A channel re-brand is an exciting project that doesn’t come round that often, but when the branding you’re replacing was lorded at launch and still widely admired it’s a little bit intimidating. However there was logic for the re-brand beyond just simply a desire for change.
The original branding of More4 was very bold and uncompromising, with colourways and graphic look gave the channel a unique ‘grown up’ look that worked perfectly with the original content and ambitions. Over the years the content of the channel has shifted and with the plans to launch the upcoming ’scrapbook’ service, it was felt it was time to redress the gap between the channel branding and channel content.
We still wanted to create an identity that had a singular strong design feel, but one that had more flexibility and a lot more warmth and tactility. In addition, in the back of your mind you have to ensure any new look can sit comfortably, and hold its own, alongside the other Channel 4 brands.
The new more4 look is centred round a bold, mutli-coloured logo that reveals itself through a series of flips, folds and spins. The logo is definitely the hero of the re-brand and all the on screen work is born from it.
Right from the start of the project we knew we wanted to create live action idents. Initially all the ideas were too convoluted or grandiose, but as the logo animations developed it inspired discussion of taking elements of the logo and breaking them out in to the real world. After that, creatively, things pretty quickly came to the point at where the idents are now.
However, the realities of designing, manufacturing, installing and transporting 400 flipper units was a challenge, but all those variables, the extra input and expertise we gained along the way, made the project very satisfying. Using ‘practical effects’ on that scale was a bit daunting but a very rewarding experience as it meant the was an element of randomness and uncontrollability throughout the process but I think it makes the end product more interesting and hopefully helps them stand up to repeated viewings.
