Graphic designer Neville Brody has worked with in-residence staff 4Creative, director Jonathan Glazer and agency DBLG to create a new visual identity for United kingdom broadcaster Channel four (+ movie).
The new branding retains the Tv channel’s “puzzle logo” – 9 multi-coloured pieces originally developed by Lambie Nairn in 1982 – but breaks it down into its constituent blocks.
These pieces, described by Channel 4’s inventive crew as “kryptonite-like”, function in a set of four films directed by Jonathan Glazer, as nicely as in typefaces, on-display menus, and graphics.
“The blocks represent Channel 4’s incredibly varied qualities,” said Chris Bovill and John Allison, heads of 4Creative. “The blocks are free to show our remit to be irreverent, revolutionary, different and tough.”
British designer Brody, of Brody Associates, has created two new custom typefaces for the identity: Horseferry and Chadwick. The patterns come in three and five weights respectively, with Horseferry meant for show purposes, and Chadwick for details.
Associated story: Neville Brody styles typeface for England 2014 football kit
The designer – who worked as an artwork director for The Encounter magazine in the 1980s – relaunched his Investigation Studios practice in 2014, rebranding as Brody Associates due to the fact “men and women didn’t really realize its former title”.
“We targeted on creating a scalable typographic language which was primarily based on the idea of a new British Gothic, one particular to which we then added imbalanced flourishes and imperfections, celebrating the notion of our nation as one of inventors, eccentrics and folks,” said Brody.
Chadwick will take its reference from “the dependable language of our motorways, railways and info methods”, whilst Horseferry is “a corruption of this into a far more unpredictable kind”.
The angled cuts of Horseferry echo the graphic shapes of the Channel 4 brand, even though Chadwick’s rounded, geometric shapes have been created to be robust and legible.
“It’s ten many years considering that the final rebrand and in that time the landscape and material of television has fully modified,” explained DBLG founder Grant Gilbert. “We never just view Television on our TVs any longer and we dont need to have the brand emblem continuously shoved in your encounter.”
“Most Tv branding these days is like viewing wallpaper. It truly is pleasant but gets boring extremely quickly,” additional Bovill and Allison. “Nevertheless, Channel 4 is much more than just a massive shiny number and some nice vibes.”
