History of ITV television idents
The ITV television network in the United Kingdom began as a group of regional stations, each with its own identity.
In 2002, a significant change in appearance occurred when all ITV regions in England adopted national continuity.
When ITV was established in 1955, each regional company had its own unique logo and identity for use and identification within the network.
A new generic ITV logo was introduced on 1 September 1989, accompanied by the first national on-air identity, designed by English Markell Pockett with music composed by Lord David Dundas.
In addition, each franchise received a regional clock, trailer style, network font, and break bumpers as part of the package.
On 8 November 1999, the next generic look was launched, designed by English and Pockett with music by Lord David Dundas, both of whom were involved with the previous look.
This package also coincided with the centralisation of continuity from the English, Isle of Man, and Scottish Border regions to London.
As a result, announcers were sourced from a national team of six, broadcasting live from the Carlton/LWT continuity booth, even during regional idents.
These varied subtly by region: A generic ident, featuring just the four coloured blocks forming the ITV1 logo on a plain dark blue background, was first seen on 25 December 2002 to introduce the Queen's Christmas message.
The idents were updated with new sets and celebrities on 1 September 2003, featuring more pronounced blues and yellows, and removing the backstage feel.
A number of regions changed their identities throughout this period: The look was dropped at different times: 1 November 2004 heralded a new on-air look, coinciding with the launch of ITV3.
Additionally, ITV spent much of this time using themed idents specific to particular programmes, such as Celebrity Love Island.
The final idents (ribbons and clouds) were shown on 16 January 2006 before GMTV, without any spoken continuity announcements.
This was part of a major rebrand of the ITV network, known as Brand 2010, which also included the News and Sport divisions, as well as off-screen content.
It was claimed that this design made the service appear friendly, while retaining the intention of the 1998 logo, but with a fresh and crisp look.
Many of these were filmed in South Africa and featured a montage of unrelated scenes, such as a man rubbing his bare chest, girls rolling down a hill, and two people hugging trees.
Only two of the four ITV parent companies adopted any part of the look: The next presentation of ITV1 was launched on 13 November 2006, just 10 months after the last new look.
[2] The idents, based on the previous set by Red Bee Media, were designed by The Mill and produced by Blink Productions and Pleix.
They also featured individual soundtracks based on those used previously, and the style of the idents, particularly the shooting technique, was very different from earlier ones.
Viewer opinions suggest that the original music is unpopular, but the ident package itself is generally well-received.
The exception to this rule is ITV1 Wales, which includes the word 'Wales' either underneath the ident or located in the bottom left-hand corner.
The Wales ident was used before all programming except overnight for the first few years of the rebrand, before being quietly relegated to regional junctions only.
New idents were introduced on a consistent basis to represent the four seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
The network would commission artwork featuring the ITV logo from British artists, which would be used as the foundation for a new set of idents each week.
[4][5] Until April 2020, the ITV Creates idents were only used by the ITV-branded stations in England, Wales, and the Channel Islands.
On 15 November 2022, all five of ITV's main channels underwent a rebranding to coincide with the launch of ITVX, featuring new logos and idents created by the agencies DixonBaxi and Coffee & TV, respectively.
