It’s always a big day in a radio station’s live when the new station sound arrives on air. Mostly for the on air and production team. For the listeners, it’s often a big change as the audio furniture, around something that many simply listen to, has changed. Sometimes it’s a huge change. More often than not its a more subtle one.

When a TV station changes it’s branding, the look is often more radical. Think of when BBC One changed from the balloons to the current suite of circular idents. A big change of look and sound. The same will happen soon across all BBC channels – and it’s interesting to see how important the sound of the idents is compared with the look. Often, it feels like its more of an afterthought.

Today, the ITV network has changed the way it looks and sound on air.

Take a look

What I particularly like is that there is a pretty distinctive audio identity on most of these idents. It’s a three note theme that blends within the music. Whilst an esoteric blend of audio themes does complement a visual identity, such as that of Channel Four, for me, a more distinctive sound that adapts and matches with the visual look always helps to enhance the overall branding.

You can find out more background on the ITV rebrand at the iMediamonkey blog

Related articles

• ITV launches rebrand on air and online (itv.com)
• ITV launches major brand overhaul (guardian.co.uk)