Dave

Promax GOLD
Best Branding

CreativePool Award
Best Branding

Dave is a very different place to where we were 5 years ago, so UKTV Creative were tasked with the challenge of creating a fresh new look and feel.

We collaborated with Output to evolve the Dave brand to better reflect the content we are putting out today.

We worked to define a new set of brand tools to keep our content fresh, today, and in years to come. Tools that will help us to showcase our new products and exciting new commissions. Along with comprehensive guidelines to keep the brand constant and ‘distinctly Dave’.

The Dave brand is well-know and well recognised, and people know what to expect from us. The question is how will this show up on our channels, and in the wider world, but also appeal to a more diverse and younger audience?

We wanted to take the Dave tone-of-voice – the smart, comic, conversational brand that we’ve seen on our social channels, in partnerships and of course in our shows – and apply it to the biggest canvas of all – Everyday Life.

We wanted to put Dave into the world of our viewers. Out there- where we resonate most and shine best as a brand. We wanted to offer a fresh fix of funny in Everyday Life

A brand that subverts, prods, pokes and plays with the world around them and what they experience everyday. Here to help you laugh at the ridiculousness of real life.

To evolve the Dave brand, we needed a design system that was fit for purpose and helped to opened up a new ‘world’ of Dave. From podcasts to digital to social. A design that can flex and dial up or down for different needs, partnerships and campaigns.

So, to freshen things up we created a whole new suite of branded assets – starting with an evolution of the Dave logo.

We retained the brand equity and recognition of the original logo but evolve it with a simple build, housing it in a container, so it now acts as a window into Everyday Life.

We also introduced a set of photographic textures that will be used as backgrounds, which elevate the OSP beyond a flat graphical look. Lending the entire brand ecosystem a rich, relatable, contemporary, real-world feel. These backgrounds are deployed to add texture, colour and an extra conceptual layer to our assets.

They can also be used to emphasise genre, day-part, seasonality or special events throughout the year.

We also wanted to retain Dave’s strong impactful use of black and white, but have now introduced a secondary set of vibrant colours taken from the modern world.

A new typeface family is introduced, comprising a variety of weights and styles which give us a wide range of different ways to converse with our audience. Type is expressive and tonally varied like a real voice. We can build expression into everything we say, dealing up and down for different effect.

To allow for more flexibility across our brand executions, we have introduced a series of lozenge shapes that enable us to contain type and messaging – as well a way of framing footage and imagery.

This design system can be used freely, allowing for more variety and flexibility across our on-air, off-air and social media templates. It also helps to create visual consistency across the brand, ensuring everything always feels distinctly Dave.

In line with the overarching territory, the on screen branding mimics recognisable, everyday life behaviours in a smart and witty way. Logos animate and behave in surprising ways. Programme menus pop-up like message notifications. Photographic backgrounds are used to bring wit and context to our shows. Making everything feel humorously familiar.

Our channel idents also give us an opportunity to play in Everyday Life.

Dave becomes the ghost in machine, the gremlin in the works, popping up wherever you are, to offer a fresh, funny perspective on whatever is going on.

Our idents will become a bank of updatable real-world videos, which can act as backdrops for continuity, logo stings, or canvasses for contextual humour. This allows us to keep updating them with new copy and content, keeping them fresh and new for years to come.

All of this comes together to create a fresh new brand for Dave that helps us all to laugh through the messiness of everyday life.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new Dave.

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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UKTV Play

Our task was to refresh the UKTV Play brand to create a design language that feels modern and compelling; drawing you into a brilliant mix of TV as unique as you are. Because no-one is just one thing. We’re all a unique combination of things.

We may not be the biggest or the glitziest, but we’re chock full of damn good TV that people will love.

Our current UKTV Play logo was not originally created with digital in mind, and didn’t work well at smaller sizes, so we were tasked to develop a new digital-first logo for UKTV Play.

With the inevitable shift towards more digital-based lifestyles and smaller screen sizes, we want to future proof our brand with a digital-first approach. A scalable logo that works effectively at various app sizes and optimised across all platforms and devices.

UKTV Play is the free on demand TV service for channel brands including Dave, Drama, Yesterday and W, so we also needed to create a design system that allows our new branding to work as an aggregated service for our partner channel brands.

Our new logo forms a circular device – a digital ring – that gives us the ability to unite our brands like never before. Embracing our channel brands as well as any potential brand partnerships in the future.

We have also introduced a new contemporary typeface full of character; a brilliant mix of colours; and a collection of animations and sounds that encapsulate our friendly tone and playful spirit.

All of which come together to offer a brilliant mix, just like you.

Over 130 playful icons were drawn and animated to be used across various product interfaces and various external communications.

New branded on screen packaging (OSP) was developed to play out across our entire network and push towards new content or highlight shows that are trending on UKTV Play.

A launch campaign and series of on-air promos were created to show the new branding and celebrate all the ‘different yous’

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

Icon Animations – Buff Motion

Sonic Branding – Molecular Sound

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BoxPark World Cup

Campaign Media Awards 2023
Media Partnerships

CreativePool Award
Best Copywriting

Dave took over BoxPark during the 2022 World Cup.

Adding a bit of Dave to billboards, banners, posters and digital screens.

We branded everything around the space, including pint glasses, beer mats, toilet posters and bucket hats.

We even opened up our own bar to offer a fresh fix of funny right up until the final whistle.

We also made the funniest rubbish bins you’ll see all day… probably.

Shortlisted for Campaign Media Award in Media Partnerships category.

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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We Hunt Together Title Sequence (UKTV / BBC Studios)

Promax Europe GOLD
Best Opening / Titles

CreativePool Award
Best Production

2 x Drum Design Awards
Best Moving Imagery Design / Best Photography

Motion Design Awards
Video of the day

We produced the opening title sequence for the thrilling drama series We Hunt Together. A UKTV Original production in collaboration with BBC Studios.

We Hunt Together tells of two couples in a provocative new take on the cat-and-mouse thriller. The killers are hunting their victims: the detectives are hunting the killers and the streets are their hunting ground. Love and murder interlocked in a dance to the death. We Hunt Together is different. It’s a complex and well-crafted character-led thriller. It’s contemporary and unique in style. It’s modern, thought-provoking and edgy. The opening titles needed to encompass these themes and invite the viewer into this dangerous, beautiful, multi layered London.

The title sequence is set in a world of glowing neon where predators hunt together in the shadows. A tale of complex characters and the vibrant, violent world they inhabit. There’s a heightened reality to this world, which we see through our characters eyes. A fantastical setting of glowing colour and neon light.

Predatory animals form the alter egos of our four main protagonists, creating a face-off between predators. As one pair runs, another pursues. These fierce predators appear without warning, much like the bursts of violence that happen throughout the show, catching you off-guard, making you feel unsettled and uncomfortable.

Buzzing street lights flicker and neon lights burst to create hidden messages of the violence and danger that is ever-present.

To create the neon-lit London we commissioned bespoke photography that captures London locations that are specific to the show in order to maximise the look and create something unique.

To achieve this we collaborated with Eugene Tumusiime, a new and upcoming Photographer, Art Director, and self-confessed Nightcrawler, who specialises in transforming London at night into vibrant neon.

The images and colour palette express that off kilter under belly setting – that North London Noir – to create a distinctive look with a kinetic energy to seduce the viewer.

Click images below to view original photography:

The track by a band She Drew the Gun, which is ironically called Paradise, establishes the sense of danger, and otherness about our world and our characters.

This is a place you don’t usually go or see on television.

So strap yourself in.

https://brief.promax.org/index.php/article/neon-flashes-reveal-clues-in-uktvs-main-titles-for-we-hunt-together

https://creativepool.com/magazine/features/behind-the-idea-snarling-neon-with-we-hunt-together-and-uktv.23292

Directed by Peter Allinson

Edited by Peter Allinson

Photography by Eugene Tumusiime

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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It’s a Sin (Channel 4 / HBO)

A Channel 4 and HBO Max production from the mind behind Queer as Folk, Cucumber, and Banana, It’s a Sin is Russell T Davies’ take on the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and will tell the story of three friends who move to London as the HIV/AIDS epidemic unfolds.

I was approached by Russell and the production team to help them create a logo design for the show and a simple title card to be used at the start of each episode.

Russell asks ‘What is IT’S A SIN? It’s provocative. It’s a statement. It’s in the 80s. It’s a black and white t-shirt.”

In the 80s, slogan T-shirts reached saturation point because of one woman: Katharine Hamnett. Dressed in a “58% Don’t Want Pershing” T-shirt, she was photographed shaking hands with the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher at a Downing Street reception for London fashion week designers in 1984.

Hamnett’s style appeared all over the world. Wham! wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Number One” – and later “Choose Life”; Frankie Goes to Hollywood had “Frankie Says Relax”. Hamnett’s T-shirts became cultural signposts to the times we lived in.

This iconic style helped us to develop a logo for the show, seen below.

We experimented with a few different animation styles – before opting for a very simple title card.

Animation Test 01: Screen Printed
This has a layered, screen printed quality to it. Building up layers of ink and words to form our fully formed title.
This is a bold statement. It’s provocative. A headline / news article worth talking about.

Animation Test 02: Fabric
This is proudly flying the flag. Pushing back against the establishment. Wearing the t-shirt and making a stand.
It’s tapping into the mood and the culture of the 80’s; this an iconic Katherine Hamnet style statement.

Final Title Card:

Both heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal measure, It’s a Sin will cover the entire decade, and will follow the protagonists’ friendships and love lives as they deal with the AIDS crisis.

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W Channel Branding

I helped to lead the process of sharpening W’s positioning and refreshing its on-air identity.

The resulting suite of assets embody a down-to-earth and unfiltered feel, that celebrate W’s inspiring programming and real-life moments in all their imperfect and unique glory.

Our logo is a bold W letter-mark, using a suite of brand colours, led by our primary brand colour of burnt sienna.

The rectangle is purposely off-set to create something that’s distinctive, unique and imperfect.

The logo works on its own – but was also developed to be used as a stencil or a framing device to fully embrace our mantra of ‘Life Unfiltered’, allowing us to show imagery and footage behind our logo as a window into real life.

Creating a simple, unfiltered way of celebrating our content, as well as celebrating real life in all its glory.

Imagery is at the forefront of our brand and should always reflect real life in a diverse, genuine, and authentic way. Candid moments that feel unfiltered rather than staged.

A warm new colour palette that is colourful and vibrant.

A new font family called Heading now which comes in a large variety of weights and type styles to further establish a brand that feels diverse and unique.

And finally, throughout our branded assets we have used real world textures – such as paper, paint and natural wall textures that feel tactile and real.

We aim to fully embrace our mantra of ‘Life Unfiltered’, by creating a set of idents based around our brand promise of ‘Genuine Human Moments’.

We collaborated with a content sourcing agency, to help us find a series of user-generated clips and home videos that capture genuine human moments.

These idents offer authentic moments that celebrate the ups and downs and showcase the diversity of real life in all its glory. We have incorporated key channel themes, including parenthood, home improvements, cooking, relationships, emergency services and health and well-being.

During this process we also worked with an award-winning music composer to create a bespoke melody for the W Channel. Often referred to as sonic branding, this piece of audio is effortlessly incorporated into a set of five bespoke music tracks that are used across our channel assets.

Our on-screen packaging demonstrates how we have implemented our brand assets to create a new look and feel and establish a bold new brand identity.

Our launch campaign included a number of TV commercials & marketing material to help build awareness of our new brand across TV, social media & out of home.

This kicked off with a teaser campaign letting people know that W was going to be Free on TV.

This is Life Unfiltered.

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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Stonewall

To support pride month we worked closely with the team at Stonewall to create a series of TV commercials and sponsorship idents that were played out during our network air-time across UKTV.

This campaign aims to raise awareness of the incredible individuals that make up the LGBTQ+ community and continue to champion acceptance without exception.

We were fortunate enough to work directly with Sir Ian Mckellen, a Stonewall ambassador who has spent years fighting for equality at home, at school, at work and in the streets.

So who better to voice our message of acceptance without exception, than Sir Ian himself!

Taking Stonewalls brand assets of bright colours, vibrant portraits and punchy typography – we created a typographically driven campaign that communicates our message with bold activism and unapologetic pride.

Working with Stonewall to serve their community better and bring people together to accomplish the organisation’s important work.

Click images below to view slideshow:

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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Alibi Brand Campaign

Promax Europe GOLD
Best Integrated Marketing Campaign

The Drum OOH Award
Best use of Copy/Copywriting

CreativePool Award
Best Out of Home

The Drum Design Award
Best Writing for Design

On Alibi, there’s always more going on than meets the eye.

Our objective was to improve brand perceptions of Alibi among crime drama viewers.

To do this we wanted to bring to life our tagline of ‘more than meets the eye’ by creating the joy and excitement of discovering hidden phrases.

Our campaign used clever copywriting to challenge viewers by revealing hidden messages across digital screens throughout the UK.

Our brand campaign went live across multiple digital screens during a nationwide campaign.

Animated screens revealed hidden messages across the country – prompting people with a curious mind to take a second look; bringing to life our tagline of ‘more than meets the eye’.

Click images below to view slideshow:

To promote the Alibi channel’s new brand proposition of ‘more than meets the eye’, we wanted to engage with the curiously-minded fans of crime drama by creating a real world experience that offers something unexpected and challenges their perspectives.

Using the optical illusion of anamorphic type, we developed a large installation that can only be seen and deciphered from a certain point and perspective. This installation will be seen across the UK from Manchester to London.

This installation allows people to engage and interact with our brand and was created as part of a wider campaign to show that on Alibi there is always more going on than meets the eye.

An on-air promo was also broadcast as part of the brand campaign. Using our new and exclusive content to encapsulate our brand message of ‘more than meets the eye’.

Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited

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The Lion King

For the Broadway production, we created an entirely new TV campaign from concept to post-production. We began with a green screen shoot involving the full cast in NYC and then continued with intensive editing, grading and compositing in London. Directed by Brett Sullivan and produced by Clayton Jacobsen.

We also created a variety of digital screens that were played out across broadway.

These included: Disney Store, Chevy Store and ABC Television Studios.

Art Director and Head of Design: Peter Allinson

Creative Directors: Brett Sullivan / Clayton Jacobsen

Designers: Chiara Zonca / Brendon Bennett

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Hatch

Hatch exists to solve the digital skills gap and drive positive social change. Connecting aspiring IT professionals with employers seeking the digital skills most in-demand.

I helped to brand Hatch with a fresh new brand and a suite of branded assets.

This included a new logo that represents the future of digital recruitment. With branded assets that include a new font and colour palette that embody a professional, but human brand.

We wanted to develop a brand that felt human and approachable. That pushed away from what you typically expect to see from a digital recruitment business.

An egg shape is a regular motif that runs through the branding. It is used as a confident full stop, but also hidden within the counter of some letterforms.

Hatch doesn’t believe in CVs. They believe in uncovering potential. And matching people with the opportunities that empower them to fulfil their potential. Because whilst experience doesn’t always guarantee skill, the reverse is just as true. We collated a full collection of branded imagery that feel natural and authentic. Showing the human-side behind this digital recruitment business.

Through innovation, Hatch is breaking down barriers into the technology industry, unlocking value in diverse, undiscovered talent, fast-tracking their development for high-demand digital skills, and placing their graduates into exciting new careers across their network. We wanted to create a fresh tone of voice that uses copywriting with humour and relevance around developing talent for the digital world.

Society’s constant exposure to technology today means that talent exists where it’s least expected.

Hatch offer the market an alternative model for success that’s more innovative, more inclusive and more effective than traditional training and recruitment methods. It’s this model that enables them to find talent in the people and places where nobody else is thinking to look.

Developing talent for the digital world.

“Talent develops in quiet places. Our challenge is to find it.”

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Dads Army Ghost Ad

Promax UK 2019 GOLD WINNER
Best 360 Campaign

The DRUM Awards 2019 Highly Commended
Visual Craft

To celebrate the release of Dad’s Army: The Lost Episodes on Gold, UKTV has unveiled a huge 1940s army-recruitment style mural which has been specially designed to look as if it has been in place for decades.

The specially created, time-weathered ‘ghost billboard’ harks back to WW2 propaganda advertising and has been designed to appear as if it has re-emerged after being lost to the ages.

Working with Hearts & Science and Talon Outdoor, the 45ft tall mural installed in Clerkenwell, East London took four artists from street art collective Global Street Art Agency 50 hours to painstakingly create using a combination of emulsion and over 250 cans of spray-paint. The mural was sandblasted to make it looked aged and is the first of its kind to be created by Global Street Art Agency. The artwork, designed by UKTV Creative head of design Peter Allinson, features the new cast from the re-made episodes of the much loved British comedy classic.

It hit the press and national newspapers and made an impact with Dads Army fans across social media.

Even Captain Mainwaring himself tweeted about it!

Dad’s Army: Lost Episodes – 360 Campaign

Promax UK 2019 GOLD WINNER
Best 360 Campaign

Designed by Peter Allinson

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Playstation

Following a creative pitch, we were appointed by Sony to visually assert the Playstation brand’s iconic status. Our response was a simple, powerful solution which put the PlayStation logo at the heart of the brand, establishing a clear brand hierarchy. This was supported by a strong brand colour and a vibrant and dynamic rendering of the PlayStation shapes. Throughout the project we worked closely with Sony’s internal creative departments, creating a branding solution which works consistently across all platforms, including TV, print and outdoor advertising, online, social media, retail and packaging.

Creative Director: Marcus Jones / Matt Penney

Lead Designer: Peter Allinson

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UKTV Mural

When we launched our new company purpose – I was tasked with finding a way of bringing it to life within our office.

We have some fantastic spaces in our office, but at the centre of all is an impressive central sweeping staircase. A beautiful concrete structure that connects both floors at UKTV.

This was the perfect canvas to create a mural that represents our company purpose and that celebrates our people and culture.

We wanted to cover both sides of the sweeping staircase – as well as a curved upper section measuring an epic 18m.

During this whole process I only had one artist in mind.

Vic Lee.

Vic is an award winning artist, illustrator and visual storyteller and thankfully he was up for the challenge.

Working closely with stakeholders we compiled a list of content that would feature within the mural. Words and images that celebrate our creative culture and inclusive workplace.

We also included a few little surprises within the mural as a nod to the rich history of UKTV and BBC Studios.

Due to the logistics of the project it was agreed that the upper inner staircase would be a printed vinyl, installed professionally – and the two sides would be hand painted in the office by Vic.

At UKTV we aim to create TV with personality. With content that is crafted by fans, for fans.

‘Craft’ is at the heart of everything we do, and these hand-drawn murals are the very definition of that.

It’s not everyday you get the opportunity to totally transform a space…

and what a transformation it is!

Mural Illustration by Vic Lee

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UKTV Original Productions

PromaxBDA Europe 2018 SILVER WINNER
Channel logo design across multiple media

The launch of the new branding follows UKTV’s track record for launching successful original shows. In 2016, it committed over £150m to new programming which resulted in more Original shows across the network than ever before.

The new branding really captures the creative process involved in creating our Original productions, from script writing to set design; storyboarding to editing. Basically, the unsung heroes that are often hidden behind the scenes.

Everything was filmed and edited at UKTV’s headquarters in Hammersmith across a two-day shoot.

Being able to bring content like this to life, in-house is truly rewarding. It also enables us to take more risks and do things differently to set ourselves apart from our competitors.

Working with the hugely talented Alison Carmichael provided us with an additional opportunity, to create a beautiful and truly bespoke logo. The result is a confident wordmark that feels crafted and authentic, like a stamp of approval or a signature.

Articles:

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/graphic-design/2017s-biggest-logo-redesigns/

http://brief.promaxbda.org/article/brand-rebrand-uktv-originals

http://www.thedrum.com/creative-works/project/uktv-creative-uktv-uktv-originals-branding

https://lbbonline.com/news/uktv-originals-unveils-new-look-branding/

Credits:

Director / Editor: Peter Allinson – UKTV

Head of Design: Peter Allinson – UKTV

Design Producer: Sophie Yeoman – UKTV

Marketing Manager: Emily Latham – UKTV

Producers: Sophie Fox / Deane McDonald – UKTV

Hand Lettering Artist: Alison Carmichael

DOP: Steve Weiser

Art Dept: Chris Williams

Camera Assit: Poe Panayioyou

Sound Design: Dave Connolly

Runner: Bettie Cooper

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A Lifetime of Stories

This brand spot for UKTV is an animated journey which aims to reflect ‘a lifetime of stories’ through their portfolio of 10 diverse channels.

Produced by UKTV Creative, who worked with London based animation studio, Animade, on the character design, set build and visual treatments to create a hybrid animation with 2D and 3D effects.

It was all built and animated using Cinema 4D and After Effects at Animade’s studio in East London.

Through a development process of style frames and animatics – we crafted a hybrid animation that mixed 2D and 3D visual styles with beautifully rendered environments that appear to be made from watercolour and brush strokes; all to bring a unique tactile and artistic look to the final animation.

We also worked with music composer and sound designer, Dave Connelly (Molecular Sound) to create a bespoke piece of music for the ad.

Audio was critical to the overall effect of the animation. We didn’t want the animation or soundtrack to feel traditional. Instead we wanted something bespoke and unexpected to take viewers on a journey, audibly as well as visually.

Behind the scenes photos at Animade

Written and Directed by: Peter Allinson and Scott Russell
Senior Producer: Celia Bayne
Producer: Cheri Darbon
Head of Design: Peter Allinson
Animation Studio: Animade
Composer: Dave Connolly, Molecular Sound

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