A snapshot of my work in 30 seconds.
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.
Annika Title Sequence (UKTV / BBC Studios)
We produced the opening title sequence for the new original crime drama Annika. A UKTV Original production in collaboration with Black Camel Pictures.
Brand new UKTV Original six-part series based on the hugely successful BBC Radio 4 drama, written by Nick Walker and starring Olivier-award-winner Nicola Walker (The Split, Unforgotten) as DI Annika Strandhed, an enigmatic detective heading up a specialist Marine Homicide Unit.
This direction shows two sides to the story as we reveal life above the surface and the crimes that lurk beneath.
To demonstrate life above and below the water, we will use the waters surface as a transition device between both worlds, as we bob up and down in the water.
Unused drone footage. Scotland.
Logo design.
Logo animation underwater test.
Logo animation and programme bumper.
UKTV Purpose
At UKTV, we developed a new Purpose and Mission Statement which sets us apart in the industry.
We believe in TV with personality.
As we begin to face in to a new world and a new way of working, UKTV have established their Purpose – to bring programmes that are hand-picked for their quality and available on any device – all crafted by fans, for fans. TV with personality.
This video tells that story through animation that is creatively striking and visually captivating – with an element of hand-made craft.
Design Director – Peter Allinson
Design Producer – Sophie Bryant
Creative Director – Scott Russell
Voiced by UKTV colleagues
A creative collaboration with Blind Pig
Animation – Blind Pig
Design & Animation Lead – Lawrence Scanlon
Design – Christine Peters
Animation Assist – Will Smith
Creative Director – Ric Comline
EP & Producer – Thierry Levy
Dave Brand
The Dave channel is an iconic brand and so is it’s comedic tone of voice.
But Dave’s looked the same since 2014 so we wanted to give the brand a little makeover and spruce things up a bit, with a fresh batch of animated icons to be used wherever you can find Dave.
Wether it’s a flapping fish, a broken bicycle, a set of spanners or a clucking cockerel. These silly little icons help to bring a bit of funny to your day, in a way that only Dave can.
A logo lock-up that brings consistency across the Dave brand.
A wide selection of icons were created based on specific categories; as well as a selection of programme-specific icons.
The icon style uses simple pictogram designs for maximum clarity.
A roughen edges texture is used to retain the quirkiness of the Dave brand.
These icons have been designed so that they are scalable for multi platform use.
Icons will be used across on-air, off-air and social assets where applicable.
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.
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.
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.
UKTV Edinburgh TV Festival
UKTV are a regular sponsor of the Edinburgh TV festival, but also a significant investor in British creativity; committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.
As a celebration of our new and exclusive content and our ongoing commitment to British creativity; we created a collection of short animations to play before each digital session during the Edinburgh TV Festival. Each one focusing on a specific show. These short stings feature our top talent talking about what it was like to work with UKTV. A graphic style was developed that included hand drawn elements are annotations to give the stings a personal touch; alongside kinetic typography to bring each word vividly to life.
We also created commissioning showreels to screen during the controller sessions at the festival, that continue the graphic style used across the branded talent stings.
These reels are a celebration of our upcoming content and our commitment to creating new and original programming.
Traces Title Sequence (UKTV / BBC Studios)
Traces is a suspense-filled thriller based on an original idea by best-selling crime writer Val McDermid.
Set in the world of forensic science in Dundee, Scotland, the series explores the world of SIFA (Scottish Institute of Forensic Science & Anatomy) & introduces us to three female characters – who together will use the rigors of forensics to uncover the truth about an unsolved murder case.
The title sequence is told from a fresh point of view – where forensic science takes centre stage.
The dark hues set the tone for a gritty Dundee-based crime thriller; the beautifully sharp – & often sinister – macro photography promises a quality drama full of complex characters & unexpected plot twists.
The edit uses a juxtaposition of wide location shots (of Dundee & forensic laboratories), with extreme close-ups (of evidence & human traces); helping to give the audience clues of what they can expect from the show, without giving away too much of the story.
In order to solve any crime, you must analyse the detail & look closer. Traces that are left behind & pieced together to tell a bigger story.
To follow this analytical approach – subtle elements from the show are referenced throughout the title sequence; inviting the viewer to piece together the details & enter a sinister world of murder, suspense & forensic science.
The soundtrack features a haunting rendition of the classic Nina Simone track “Don’t let me be misunderstood”; with lyrics that seem to come from the murdered victim, and her daughter, desperately searching for the truth and pleading for the investigation not to be misunderstood.
UKTV Creative also created the programme branding and show logo. The Traces logo is a simple, loosely-tracked logo-type with a distressed finish to set the tone for a gritty crime thriller.
Credits
Director and Head of Design: Peter Allinson
Creative Agency: UKTV Creative
Designer: Veer Assi
Executive Producer UKTV: Philippa Collie Cousins
Production Company: RED Productions
Title Track: Nina Simone – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Track performed by: Valerie Broussard
DAVE Brand Campaign
PromaxBDA Europe 2019 GOLD WINNER
Best Channel Key Art Campaign
The Drum 2018 / 2019 OOH Awards GOLD WINNER
Best Use Of Long Copy
PromaxBDA UK 2018 SILVER WINNER
Best OOH Campaign
PromaxBDA Europe 2018 SILVER WINNER
Best Channel Key Art/Poster Campaign
We were tasked with creating an off-air brand presence throughout 2017 and 2018 to raise awareness of Dave and build on it’s funny and knowing tone of voice.
We created a series of shareable copy-based ads that are visible out of home, across London Underground, National Rail, transport D6 and Street talk ad spaces.
Creative Manager – Paul Philpott
Head of Design – Peter Allinson
Design Producer – Sophie Yeoman
Creatives – Tom Corbett and Martin Graham
Print Designers – Veer Assi and Dani Liqueri
Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited
UKTV Play Branding
UKTV Play is a video on demand service owned by UKTV. The service offers catch-up programming from UKTV’s channels including Dave, Yesterday and Drama.
UKTV Play has been developed over the years to be modular and responsive to user profiles and trends. We were tasked to create and pitch a brand that can shape-shift and adapt in the same way, yet still retain an essence of UKTV Play.
It was an opportunity to truly digitise the brand and create a brand experience that is more usable and in-touch with todays digital environment, and to capitalise on audience habits of catch up and on demand viewing.
Our response was to create a usable, transportable, digital-first brand that can work in harmony with external partnerships as well as our internal network of brands.
This came in the form of a simple but flexible Hexagon logo mark.
An extended UKTV Play palette has been included with a combination of light and exciting tones.
Modern Era is our typeface of choice. It is a robust and flexible type family consisting of 12 styles that allows us to be more expressive in application. A typeface that’s been been designed for use in contemporary print and digital applications.
- The hexagon shape and the logotype sit together in harmony as one simple, iconic mark.
- A hexagon consists of 6 sides. Meaning of 6 include: Communication, Balance, Union. The shape of the hexagon is used in beehives… often associated with community, efficiency and working together.
- A hexagon is a flexible and modular shape that allows us to apply it in many different ways, helping the brand to stay fresh and reactive for years to come.
- A hexagon is geometric, balanced and simple. This creates the ability to dial the brand up and down to better represent our relationship with channels and partners. It also gives us leverage when talking to external partners as there are more options about how their brands can lock-up to UKTV Play.
- The symmetrical shape means that it works well as icons and buttons to create a complete branded digital language. The geometric form also allows us to create patterns, grids, transitions and graphics to further elevate the digital experience.
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
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
© dunningpenneyjones Ltd
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 / 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
Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited
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
© Steam Motion and Sound Ltd
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
Made by UKTV Creative
© UKTV Media Limited
Dave Victorious Festival
Promax UK 2018 GOLD WINNER
Best PR and Experimental stunt
Dave were proud to sponsor Victorious Festival this year, and by sponsor we mean, we made all their signs better (and we will not apologise)
250 pieces of copy were written for the festival and 115 pieces of creative material were delivered in order to cover the entire festival.
