Hasta La Ideas

MTV launches a spanky new look as of today – as its international brand refresh rolls out across the company’s network of 64 channels, created by MTV’s creative directors from around the world in collaboration with UK-based studio Universal Everything…

We use the word refresh rather than rebrand as the MTV logo is still recognisable – the new logo (above) is, in fact, the old logo – but in MTV’s new look, the logo remains black on a white ground – no colour, pattern or texture will ever adorn it – which is a change from MTV of old where the idents were based on the logo being played around with.

“Now the logo is sacred,” says Roberto Bagatti, Vice President of Creative for MTV Networks International and Creative Director of MTV’s World Design Studio in Milan, who oversaw the project.

So if the logo’s the same, what’s new? MTV Networks International now has a new flexible typographic navigation system for displaying onscreen information. The MTV logo remains in a fixed top left position onscreen at all times and acts as an anchor for the new system of information display – with the title of the current programme always appearing immediately to the right of the logo in a blue progress-bar so viewers can guage where they are in the current programme. To the right of this info is where viewers will occasionally see information in yellow text boxes: yellow denotes what’s coming up next on the channel. And to the right of this, appears what’s coming up later – always in a pink info box. The typeface used for this primary information is Pharma Bold Condensed by Swiss type foundry Optimo.

As well as the main programme info, more playful messages will appear in the lower third of the screen – and for this text, there is a collection of secondary brand typefaces to choose from, depending on the mood of the message. The eight secondary typefaces were selected for their expressive or emotion-inducing nature – and to add an element of fun to the onscreen identity of the channel.

The faces, shown above, are American Typewriter Light Italic, Balloon Bold, Bigcity Maxi, Cozzap Open, Flash ND, Futura SB Bold Italic, Sahara Bodoni and Signpainter House Brush. Here’s an example of how these will be used onscreen:

The first six new channel idents make it clear beyond doubt that MTV is sporting a slick new look – based on an idea of “pop x 1000%” which was, says Bagatti, “the rebrand project’s title and mantra.”

Regular CR blog readers may recall us writing about Universal Everything’s Advanced Beauty project in which UE’s Matt Pyke collaborated with his sound designer brother, Simon (Freeform), as well as a host of hand-picked film makers to create motion graphics pieces or “sound sculptures”. Well, the new MTV idents look and feel like an extension of this project – perhaps unsurprisingly as they’ve been created similarly – with Matt Pyke commissioning films from filmmakers he admires with his brother Simon working on the soundtrack for each ident. However, each of the MTV idents has exactly the same 2/2 time signature – a heartbeat-like rhythm to which the MTV logo always pulsates. Here are all six of the new idents so you can see how they look:

MTV International / Mad Drummer from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

MTV International / Sweetheart from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Directed by Zeitguised. Creative direction: Universal Everything

MTV International / Mister Furry from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Co-directed by Universal Everything and Realise Studio

MTV International / Chocolate Gold Sunset from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Directed by Universal Everything

MTV International / Windkiss from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Directed by Universal Everything

MTV International / Jewels and Oil from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Co-directed by Universal Everything and Zhestkov

“We are huge fans of Universal Everything, says Bagatti of MTV’s choice of agency. They apply a fresh direction to each new project that goes beyond momentary trends in graphic design and they approach a brief with a different kind of attitude and a wide range of references spread across multiple disciplines – everything from architecture and contemporary art, to molecular cuisine and biology. We were also drawn towards the non-traditional broadcast side that Universal Everything applies. We knew that their interpretation of pop culture would fit with ours and visually, the rebrand would be spectacular without treading on clichés.”

Feed is the user-generated area of this site. Submit your latest projects to Feed and the CR team will choose the best ones to showcase on the site

Check out more of Alex and Coco’s work here, plus we have

A campaign for the Mini Cabriolet here

Maggie Rogers lovely Mr Special film here

Stop motion animation The Chimney Sweep here

And Stachemou’s Fanfarlo video here

Submit your own projects to Feed by going here. You must be registered, which is free and you can do here

You Came Out by We Have Band

David Wilson has directed this impressive video for new band We Have Band. But what makes this promo particularly unusual is that it was conceived by an advertising agency.

Wieden + Kennedy London planning director Martin Cole knows the band, and the agency pitched to them to create the video for their second single. The final video was conceived by W+K creatives Fabian Berglund and Ida Gronblom. The promo was quite an undertaking for Wilson, taking three days to shoot and requiring over 6,000 frames of footage. As the film sees the band’s faces animated with facepaints, it also required a certain level of patience on their part, as they had to lie flat and still for hours on end. The animators on the promo were mother and daughter team Joanna and Katie Anne Harrison.

All 4,816 frames that made the final cut have been uploaded to Flickr, allowing people to re-edit the sequence as they see fit.

Once again, E4 and Creative Review are giving you the chance to get your work on TV via our E STINGS competition.

As ever, it works likes this: we want you to take the E4 logo and create an original brand sting that can be played out on the E4 channel. It can be live action, it can be animated, it can be 2D, 3D, 4D. It can be hi-fi, lo-fi, big-budget or no-budget. Simply download the E4 logo and a selection of soundbeds here and get going. The only rules we are cruelly forcing upon you are thusly:

•    (a) it has to be something E4 can show in the daytime. So ease up on the exploding heads, guts, animal torture, toilet-based unpleasantness, full frontal nudity, etc. We won’t be able to show it, which makes all of your lovely effort unfortunately a bit…pointless.
•    (b) It HAS to be EXACTLY 10 seconds long. If it’s not 10 seconds long IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED BY THE JUDGES. Sorry, but we’re feeling a bit strict this year. To make things easier we’re providing you with a choice of 10 second audio beds which you are welcome to use in your E STING (but feel free to use something of your own if you prefer!)
•    (c) It HAS to have the E4 logo in it… But you probably knew that.

After we’ve received all the entries, the judges will pick their 15 favourites to be played out on-air.

These 15 finalists will then be set a brand new task: to submit a storyboard or on-air treatment in response to a mystery brief. All of the finalists will be invited to a little soiree in London where we’ll announce the winners. First prize takes home £5000 and two runners up will each get £500.

All you need to do is submit your E Sting in one of the accepted formats (wmv, mov, mpg, 3gp, mp4, mpeg) and fill out the entry form at the E4 website. Your E STING must not be more than 20mb in size.

All the details, entry form, rules, downloads etc can be found here

Deadline 25 August

Oh, and we’re also looking for designers and illustrators to create background images for e4.com and will be offering prizes for the best. Go to e4.com/estings for details.

In a feat of self-explanatory titling, David Lynch has just launched Interview Project. It is, as the filmmaker states in his video intro, “a road trip where people have been found and interviewed.” Taking in 20,000 miles across the US, a new film will be up online every three days…

Despite Lynch’s hilarious misgivings concerning watching films on the small screen, Interview Project’s natural home is clearly the internet.

Viewiers can watch each short film online and also follow the route of the filmmakers as they trek the 20,000 miles from the US west coast to east (and back) in 70 days.

Lynch says that “the people who were interviewed – each… was different” and hopes that the films will offer viewers the chance to “meet these people.” So far so vague, but this is partly the attraction of Lynch’s project.

From the pseudo-quaint welcoming of the viewer who has “tuned in” to Interview Project, Lynch introduces the first of the films: Jess interviewed in Needles, California.

Jess talks briefly about his life, his regrets and, in the most poignant line of the film, reveals that his ex-wife “liked drugs and other men better than me”.

With 121 interviews filmed so far (all billed as Coming Soon on the site) no doubt there will be some more surprises along the way.