represent everything that a strong channel identity should be. Later on in the video, other versions are seen, including the generic ITV variant at different lengths, proving how flexible it could have been.
Next up, is 'Mowers', in which two groundsmen mow a generic sports pitch, whilst a sprinkler creates a heart. These visuals did of course end up making it to air, re-edited as part of the final package, as did all of the films apart from 'Café' and of course, 'Serious'. With this ident, we encounter a different version of the music - a much more relaxed version with a gloriously sunny rendition of the main melody, fitting beautifully with the visuals. Again this is the Granada variant, but this time, the little box on a diagonal from the station name contains a fast-cut montage of different representations of the heart design, as opposed to the continuous 'comet' animation present on the 'Serious' ident.
This use of 'Mowers' is actually part of a demonstration of continuity junctions. Here, we have an announcer pipe up with a fairly typical continuity announcement. The only thing I will say is that the use of the long-winded slogan ("You're watching Granada - your local ITV. TV from the heart") is rather unnecessary and makes the whole announcement longer than it needs to be.
The second part of this continuity demo is a more complete attempt at a junction, starting with the end titles of Coronation Street.
Some things of note, regarding this first section of the video, are that firstly, the Café scenario was never used in the final ident package (unless anybody knows otherwise? Please get in touch if you do!). Secondly, the majority of the Café variants show the Carlton logo at the end. Carlton never adopted the ITV 'Hearts' package, instead having their own, more explosive set of heart-themed idents produced. Thirdly, at 1 minute in, there is what appears to be a half-finished ident in this style, which uses the visuals from the Foundry sequence, but with the audio from one of the Café variants.
Finally, we come to the music, of which there appears to be two variants. The first one, is rather explosive and full of punch, although the bed for it does appear to include the sound of a Firefighter using their breathing apparatus. The second one is the "chilled" variant and indeed, the only one that works with the relaxed scenario of going to your local Café...
Compared to the final product, I prefer these versions, as the music has a bit more of a kick to it and the logo form-up displays some actual imagination, but as we - and indeed the video - moves on to what appears to be an even earlier concept, the original graphics package from 1998 starts to make sense and like myself, you may find yourself wondering why they threw some lovely concepts away, in favour of a rather bland final product.
The first example is the Granada variant of the 'Serious' ident. Of course, the initial form-up and music also appear in the section at the start of the video, but here it is in its original form. The visuals are beautiful and the music triumphant, combining to represent everything that a strong channel identity should be. Later on in the video, other versions are seen, including the generic ITV variant at different lengths, proving how flexible it could have been.
Next up, is 'Mowers', in which two groundsmen mow a generic sports pitch, whilst a sprinkler creates a heart. These visuals did of course end up making it to air, re-edited as part of the final package, as did all of the films apart from 'Café' and of course, 'Serious'. With this ident, we encounter a different version of the music - a much more relaxed version with a gloriously sunny rendition of the main melody, fitting beautifully with the visuals. Again this is the Granada variant, but this time, the little box on a diagonal from the station name contains a fast-cut montage of different representations of the heart design, as opposed to the continuous 'comet' animation present on the 'Serious' ident.
This use of 'Mowers' is actually part of a demonstration of continuity junctions. Here, we have an announcer pipe up with a fairly typical continuity announcement. The only thing I will say is that the use of the long-winded slogan ("You're watching Granada - your local ITV. TV from the heart") is rather unnecessary and makes the whole announcement longer than it needs to be.
The second part of this continuity demo is a more complete attempt at a junction, starting with the end titles of Coronation Street.
Still from the Coronation Street end titles, as featured in the video.
I had forgotten that this photo was still in use in 1998. It must have originated from
the early 80s at least.
Of course, during this period, Coronation Street was sponsored by Cadbury, with it's beautifully animated sponsor stings (as seen in the video), which always felt inappropriate when the main storyline was serious. I recall one such incident when an episode ended with a character holding their dying baby, only for a suitably muted, yet still jolly Cadbury's sting to pop up at the end. But I digress...
After the end credits and Granada Production caption displaying the outgoing ITV logo, we get a trailer for 'The Estate Agents', which also displays said logo, this time in the top left corner of the programme montage, as was the style during the final period of this logo. The trailer ends with the new graphics, neatly tying in with the 'Hearts' branding.
The trailer "end board" from the video. This is basically the style that aired from 1998,
although the animation behind the Heart and ITV logo was different.
We then get a quick flash of one of the new break bumpers. This would become the main one to be used, although some regions did have alternate ones for a short while. We then get another trailer, this time for the premiere of 'Cool Runnings', followed by the 'Mowers' ident again, along with the same announcement, this time leading in to Coronation Street.
The next ident on the video is 'Sky At Night' (Yorkshire version), in which the heart forms from a creative meteor shower, as opposed to an Aurora Borealis-style display, as it does in the transmitted package. Again, another variant of the music that fits in beautifully with the visuals.
Next is 'Rain' , which was the only monochrome ident of the set. Again, it's another beautiful ident with fitting music, but as a regional ident, probably wouldn't always work. Indeed, this is the LWT version, so it would have made little sense to Londoners who don't live on the pretty outskirts of the capital.
"Oi, that don't look like Finsbury Park, to me..."
The next ident is 'Foundry', with a soundtrack that is nice, but to me, sounds a little odd, with a slight unnerving quality about it, that I put down to some of the vocalised harmonies. This example is for Tyne Tees, which shows that some of the idents would have worked well in some regions, as it ties in quite well with the industrial heritage of the North East.
After that, we have 'Beach'(Granada version), featuring two young women creating the heart with their footprints on the titular beach. The soundtrack - once again - fits the visuals perfectly and would have been a brilliant daytime/summer ident. Returning to the visuals: note that the women are wearing red dresses. I shall come back to them later on...
Staying with the daytime/summer theme, the next ident - again with Granada branding - is 'Pool', to give it its official title, although I'd have gone for 'Lido', given the shooting location! Again, beautiful visuals and personally, my favourite version of the music after the 'Serious' piece.
The video now moves onto the generic variants - in other words, the same idents, but with ITV branding only. These would mainly be required for the overnight service, which was shown by all of the English and Welsh regions. These would also prove useful in the event of one region having to take its feed from another region in the case of an emergency - something which has happened on a number of occasions. I recall one Sunday in 2001 or 2002, when Carlton/Central suffered a huge power failure and as a result, had to take its feed from LWT for most of the afternoon, using the generic version of the final 'Hearts' idents.
Anyway, back to the unused generic idents. First, we see one of the shorter edits of each ident, before we go back to 'Pool', to see the generic version in all of its different lengths. These are all as follows:
The above edits provide a great deal of flexibility with the package and the fact that every ident in the set was given this treatment (as seen in the video), means that every base is covered. One thing to note is that with the 7-second edit of each ident, rather than it being the same track with the first 5 seconds removed, we actually get a subtle remix at the very start, to smoothly lead into the ident.
Finally, we get to the generic edits of 'Serious'. We only see 12, 7 and 3 second edits of this, but the living hold is 5 minutes for each one. This makes them incredibly flexible in the event of a technical fault and in theory, could have been used overnight during ad breaks, so that the regions could cut back early, if they had been unable to sell all of the advertising space in a break. In reality though, they probably would have used a "Back Soon" caption with some library music, as had been done previously.
So, in my calculations, that means that each region would have been provided with at least 27 idents (28 if there was a 0-second edit of 'Serious'), which is a very good selection for an initial batch and would have cost quite a lot to produce too.
Looking at this unused package - not including the ones at the start of the video - I think it would have been perfect for what they wanted to achieve. Of course, like the 1989 set and the 'Hearts' look that eventually made it to air, this was an attempt to push regional identity to one side and drive home the ITV brand as a single entity, which in some ways was a shame, as the individual look of each region had been part of the charm and to some extent, the selling point of the ITV network from the outset.
But realistically, times had changed and ITV had to assert itself as a brand in order to compete in the new age of digital broadcasting. These unused idents come across as strong and warm. In addition, they are all individual - with different visuals and unique versions of the signature music - yet the linking brand runs through them all without shouting it in your face.
For some reason, it was decided not to use this package. It seems like there was a case of "too many cooks", as disagreements happened between the designers of the package (English & Pockett, who - as English, Markell & Pockett - designed the 1989 identity), the ITV Network Promotions Unit and the individual regions. As a result, the original set was scrapped and a number of re-designs took place, using the original filmed footage as the basis each time.
Eventually, a compromise was reached, but what hit our screens in October 1999 was nothing like the original concept. All that remained was the build-up material, re-edited and in most cases shorter. Out went the strong music and all of its variants, replaced with a piece that was rather bland in comparison and sounded more like the industrial-style library music often heard in the event of a lengthy on-air breakdown. Instead of the logo forming up over a living hold from the filmed sequence, it now appeared over a rather cold and uninviting blue background populated by spinning blue hearts.
In a short space of time, what was a strong, triumphant concept had been turned into a cold, bland mediocrity that resembled a lot of the new digital channels that ITV wanted to stand out from. In addition to this, disagreements continued, as Carlton decided against using them, opting for a their own take on the hearts motif, combined with a newly-designed star emblem that was added to their word logo. After just four months, LWT ditched the package, replacing them with one based on a video wall that contained very brief flashes of some of the filmed heart forms.
Further to this, most of the regions dropped the filmed elements around November 2001, making them stand out even less. A year later, the whole hearts idea was dropped, as was regional branding and continuity in the English regions. But that's another story.
So, what was a promisingly strong identity for ITV and its regions was destroyed before it was put on air and most probably at great expense. It really is a shame that there wasn't more agreement between all of the involved parties from the outset, as the original package offered all the warmth, strength and variety that the end result didn't. Looking at the scrapped design, I can't help but draw parallels with the BBC One "Circles" identity (which launched in 2006), especially the original versions, before the re-edits around 2009. Very similar levels of creativity and variety between both.
The decision to opt for blandness over variety became a recurring theme for ITV from this point on, as every re-brand since hasn't really stood out. Such a shame.
To finish on, let's go back to the original 'Beach' ident and those women with red dresses. Like all of the original films, this one did eventually make it to air as part of the bland final product, but with once noticeable difference...
After that, we have 'Beach'(Granada version), featuring two young women creating the heart with their footprints on the titular beach. The soundtrack - once again - fits the visuals perfectly and would have been a brilliant daytime/summer ident. Returning to the visuals: note that the women are wearing red dresses. I shall come back to them later on...
Staying with the daytime/summer theme, the next ident - again with Granada branding - is 'Pool', to give it its official title, although I'd have gone for 'Lido', given the shooting location! Again, beautiful visuals and personally, my favourite version of the music after the 'Serious' piece.
The video now moves onto the generic variants - in other words, the same idents, but with ITV branding only. These would mainly be required for the overnight service, which was shown by all of the English and Welsh regions. These would also prove useful in the event of one region having to take its feed from another region in the case of an emergency - something which has happened on a number of occasions. I recall one Sunday in 2001 or 2002, when Carlton/Central suffered a huge power failure and as a result, had to take its feed from LWT for most of the afternoon, using the generic version of the final 'Hearts' idents.
Anyway, back to the unused generic idents. First, we see one of the shorter edits of each ident, before we go back to 'Pool', to see the generic version in all of its different lengths. These are all as follows:
- 12 seconds with 30 second "living hold" - This means we get 12 seconds of "action" before the logo forms up. The living hold refers to the logo with the final moving image behind it, which stays on screen for 30 seconds. This means the announcer basically has 30 seconds to talk.
- 7 seconds with 30 second "living hold" - As above, but the opening is shortened to 7 seconds.
- 3 seconds with 30 second "living hold" - Just 3 seconds of "action".
- 0 seconds with 30 second "living hold" - The shortest edit with no "action" at all, just straight into the logo for the 30 second living hold.
The above edits provide a great deal of flexibility with the package and the fact that every ident in the set was given this treatment (as seen in the video), means that every base is covered. One thing to note is that with the 7-second edit of each ident, rather than it being the same track with the first 5 seconds removed, we actually get a subtle remix at the very start, to smoothly lead into the ident.
Finally, we get to the generic edits of 'Serious'. We only see 12, 7 and 3 second edits of this, but the living hold is 5 minutes for each one. This makes them incredibly flexible in the event of a technical fault and in theory, could have been used overnight during ad breaks, so that the regions could cut back early, if they had been unable to sell all of the advertising space in a break. In reality though, they probably would have used a "Back Soon" caption with some library music, as had been done previously.
So, in my calculations, that means that each region would have been provided with at least 27 idents (28 if there was a 0-second edit of 'Serious'), which is a very good selection for an initial batch and would have cost quite a lot to produce too.
Looking at this unused package - not including the ones at the start of the video - I think it would have been perfect for what they wanted to achieve. Of course, like the 1989 set and the 'Hearts' look that eventually made it to air, this was an attempt to push regional identity to one side and drive home the ITV brand as a single entity, which in some ways was a shame, as the individual look of each region had been part of the charm and to some extent, the selling point of the ITV network from the outset.
But realistically, times had changed and ITV had to assert itself as a brand in order to compete in the new age of digital broadcasting. These unused idents come across as strong and warm. In addition, they are all individual - with different visuals and unique versions of the signature music - yet the linking brand runs through them all without shouting it in your face.
For some reason, it was decided not to use this package. It seems like there was a case of "too many cooks", as disagreements happened between the designers of the package (English & Pockett, who - as English, Markell & Pockett - designed the 1989 identity), the ITV Network Promotions Unit and the individual regions. As a result, the original set was scrapped and a number of re-designs took place, using the original filmed footage as the basis each time.
Eventually, a compromise was reached, but what hit our screens in October 1999 was nothing like the original concept. All that remained was the build-up material, re-edited and in most cases shorter. Out went the strong music and all of its variants, replaced with a piece that was rather bland in comparison and sounded more like the industrial-style library music often heard in the event of a lengthy on-air breakdown. Instead of the logo forming up over a living hold from the filmed sequence, it now appeared over a rather cold and uninviting blue background populated by spinning blue hearts.
In a short space of time, what was a strong, triumphant concept had been turned into a cold, bland mediocrity that resembled a lot of the new digital channels that ITV wanted to stand out from. In addition to this, disagreements continued, as Carlton decided against using them, opting for a their own take on the hearts motif, combined with a newly-designed star emblem that was added to their word logo. After just four months, LWT ditched the package, replacing them with one based on a video wall that contained very brief flashes of some of the filmed heart forms.
Further to this, most of the regions dropped the filmed elements around November 2001, making them stand out even less. A year later, the whole hearts idea was dropped, as was regional branding and continuity in the English regions. But that's another story.
So, what was a promisingly strong identity for ITV and its regions was destroyed before it was put on air and most probably at great expense. It really is a shame that there wasn't more agreement between all of the involved parties from the outset, as the original package offered all the warmth, strength and variety that the end result didn't. Looking at the scrapped design, I can't help but draw parallels with the BBC One "Circles" identity (which launched in 2006), especially the original versions, before the re-edits around 2009. Very similar levels of creativity and variety between both.
The decision to opt for blandness over variety became a recurring theme for ITV from this point on, as every re-brand since hasn't really stood out. Such a shame.
To finish on, let's go back to the original 'Beach' ident and those women with red dresses. Like all of the original films, this one did eventually make it to air as part of the bland final product, but with once noticeable difference...
A still from the original, unused 'Beach' ident, with our ladies in red.
A still from the final, broadcast ident, with our ladies in... oh...
As the above stills show, the exact same footage was used, as I have managed to capture the same frame from both videos (not always an easy task on You Tube!), so it wasn't a case of them filming two versions of each shot with red and blue dresses. What they've done is use a colour correction process to substitute the red for blue. It's a process often used in film and TV for various artistic and/or technical reasons.
The only reason I can think of for this being done with 'Beach', is that the main brand colour for the final concept was blue, so they probably thought the live action would blend in better if they also had blue dresses. It's actually quite clever and understandable, especially if you consider the fact that at the time, BBC One's brand colour was red, which it continues to be to this day. Either that, or they didn't want people thinking it was an advert for Kellogg's Special K...
For more information and examples of the ITV Hearts package, you may like to view the relevant pages on TV Ark and Andrew Wiseman's Television Room
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