The UK's Channel 4 worked with London-based creative agency Optical Arts and its divisions Art Practice and Love Song to tuck little scenes from life into its familiar Channel 4 logo for five new idents that follow the channel's new masterbrand.
To create the idents, Channel 4 and Optical Arts worked with 17 creatives, artists and filmmakers tasked with reflecting daily life in the UK, with scenes ranging from late-night shopping in the neighborhood bodega to a teenager trying on endless outfits to teens hanging around outside of school and many more. The various creatives were given an open brief that suggested they develop ideas based on one of five themes: identity, the land, system, release and love. Each of those themes resulted in one ident.
In the above brand film, the camera starts squarely on the Channel 4 logo but then swoops down and to the left to let us enter the 3D logo by a side door, so to speak, and into a bodega. From there, the camera continues to swoop and reveal, swoop and reveal, until all the scenes have been displayed. The 3:28 film's narration was written and voiced by British writer John Joseph Holt.
“Our idents reach 50 million people in the UK every month, so we wanted to represent all of us, the rich diversity of our nation, our communities, and our passions,” said Zaid Al-Qassab, chief marketing officer at Channel 4. “This is not only a representation of Channel 4, this is the most viewed piece of public art in the UK, that will be seen for many years to come, so it was important to us that it spoke to everyone. Whoever you are, we hope you will find something that speaks to your heart.”
The scenes were shot across four studio days and four days on location in and around Glasgow, Ireland, according to Channel 4. Time Based Arts handled post production.
.webp)
