Thursday 23 August 2007

MTV Re-brand

MTV have just launched their new re-brand for the five UK channels (MTV1, MTV2, Base, Dance and Hits) and have based them on a series of 2D characters drawn by the Norwegian illustrator Kim Hiortoy. Each channel will have its one character, which is designed to epitomise the channel and values/personality. Instead of coming up with separate identities for each channel the creators have used “the metaphor of a house to represent the MTV network, with the individual channels signified by the people sharing the house” (CR August 2007). This is not only a great way of creating continuity throughout the MTV network whist allowing each channel to develop its own identity but it also offers huge potential for the future. Maybe these characters could interact with each other, they could develop their own narratives/stories, a new character could join the house, one character could take over another characters channel (I think this would be particularly interesting).

This is an example of a well thought out re-brand that has been designed to have a long life span – similar to the new London logo. The difference is MTV have created an identity that looks as good as the thinking behind it.

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