Commissioned by the new head of creative at ITV, Tony Pipes, typographer and art director Craig Ward has created a new typographic on-air identity for drama on ITV...

"The campaign 'Drama Lives on ITV' is the new positioning for ITV's drama content," explains Pipes, "and we asked Craig to create the bespoke branding that will be used across the network on Drama promotions and programming."

The brief was to create something that was not only classic and crafted but that could be made physically. With this in mind Ward created a typographic identity (above) which was then built in wood (see images below) at around four feet wide. After it was painted white, Ward then lit and shot it so that light and shadow plays across the surface of the three dimensional mark.

Here's a look at the finished identity in action as it will appear on TV:

Regular readers of the blog might recall our post in May showcasing ITV's charming animated ident for it's Jubilee programming (read that post here). We asked Pipes if his appointment (he was previously at Red Bee Media as the creative director on the BBC One account) is part of a move by the channel to introduce more creative flair into its on-screen branding.

"There have been big changes over here, staff-wise, and therefore approach wise," he told us. "As well as myself coming over recently from Red Bee Media (where I was CD on the BBC one account), Neil Pitt (formerly at W+K) has joined as new head of art and design and to top it all off, our new executive creative director, Phil Lind, has just joined from 4Creative.

"Our ambition is to turn ITV Creative into a respected, award winning commercial agency, obviously starting with our own on-air content," he continues. "The next big project is a rebrand of the flagship channel which will see the numeral one dropped from our flagship channel. This is being created and managed internally and includes a new look and approach to all the services in the portfoliio, so no small task. ITV is an exciting place to be at the moment and although there is still lots of work to do to get it where we want to be, it feels like the ship is pointing the right way."

Credits:

Type design Craig Ward (of Words are Pictures)
Agency ITV Creative
Head of creative Tony Pipes
Head of marketing Sarah Hewitt
Production Steve Ryan ITV Creative / Jennifer Byrne, Blink
Agency ITV Creative

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