Logos of Today Main Content Last Revised  Sa 8-Apr-00

LWT
There must be other sad people out there who, perhaps in their youth, used to hold a red and blue pen at the same time and have a go at drawing the London Weekend logo. (Some may even have attempted to hum the jingle as they drew.) At the end of the Seventies, London Weekend changed their logo to read "LWT" (even though everyone knows that the abbreviation for "television" is TV, so it should have been LWTV). A few colour changes brought the logo into the Nineties otherwise unchanged (top left). In the Autumn of 1996, a new LWT logo was introduced. The new logo is the result of a less subtle change, but even then if you live outside London, you may not even have noticed (bottom left). I for one think the change is for the worse. I hate the slight fiddling about that logo designers do to classic graphics these days. It's so lazy. But most of all I hate the way you can no longer draw the logo humming away with a couple of biros! :-) In November 1999 LWT adopted the ITV dual branding idents (see below) along with most of the rest of the ITV network. Some viewers complained it was the worst on-screen look LWT had ever used. Perhaps in response to this, a new idents package, completely different from that used by the rest of ITV, but retaining some elements of it, was launched on Friday, 24th March, 2000.		To see video of the new LWT idents, featuring a crowd in front of a giant video wall, see: ITV Hearts

Scottish and Grampian - spot the difference

A new common look for Scotland in 2000, featuring its green, green grass, for which it's famous.. ITV in Scotland now has a new look, launched on Monday, February 28th, 2000. Grampian TV's saltire (the Scottish flag) and Scottish TV's thistle have been retired to be replaced by lots of squares. New idents feature Scottish people and also famous local landmarks. The approach is similar to the BBC One idents, but without the hot air balloon. Not everyone is happy with the change, not least Grampian viewers who see it as a further sign of the erosion of the identity of the region. Grampian TV and Scottish TV and many Scottish newspapers are owned by the Scottish Media Group who seem to want to blur the distinction between the two Scottish television stations. It's a similar move to that of Carlton (see below) in England, who removed the Westcountry and Central identities. Staff at Grampian TV are said to be worried for their jobs and MSPs are discussing the issue in the Scottish Parliament. Thanks to Mark McMillan for supplying the Scottish ident and to Paul Taylor for Grampian's.  You can see more Grampian idents at Paul Taylor's site, ATW - Another Television Website.

ITV - at the heart of dual branding

The latest ITV logo, launched in 1998   The previous ITV logo with its inverted triangle from 1989   All of the ITV companies now have new idents available that incorporate their own logos plus the new ITV logo and heart device. Carlton already launched its own set of idents featuring this "dual branding" in September (see below). Most of the rest of the network launched its new look at 09:25 on Monday, November 8th, 1999. This isn't the first time ITV has tried to incorporate its identity into those of the regional companies. In 1989, 15 different variations of an ident were made, each with a different design in the triangle (see bottom left). But not all of the ITV companies were happy with the idea and some, such as Anglia, refused to use theirs at all. This time around Anglia, Border, Channel, Granada, HTV, Meridian, Tyne Tees and Yorkshire are all sporting the new corporate look, designed by English & Pockett. Carlton have a different set of idents designed by Martin Lambie Nairn's company. There are no hearts in use at UTV in Northern Ireland nor at Scottish or Grampian Television. The latest ITV logo itself (top left) has been used for over a year now, launching on Monday, October 5th, 1998, together with the heart symbol. This was also designed by English & Pockett (who were also responsible for the previous logo in 1989) and is said to have cost £1m.

Even Anglia have adopted the new ITV logo this time around. For more ITV hearts, see: ITV Hearts

Channel Television - from the heart

Channel Television's last logo, the letters CTV formed from horizontal stripes, was first launched in 1980. You can see an example of this in an end slide taken from January 1999 (see bottom left). After twenty years, the station decided it was time for a change. It dropped the CTV letters and decided to incorporate the new heart motif from ITV (see above). Channel's new logo first appeared on Tuesday, June 1st, 1999 (see top left). A heart is formed from the tails of two comets as they orbit a rotating orb. It looks a little bit like an update of the BBC1 globe, but with all the other countries in the world wiped out and replaced with the Channel Islands! In November 1999 there was another change, as Channel along with most of the rest of the ITV network adopted dual branding (although the June logo can still be seen in end slides). Thanks to Tom Liddle for supplying the material.

Channel's ITV Heart ident. For more on Channel's ITV hearts idents, including video, see: ITV Hearts

Channel 4
Channel 4 was launched at 16:45 on Tuesday, November 2nd, 1982, and featured a state of the art, computer generated ident designed by Martin Lambie Nairn (top left). C4 was the first channel that made virtually none of its own shows, a channel made up of commissioned programmes from various different sources. This is what the different colour building blocks are supposed to signify. The ident survived until a relaunch on Friday, October 11th, 1996 (top right), which saw the ident lose its colours, diminish in size and be encircled by one of four rings, or as its critics called them, coffee mug stains. Each ring signified something according to the in-house designers. In its third incarnation (bottom), the 4 has grown again in size and had its proportions imperceptibly changed. The four circles have been replaced with a single square. The change has also brought in a new caption for subtitled programmes which now says "SUBTITLES" rather than "888", to take into account viewers watching Digital subtitles. According to the press blurb, this new on-screen look "breaks all the rules". It was launched on Good Friday, April 2nd, 1999.  I "borrowed" the 1982 animation from Channel 4's Official Web Site. (They don't need it any more!) Thanks to Darshan for the 1996 screenshot.

Bruce Gyngell has a reputation for weirdness. When he was at TV-am, he reportedly ordered his presenters to wear pink! When he took over Tyne Tees TV he was accused of banning programmes because they referred to sex or featured gays, despite the rest of the ITV network being happy to broadcast such programmes. His most controversial move, came in September 1996 when he changed the identity of the channel, re-branding it Channel 3 North East. Reportedly, he also wanted a Channel 3 Yorkshire. In 1997, C3NE and Yorkshire were taken over by Granada Television and, as a result, Gyngell left the station. In December, Granada announced that the C3NE re-branding would be scrapped because they wanted a better regional identity for the station. Viewers got their old station back at 09:25 on Monday, March 9th, 1998. Some viewers were understandably a bit unchuffed at their "new" station. Andrew Paul Bowden even went as far as creating a C3NE Hate Page, which made such an entertaining read that lawyers at the station forced it to be removed. Andrew's page has since moved and is now entitled The Tyne Tees Logo Page. Thanks to Andrew Silver and Andrew Paul Bowden for the screenshot of the new logo.

British Ballooning Club?
The BBC has had it logo straightened out. The cost of the new look has been reported to be over £5m spread over three years, covering everything from the designing of the idents to changing the paper cups at Television Centre. The logo was last changed in 1986 when it was adopted throughout the BBC, giving it a true corporate identity again. After eleven years BBC suits have decided that the logo "doesn't work on screen". So out go the coloured lines and the 17.5 degree slant and in comes a very simple logo, reminiscent of the BBC's first back in 1932. When the change was first rumoured back in August 1997, Gerald Kaufman, then chairman of the National Heritage Select Committee said, "It seems to me there could be a more useful way of spending licence-payers' money. This confirms that while the BBC is funded by the tax-payer and theoretically accountable, in fact it does exactly what it wants to."		Click here for the animated GIF (33K) showing the transformation from the old logo to the new one. See also: The BBC Logo Gallery
	The new-look logo was launched on Saturday, October 4th, 1997, with a "friendly" BBC1 ident featuring a hot air balloon rising over ten different locations in Britain including Snowdon, the Forth Rail Bridge and Canary Wharf. This film apparently cost £500 000 to make. (Top left.) Whilst the BBC1 logo has changed radically, the old BBC2 idents remain and some new ones have been added. The only change being the replacement of the old corporate logo and the letters "TWO", just in case the digit "2" doesn't mean anything to you! (Bottom left.) The BBC's latest corporate identity was created by Lambie-Nairn who explained that the old, slanted logo wasn't up to the job anymore. It simply isn't modern enough, apparently. Yet, this new, "modern" logo uses the Gill Sans typeface, based on the font used on the London Underground and invented in the 1920s. And who designed the 1991 BBC1 logo which has now been replaced? Oddly enough it was Lambie-Nairn again! I wonder how long it will be before they feel yet another revamp is urgently required? Remember, the BBC can only do this because of the unique way it's funded, by you!
SOURCES: Mail on Sunday 11-May-97, Broadcast 15-May-97 and Waveguide 3-Oct-97. With thanks to Mike Brown and Sean Hughes. Special thanks to Martin Deutsch for the screen captures.  Darren Meldrum's Home Page features a load of pictures of the new look and how it has been used in the Weather, the News and the stations' clocks.

Thames
	Whatever happened to Thames Television? Once it was a giant in television. Famous around the world for its drama, sitcoms and entertainment, all of which proudly carried the London skyline logo (left). When it lost its franchise, it continued making programmes and is now owned by Pearson, who also own Grundy TV. Pearson is a shareholder of Channel 5 and with the launch of the channel in 1997, we saw a new Thames logo (right) grace our screens. Rumours are that Pearson wishes to establish its own name as a brand and that the 40-year-old Grundy and Thames, now over 30, will be killed off this year. A tribute: The Thames Logo Parade.	Vidcap by Rob Sedgebeer

Channel 5 is Britain's newest, freshest TV station. Its logo is based on a colour bar - a test pattern used on TV to check colours - but with alternative colours. Not to be outdone by other channels updating their logos, Channel 5 updated theirs before they even launched! The old one used in some of the re-tuning publicity is on the left. The new one, with a thicker 5 and one less ring, is on the right.

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