Over the past decade, the landscape for broadcasters has changed completely. Interaction with brands is increasingly via streaming and social platforms, and viewers from around the world often discover Channel 4’s content without ever having had a relationship with its UK domestic heritage. Channel 4’s leadership identified the need for a brand transformation to ensure the broadcaster’s continued appeal in the entertainment landscape of the future.

Channel 4 had a number of longstanding brands, but its naming and visual identities had evolved organically over many years, making them out of step with each other. Working in collaboration with Channel 4’s in-house agency 4creative, Pentagram created a new masterbrand that brings all the broadcaster’s content, channel brands and streaming platforms together under one roof.

Motion, interaction and composition principles guide the brand outputs regardless of content type, creating a consistent yet inherently variable experience. Inspired by Channel 4’s fearless, sometimes mischievous, brand heritage and its ‘Altogether Different’ brand positioning, Pentagram likened Channel 4 to “a traveller, guiding us through a universe of content”.

Credits:
Design Studio: Pentagram
Designers: Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell
Agency: 4creative
Sound and Music: Factory + Siren
OSP: Found
Social: Stink Studios