A fifteen-minute loop of the music which backed the 1999 ITV Hearts idents. Use it for inspiration. Play it while you're out jogging and you'll be high-fiving passers-by in seconds. It's a well-known fact that David Dundas uses this as his alarm every morning.
There was just one other variant of this music used by GMG stations which was identical other than a lighter piano intro in place of the strings.
If you've arrived here then you're probably fully aware of the 1999 ITV rebrand debacle, but if you're not, here's a quick summary:
- The year is 1998 and just under a decade after the last attempt, a plan is hatched to once again standardise ITV's branding. This time they really, really mean it. Year zero.
- The 1989 dream team of English Pockett (formerly English Markell Pockett) and David Dundas are brought back in to carry out this clean-sheet rebrand.
- Footage is shot, music is recorded, idents and promotional material are prepared. A design language is established.
- ITV repeatedly reject everything put in front of them.
- Repeat previous two steps at least three times.
- Many iterations later, a heavily watered-down compromise is reached which bears little resemblance to the designers' original vision.
- The new branding limps onto the air several months late with an adoption rate similar to that of the 1989 look.
- Nobody involved with this project ever does any more work for ITV, and who would blame them?
Postscript: It was reported in 2008 that English Pockett (by this point known as E&P Associates) had shut up shop, but the latest news on their still-extant website is dated March 2010 and talks of new commissions. Just the fact that their site continues to exist shows that for whatever reason, someone's keeping the lights on out there...
6 ноя 2016
