ITV1

Background
ITV1 is a British free-to-air commercial television network. It was launched in September 22, 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to the government-funded BBC. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, its legal name has been Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time, BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4. Once being a federation of separate regional companies, today, ITV1 serves most of the United Kingdom under a unified brand (except for Scotland with STV, and Northern Ireland with UTV for local programming and news).

1st Logo (1950s)
Visuals: Just the words "INDEPENDENT TELEVISION" stacked on top of each other.

Technique: None.

Audio: None, but may contain music or a continuity announcer.

2nd Logo (1980s-1989)
Visuals: On a dark blue striped background, we see the big letters "ITV". Beneath that is "PRESENTS" in white.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo appears on a light blue background and the "ITV" logo is in 3D and is facing downwards. "PRESENTS" is much thinner than in the first logo.

Technique: None.

Audio: None.

3rd Logo (Get Ready) (September 1, 1989-October 4, 1998)
Standard Visuals:

Note: This was the first of ITV's generic logos, which varied for each ITV franchise it was shown on. It first appeared around 8pm on September 1, 1989.

Visuals: On a black background, a "river" of colours are seen. On top of the river is the franchise's logo and below it is the franchise name in an italicised serif font. The logo then wavers and disperses into the river, and in its place, various images of ITV programmes fly by from the right to the left, such as the Elizabeth Tower, a white bird, a basketball player, etc. As these images fly by, the letters "Times New Roman" and "Times New Roman", followed by half of the letter "Times New Roman", fade in one by one. Finally, a vertical triangle appears in place of the other half of the "Times New Roman", containing part of the franchise's logo. The river fades out.

Franchise Variants: The parts of the franchises' logos that appeared in the aforementioned triangle, depending on the franchise, were as follows:
 * Anglia Television: Three and two yellow triangles from the "flag", along with part of the light blue background. This was not used on-air, probably either because too little of the Anglia flag was used, or that the colours displayed are the opposite from its actual logo.
 * Border Television: Part of the "B" in the Border logo against a dark blue background. Used until 1993.
 * Central: The rainbow colours in the "CGI cake". Used sparingly until 1990.
 * Channel Television: Part of the "C" from the "CTV stripes" against a background. This was not used on-air.
 * Grampian Television: Most of the Scottish saltire, with the bottom section of the triangle in a lighter shade of . Used until October 4, 1998, longer than any of the other variants.
 * Granada: The upper part of the yellow "G-arrow" with a section missing, against a purple background. This was not used on-air, probably because the line connecting the arrowhead was missing.
 * Harlech Television (Cymru Wales, West): The "H" from the "aerial" against a background of two shades of . Used until 1992.
 * London Weekend: The, white and stripes, with the upper left section of the triangle in . Used until August 1992.
 * Scottish Television: The lower right part of the "thistle" in light blue against a dark blue background. Used until December 1989.
 * TVS: The "S" from the TVS logotype in silvery blue, against a background of whitish on the left and dark blue on the right. This was not used on-air.
 * TSW: The upper part of the "hills" with part of the stripe at the bottom. This was also not used on-air.
 * Thames Television: The London landmarks against a background, with three wavy  lines below representing the river Thames, and the bottom section of the triangle in dark orange. Used until August 31, 1990 (see below).
 * Tyne Tees Television: The left part of the "TTTV" against a yellow background (evoking their "Flowing Rivers" ident from 1988). Used until 1991.
 * Ulster Television: Part of the border and yellow zigzag from the version of the "oscilloscope" then used, against a light gray background. This was not used on-air.
 * Yorkshire Television: The left half of the yellow chevron against a dark blue background. Used until 1990 (see below).

Other Variants:
 * On occasion, the default logo would be used, which had no franchise name displayed at the bottom and had an ordinary triangle with three lines cut into its left side (a la the then-current VIVA Films logo).
 * Central used a variant which combined the company's existing "CGI Cake" animation with the ITV animation. This also did not use the David Dundas music.
 * Granada did not use its ITV logo but did occasionally use a variant combining its existing logo with the default logo above.
 * HTV also had their ITV logos re-edited to consist simply of the "aerial" on the river, with the station name quickly moving in below from the left of the screen. This re-edited version was used until 31 December 1992.
 * Thames unveiled a new triangle logo on September 3, 1990 and consequently incorporated it into a second version of its ITV logo, which was used only before networked programmes until October 1991.
 * Yorkshire in January 1991 had its ITV logo re-edited, so that the full chevron appeared in place of the triangle before moving to the centre of the screen as "ITV" faded out. This was used until October 1994.
 * A long variant exists starting with the first part of the logo being long.

Technique: A mix of live-action and computer animation effects.

Audio: A rather airy synthesised flute theme that culminates in a 5-note trumpet fanfare, sometimes with the flute echoing at the end. Composed by David Dundas as an ITV jingle. A continuity announcement may be used, as well.

Audio Variant: Central's ITV logo used the company's existing 1988 jingle instead of the David Dundas music, or it was mixed up with Central's own ident.

Availability: They have been preserved by logo enthusiasts in the UK. As mentioned above, while some were actually used, some never appeared on-air.

Legacy: This logo is a favourite of many UK logo enthusiasts, although some of the regional logos don't fit the vertical triangle too well (particularly in the case of Channel Television, Scottish Television, TVS Television, and Tyne Tees).

4th Logo (Hearts) (November 8, 1999-October 27, 2002)
Standard Visuals:

Visuals: A short film plays, which culminates in the appearance of a heart. The heart flashes, which transitions to a background with spinning heart panels segmented in three. The franchise name/logo appears with a border surrounding the logo, and at the bottom of the border in a  square are the letters "itv". This logo was only used by Granada or UNM-owned stations, as Carlton opted for a different version featuring stars.

Variants:
 * If the franchise's logo was separate from their name (e.g. Granada's G symbol), it would appear above the franchise's name. Strangely, Border Television didn't even have its symbol.
 * For continuity announcements during nighttime programmes, a default version would be used, in which only the ITV/ITV1 logo would be displayed.
 * There would be some golden panels used in the daytime, and in the nighttime, they would be all.
 * Starting on August 11, 2001, during the switch to ITV1, a "1" inside a yellow square was added next to the ITV logo, which has been made significantly larger.
 * Sometimes, the short film is skipped, and the animation is used instead. The franchise name/logo appears via a Matrix-like "digitizing" effect.
 * Sometimes the short film/logo animation is skipped, leaving the logo fully formed and the synth music playing. This is usually used for some continuity announcements.
 * Later versions bear the franchise or network's URL at the bottom or bottom-right corner of the screen. The itv.com URL is in white and has a similar look to the ITV/ITV1 logo.
 * A endboard version for Border Television's variant (either animated or static) exists.

Technique: A combination of live-action and computer animation.

Audio: A tense orchestrated fanfare during the initial short film/logo animation culminating in a 5-note piano fanfare and a dramatic synth fanfare, the ladder plays when the logo is fully formed. The continuity announcements sometimes accompanied the synth fanfare.

Legacy: This was an unpopular logo among many, due to the consolidation of the unique visual identities of ITV into one. Though at least it tried to keep the original regional logos (with the exception of Border Television's symbol) unlike its successors.

Background
On October 28, 2002, most ITV franchises dropped their in-air branding, adopting a unified "ITV1" brand. On February 2, 2004, Carlton and Granada, the two biggest companies owning ITV franchises merged to form "ITV plc".

1st Ident (October 28, 2002-October 31, 2004)
Visuals: We see a montage of various ITV1 personalities, which ends with the ITV1 logo in 3D sliding toward the bottom right in pieces before coming together. There were four different sets featured, all featuring stars that varied.

Christmas Variant: For Christmas 2002, Granada and Carlton stuck to the regular idents, but added shooting stars to the ITV1 logo.

Later Variant: In September 2003, the ident package was changed to one where the ITV1 logo revolves and forms itself on a background of spinning panels. Also, in this variant, the logo zooms in a bit.

Idents: Each ident featured a certain celebrity behind one of four different sets.
 * Stage and Steps - Used for the big-name stars.
 * Chris Tarrant (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)
 * Celia Black (Blind Date)
 * Fern Britton (This Morning)
 * Des O'Connor
 * Brick Wall - Mainly used for Sports and News stars.
 * Ali McCoist
 * Alastair Stewart
 * Carol Vorderman (Soap Star Lives)
 * Des Lynam
 * John Suchet and Harry Hill (Also had separate idents, albeit Harry Hill's were on the Backstage set)
 * Jim Rosenthal
 * Katie Derham
 * Martin Brundle
 * Mary Nightingale
 * Robbie Earle (Premiership footage)
 * Sir Trevor McDonald
 * Backstage - Used for a variety of shows.
 * Amanda Redman (At Home With The Braithwaites)
 * Bill Roache (Coronation Street)
 * Caroline Quentin
 * Claire King
 * David Suchet
 * Derek Fowlds (Heartbeat)
 * Diane Parish and Jane Danson (The Bill)
 * Gabby Logan (Premiership Footage)
 * Gaynor Faye
 * Glynis Barber
 * Frank Skinner (The Frank Skinner Show)
 * Hermione Norris (Wire in the Blood and Cold Feet)
 * James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet)
 * Jeff Steward and Paul Usher (The Bill)
 * Johnny Briggs (Coronation Street)
 * Keira Knightley
 * Linda Henry
 * Leah Bracknell and Peter Amory (Emmerdale, they also had idents of just themselves)
 * Liz Dawn
 * Martin Kemp (Serious and Organised)
 * Pal Aron, Karl Collins, and Mark Wingett (The Bill)
 * Robert Bathurst and Hermione Norris
 * Robson Green
 * Ross Kemp
 * Susie Amy
 * William Roche
 * Yellow and Blue Tiles - Mainly used for younger stars.
 * Ant and Dec (Pop Idol, Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, etc. They were the first two personalities shown under the then-new ident package and their idents were extensively shown in the pre-launch marketing.)
 * Davina McCall (The Brit Awards, Popstars: The Rivals)
 * Emma Atkins
 * Geri Halliwell
 * Kelvin Fletcher and Sammy Winward (Emmerdale)
 * Pete Waterman and Geri Halliwell (Also had idents with just themselves)
 * Tess Daly and Brian Dowling (SMTV Live, also had their own separate idents)
 * Tina O'Brien
 * Tracy Shaw (Coronation Street)
 * Trisha Goddard (Trisha)

There were also some other idents used:
 * Generic - The ITV1 logo forms in a blue spotlight on a Black Background. This was used for serious and news programming.
 * Christmas 2002 - ITV decided not to go with their own Christmas package for their channels in 2002, instead just sticking with the regular idents but with shooting stars flying across the logo. ITV1 was no exception.
 * Brits 2003 - A special ident package made for the 2003 Brit Awards. Some featured musical personalities and some featured the presenter Davina McCall.
 * Koala Puppets - Made to promote the second series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, two Koala Puppets that were used in pre-launch material for the show are seen. This was used on the show's debut and finale days in 2003.

In the 2003 package, they were replaced with a new set of idents, with some new additions.


 * Ant and Dec - A whopping twenty variants:
 * 1: They get into crazy situations with each other.
 * 2: They are talking to each other.
 * 3: Dec pokes his head out at an unaware Ant. When he catches him, he pulls Dec by the ear.
 * 4: Ant jumps onto a higher platform. Dec wants to go up, so Ant pulls him up. They then put their hands on their shoulders to end it off.
 * 5: A simple shot of them posing, with Dec having his arms crossed.
 * 6: They rush to the camera and do some poses. They then head off, but Ant goes the wrong way, and Dec points his finger to show this, with a friendly slap as well. The two then leave the set afterwards.
 * 7: Another shot of them talking.
 * 8: Dec tries to get a shot of himself, but Ant pokes his head through the window, and the two then argue comedically.
 * 9: A shortened version of the Ear-pulling ident.
 * 10: A shortened version of the platform jumping ident.
 * 11: A shortened version of the Camera Pose ident.
 * 12: They do some poses through the circular set, but they go further and further to see if they look better further away.
 * 13: They walk up to the viewer, and then walk back again.
 * 14: They walk up again, but this time they walk close to the camera and look at the viewer seriously - until Ant pokes his tongue out.
 * 15: They run around the set, chasing each other.
 * 16: They pose again, with Dec giving a thumbs up, and Ant crossing his arms.
 * 17: A shortened version of the further away close-shot ident.
 * 18: A shortened version of the walking back ident.
 * 19: A shortened version of the chasing ident.
 * 20: A shortened version of the Silly Face ident.
 * Brian Conley - Four variants:
 * 1: Brian pokes through the walls and dances while taking a tumble.
 * 2: Brian is first sitting down and then stands up. It then cuts to him in a crossed arms pose as he looks at the viewers while smiling creepily as he strokes his eyebrow.
 * 3: Brian tries to poke his head through the walls. After poking his head through them and smiling, he leaves.
 * 4: Same as the first ident, but only showcases the dancing part.
 * Cat Deeley (CD:UK and The Royal Variety Performance) - Seven variants:
 * 1: Cat whips her hair around, and then walks back in an ogre-like matter so she's further away.
 * 2: Cat plays Air Guitar, and does some walking dances.
 * 3: Cat takes off her high heels and runs off the set barefoot.
 * 4: Cat walks to the viewer and smiles at the viewer, shows her hands and then looks in them.
 * 5: A shortened version of the Air Guitar Dance ident.
 * 6: A shortened version of the High Heels ident.
 * 7: Cat walks from the left to the right and fades in and out to the front.
 * Chris Tarrant (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?) - Six variants:
 * 1: Chris walks all through the set, with a close-up of his face at one point.
 * 2: Chris waves at the viewers, crosses his arms and we see another close-up shot of his face, where he looks at the viewers with a confused look.
 * 3: Chris sits down, acts like King Kong, and does an arms fold pose with mirror reflections next to him.
 * 4: Chris walks slowly to the camera until his face is only seen, where he looks at the viewers with an angry expression.
 * 5: Chris hides through the walls and walks through them.
 * 6: Chris appears through the walls in all sorts of poses.
 * Pauline Collins
 * Melanie Sykes
 * Lynda Bellingham
 * Nicholas Owen and John Suchet (ITV News presenters)
 * Gaby Logan
 * Martin Bashir (Tonight with Trevor McDonald)
 * Pete Waterman, Neil Fox and Nikki Chapman (Pop Idol)
 * Various stars from The Bill
 * Various stars from Emmerdale
 * Various stars from Coronation Street
 * Katie Derham (ITV News presenter)
 * Rhona Cameron (Russian Roulette)
 * Jim Rosenthal (F1 Grand Prix footage)
 * Philip Schofield (This Morning)
 * Chris Tarrant (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?)
 * Mark Durden-Smith (Junior Eurovision Song Contest)
 * Wendy Craig (The Royal)
 * Julie Graham (Between the Sheets)
 * Martin Kemp

As with the previous set, there were also some other idents used:
 * Creature Comforts: To promote the TV adaptation of Aardman's award-winning short, a set of idents featuring various characters of the show was commissioned.
 * Christmas 2003: As with the previous set, ITV1 didn't go with their own Christmas idents, rather adding snowflakes to the ITV1 logo on the standard package.
 * Brit Awards 2004

Technique: All live action, with the panels and zooming of the logo. These were designed by BDA Creative. The Creature Comforts idents were animated by Aardman Animations.

Audio: Depends on the ident, but it's usually a variation of the same jingle. This is sometimes accompanied by a continuity announcement.
 * Stage and Steps - A talent-like jingle that starts off with a drum roll.
 * Brick Wall - A rather uninspired jazz-like tune.
 * Backstage - A slow piano piece.
 * Yellow and Blue tiles - A funky tune.

In the 2003 version, there are more music variations:


 * Yellow and Blue set - An equally uninspired guitar tune.
 * Catwalk - A showbiz-like tune.
 * Soap - A jazzy tune.


 * Check your tapes for the logo.
 * The Creature Comforts idents appear as a bonus feature on the Season 1 Part 2 DVD of the show.

2nd Ident (November 1, 2004-January 15, 2006)
Visuals: On a certain animated background, we see three blue boxes rotating, and this time, we see a yellow cube with the number "1" on each side, along with 3 other blue squares around it, which rotate to reveal the letters "itv" on the other side. They align with the yellow cube, which turns into a square when aligned with the three smaller blue squares. Finally, the squares shine for a few seconds.

Variants:
 * There were several animated background idents that were used throughout the time, including Ribbons, Lines, Bubbles and Clouds idents that were first shown in 2004.
 * In December 2005, a Christmas variant was also used.

Technique: CGI. Like the previous logo, this was designed by BDA Creative.

Audio: A redone version of the previous ident's music.

3rd Ident (January 16-November 12, 2006)
Visuals: We see the new ITV1 logo appear on screen, before it splits into two halves and rests on either side of the screen. Accompanying the logo is various clips of live action scenes.

Variants:
 * Love: In order, we see a mother holding her son, a woman taking some shoes out of a box, a man admiring himself in a mirror, and two people hugging a tree in a field.
 * Joy: We see a woman walking through a forest, a dog looking out of a car window, two people at the beach in the ocean, a woman opening a tent, and children playing in a field.
 * Pride: We see an old woman looking at a drawing, a boy walking upstairs with food for his mother, a man washing his car, a boy with his mouth open, and a man moving his bike out of a garage.
 * Embarrassment: We see a man with a towel wrapped around him, a woman with her dress in the wrong place, a boy getting the wrong haircut, and a woman on a train with a man trying to sleep on her.
 * Sadness: We see two people hugging, a girl looking sad in a school corridor, a woman in bed looking like she's crying, and a man sat in a cinema staring at a screen.
 * Surprise: We see a bucket of water being dumped on two women, two children popping out of a cardboard box, a man almost getting hit in the face by a newspaper, and some cows being scared away,

Technique: Live-action, mixed with 2D animation.

Audio: Depends on the ident, but a short burst of crowd cheering and clapping can always be heard when the logo splits. A continuity announcer is usually heard.

Legacy: These idents were not very well liked by most people, and were quickly replaced with the set below (except for Channel Television, which used these Idents until 2013).

4th Ident (November 13, 2006-January 13, 2013)
2006-2010=

Visuals: We see live action footage of one of the scenes below (all involving something yellow), before the ITV1 logo (which now has the ITV lettering in black) appears on the left side of the screen.

Variants:
 * Basketball: The camera pans from the back of a basketball stand onto a small basketball pitch atop a building in a city. We see yellow flowers and vines begin to creep up the basketball stand.
 * Beach: The camera pans across a beach, where we see a yellow windbreaker begin to twist and fly up into the sky.
 * Market: We pan through a busy market with lots of people walking by, as some yellow birds fly past the camera and fly around the market.
 * Boat: We start at a reed bed next to a river, as the camera pans up and over to reveal a man rowing a small boat through the river, with small yellow fish swirling around the paddles.
 * Pavement Art: We see some people drawing yellow lines on concrete with yellow chalk, before the camera pans over to reveal a bustling city street below, with lots of people walking around a maze of yellow art.
 * Bicycle: We see someone riding down a street on a bicycle at night, as yellow moths fly around and illuminate the street. The camera then pans over to a streetlamp with lots of yellow moths swirling around it.
 * Bubbles: The camera pans through a field full of people running around and blowing yellow bubbles into the area, and the camera pans into the sky to show lots of large yellow bubbles.
 * Fountains:The camera pans through a dark city street, which suddenly becomes illuminated by multiple yellow streams shooting out from the road. The ITV 1 logo is glowing and reflected in the concrete on this variant.
 * Buildings: We pan through a busy city, when the glass windows on the buildings begin to flip around and cascade, turning yellow.
 * Garden: We start in a small garden with some children playing, before the camera pans down into the grass, revealing lots of yellow bugs and plants.

In 2010, the idents were revamped slightly, with the logo becoming bigger and a glossy gradient being added to the yellow blocks, which themselves became more rounded. If watching on the HD channel, the word 'hd' would appear next to the logo with a transparent glass-like texture. The existing variants were updated with the new logo, and the following new variants were added:


 * Sunflowers: The camera pans over a computer generated sunny field with clouds rapidly passing by, as the yellow sunflowers below begin to blossom.
 * Snakes and Ladders: We see a busy yellow construction site that looks vaguely like a snakes and ladders board, as construction workers carry out their work in a very organised and arranged manner.
 * Lanterns: We pan through a dark field full of people holding yellow lanterns, and as they let go of them, the camera follows them and pans into the sky.
 * Dodgems: We see an arena full of dodgems (or bumper cars) driving around in an organised fashion, swirling around each other.

Trivia: More so than most other logos, these were quite the complicated coproduction in terms of the amount of studios involved. The idents were based on a creative concept from Red Bee Media, directed by Pleix, produced by Blink Productions, and were handled in post production by The Mill.

Technique: Depends on the ident.

Audio: A quiet, simple 7-note motif that is repeated throughout the duration of the ident. Some idents may have a slight variation on the instrumentation with the same motif.

1st Ident (January 14, 2013-December 31, 2018)
Visuals: A different short film plays depending on the ident. After a few seconds, the then-new ITV logo ("itv" in a lowercase cursive font and split into 5 pieces) fades in letter by letter and changes colour to adapt to whatever is going on in the ident. Near the end of the ident, the logo fades out letter by letter.

Technique: Live-action combined with computer effects.

Audio: Depends on the ident.

2nd Ident (ITV Creates) (January 1, 2019-November 15, 2022)
Visuals: Depends on the ident, but they all feature a different interpretation of the ITV logo made by various artists around the UK, called "ITV Creates". There were 52 in total to begin with, although more have slowly been added over time.

Technique: Usually live-action.

Audio: Unknown.


 * For the ident's first year, one artist's rendition was used throughout the week.
 * This would continue until 2020, when all the existing idents were put on a rotation, with some additional idents set later added until 2022.

(November 15, 2022-)
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Visuals: On a static background, a light blue coloured 1 appears, which zooms out into the center of the screen. As it comes to a stop, the 1 becomes slanted as the background pans to the right, causing a trail effect behind the 1. The 1 moves to the left, and as it comes to a stop the 2013 ITV logo fades in.

Variants:
 * Cityscape (Day): Across the city, a yellow and red rollercoaster is seen, looping around and cutting through buildings.
 * Cityscape (Sunset): A large flock of birds is seen in the sky, which has taken on a yellow hue. The birds fly in and out of formation as a few more birds fly past the camera.
 * Cityscape (Night): The same city from the previous two idents is seen, now completely blue as it is night time.
 * Rural: A large grassy field with various trees is seen, and three people are seen having a picnic, with one of them controlling kites flying through the sky.
 * Train Station: An empty train station at night is seen, with a group of female dancers performing in front of the camera. As they move, a colorful display of abstract imagery is seen in a trail behind them.
 * Seaside: An ice cream van is parked on the beach, with an extremely long line of people queueing across the sand and onto the boardwalk.
 * Cafe: A colorful display of various posters is seen on the side of the cafe, with each of them coming to life in a unique way. A child in a poster for the beach kicks a ball out onto the pavement, butterflies are seen emerging from a poster featuring a jungle, and a mysterious shadow is cast from another.

Trivia: The Cityscape ident was filmed in Croydon, London.

Technique: Live-action combined with computer effects, created by DixonBaxi.

Audio: Depends on the ident, composed by Echoic Audio.