Agency:  This is Real Art

Designers: Paul Belford, Kim Hiorthoy, Sam Renwick,

Chris Perry

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The brief:

 

MTV UK had a problem. They had five music channels, each with its own identity and style. With an ever increasing number of music channels available, viewers were channel-hopping up the dial rather than remaining with the MTV network to see all the styles of music they liked.

 

We were given the challenge of rebranding the 5 channels to present them as a network and encourage viewers to do all their music viewing among the MTV channels.

 

The solution: 

 

The MTV House. Put simply, MTV was a house and the five channels were roommates. A diverse group of hipsters each with there own style and disagreements over music taste but who got along anyway.

 

We created a character for each channel: MTV ONE, MTV TWO, MTV HITS, MTV DANCE and MTV BASE and developed an overall brand scheme that allowed each of the channels to retain an individual style relevant to the genre but still appear as parts of the whole.

 

The results:

 

Awards from D&AD, Creative Circle, Design Week, Promax and BDA. Our scheme lasted on air and online longer than any other MTV UK rebrand.

 

The deliverables: 

 

Over 200 animated idents; onscreen titling and channel navigation; logo development; brand guidelines; online games; web and print advertising; mobile apps.

 

The client’s comment:

 

"This is Real Art won an eight-way pitch with their solution for the first ever network rebrand of MTV UK's portfolio of music channels. Their response to the challenge stood out head and shoulders above all others. Kate did a fantastic job of delivering a very complex project against the backdrop of corporate restructuring, shifting parameters and truncated deadlines that are the norm within a big TV network."

 

—Paul Wilkinson, Creative Director, MTV UK

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