Draft:Children's ITV/CITV

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum

(Redirected from Children's ITV/CITV)




1st ID (3 January 1983-23 September 1988)

Visuals: On a sky blue background, there is a rocket ship fly into view from the right side of the screen and do a loop as it leaves a blue, red, yellow and green-coloured rainbow behind it; the background then fades to dark grey as the text "CHILDREN'S" in blue, and "ITV" in light grey with the four coloured stripes through it, appears.

Variants:

  • In 1985, there was a variant (which is indicated by the fifth image above) that panned across a countryside landscape to a farm, and a yellow rectangle with the "CHILDREN'S ITV" text (the "CHILDREN'S" text is in blue, and the "ITV" text is in white) on it flies out of the barn and takes up the entire television screen.
  • In 1987, there was a Christmas variant on a white background with the "CHILDREN'S" text in dark blue and the "ITV" text in yellow, both covered in snow; the camera would then fade to a shot of a Christmas tree with flashing lights and zoom into it before fading to a shot of the (then-current) hosts, Gary and Debbie.
  • In 1988, there was a variant on a yellow background (with grey squiggles) which again had the "CHILDREN'S" text in blue and the "ITV" text in yellow; several shooting stars would then fly over the screen from all directions and cause the text to disappear as they flew over it before the background stopped squiggling.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: Unknown.

2nd ID (26 September 1988-1 September 1989)

Visuals: As the logo fades in is the "CHILDREN'S ITV" text, which is in the same font as before, change colour several times as several white lines sweep across the screen (the background changes its colours with it), and it is interspersed with footage of a steam engine's wheels turning while a number in a circle counts down from "5" to "0" in the screen's bottom-left corner; four horizontal lines, which are coloured blue, yellow, orange and red respectively, then draw themselves across the screen as the background becomes white and the text brown, a black zigzag sweep across the screen and a Belisha beacon pole comes up from the bottom of it as three dotted lines are drawn in at the top-right (forming a sort-of-"X" shape) and at the bottom. The screen then fades into a shot of the then-new host, Mark Granger.

Variant: In January 1989, there was a variant featuring a swinging yellow rectangle, with "1989" on it in red, which was used to introduce a promotion for several new series starting in that year (including: Teddy Ruxpin, T-Bag and the Revenge of the T-Set, Five-Minute Wonders, DuckTales, AL-TV, Hot Dog, and Round the Bend).

Technique: Computer animation and live action.

Audio: Unknown.

3rd ID (3 April 1989, 3 September 1990-29 March 1991)

Visuals: On a backdrop of the Telecom Tower, there is a white stickman walk off the right side of the screen as a yellow bird flies after him; a dollop of green slime then comes down from the top of the screen as the then-new Children's ITV logo, which is the three-dimensional text of "ITV" in magenta with "CHILDRENS" emblazoned across it in blue, forms up and rotates on its Y-axis towards the camera as the stickman cycles back onto the right side of the screen but the bird does not follow him.

Variant: There was also a two-dimensional version of this logo, that was introduced on 3 April 1989, before the 3D one was introduced on 3 September 1990; it was preceded by the words "WITH", "IT", and "ON" to say the phrase "WITH IT ON CHILDREN'S ITV", the slime was substituted with a green EKG-like zigzag flying from the left side of the screen to the right, and the colour of the "CHILDRENS" text was changed, from blue to yellow. Other two-dimensional variants featured backdrops of: a scrambled checkerboard background of then-current Children's ITV shows, a sixteen-millimetre film reel, and a spaceship's control panel (similar to those of the original 1983 studio) - and the "CHILDRENS" text also retained its original blue colour for the second and third of these variants (all three also predate the third logo).

Technique: 2D animation and live action, produced by Stonewall Productions.

Audio: Unknown.

4th ID (4 September 1989-29 January 1993)


Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with several blue, yellow, and purple paint-splats appear on the screen as five orange-blue horizontal lines fly across it; four pieces of a blue, white and red octagonal shape then fly into view from all four sides of the screen as the outline of Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitrian Man appears in the centre of it, an orange and white lunar module flies down into view from the top-right corner of the screen then turns 75 degrees anticlockwise and flies off the right side of it, a blue silhouette of a man being chased by a crocodile runs into view from the left side of the screen, and several yellow bubbles appear all over the screen as the text "childrens", in white, appears in the centre of it and stretches before the then-new ITV logo appears behind it.

Trivia: This ident was designed as part of ITV's "generic" look, and although two new logos for the Children's ITV strand were introduced in 1990 and 1991 respectively, this one continued to appear until the end of January 1993.

Variant: Occasionally, a shorter version of the ident, which started at the part when all the yellow bubbles and the "childrens" text appeared on the screen, was used.

Technique: Live action and 2D animation, produced by Stonewall Productions.

Audio: Unknown.

5th ID (1 April 1991-22 May 1998)

Visuals: On a white background, there is a black square which has a yellow circle in it (along with a sun, a clock, the numbers "6" and "9", and a moon drawn around it); the circle initially has a red "C" in it but it rapidly changes into a blue "H", a magenta "I", a green "L", a red "D", a blue "R", a magenta "E", a green "N" and a blue "S", and on the third loop, the text "CHILDRENS", in black, appears up the left side of the square as the text "itv", in white, flies into view from the right side of the screen.

Variants:

  • On 1 February 1993, in-vision continuity was abolished by Children's ITV controller Dawn Airey, and a secondary ident was introduced as a result; the "CHILDRENS" text was made lowercase, the drawings around the square were removed, the colour of the square itself was changed from black to blue, and the animation was simplified. The new "Children's" text was written in on the left side of the square as the red "C" dropped down into position, and the "itv" text flew into view from the left side of the screen.
  • On 4 September 1995, a three-dimensional version of the original 1991 ident was also introduced at the end of a day's programming, which featured the logo "detransforming" as the "CHILDRENS" text flew off the top of the screen letter-by-letter, the "itv" text flew off the right side of the screen, the drawings around the top edge of the cube faded away, the four other edges of the cube (which all had a yellow circle on them) fell over, then disappeared, and the yellow cylinder flew off the top of the screen.
  • Beginning on 2 September 1996, the word "CHILDREN'S" was removed, and it was also around this time that the logo started appearing in the top-left corner of the screen as a digital on-screen graphic during CITV programmes.

Technique: CGI and live action.

Audio: Unknown.

Audio Variants: Unknown.

6th ID (25 May 1998-August 1999)

Unknown

7th ID (September 1999-2002)


Visuals: On a water-like background, there is a yellow oval rotate anticlockwise on its X-axis, as the letters "C" (in red), and "i", "T", and "V" (in blue) form upon it; there were at least three different variants of this logo, featuring a desert island with a shark's fin running across it, a crab cutting a piece of red paper into seven stars with its claws, a television with its two antennae dancing and an octopus-like creature forming the logo. It was also around this period that in-vision continuity was restored to CITV, as it had been newly-renamed.

Variant: On 25 September 2000, CITV introduced a strand called "Telly Tots" for its younger viewers; the version of the logo shown at the start of it begins with it on a yellow-and-red background, and an aeroplane (named "Roger", and voiced by Steve Ryde, who had previously made the out-of-vision continuity announcements between 1993 and 1998) flies into view from the right side of the screen then leaves a shower of red and blue stars behind as the logo spin around to reveal the text "Telly" (in red) and "Tots" (in blue) on the other side. Roger then flies back into view from behind the logo as it stops spinning and waves his wings as if they were arms, then flies off the left side of the screen - and a car (named "Victor") then drives down into the view from the top of the screen, as a fish with a microphone (named "Bubbles") pops up into view from the bottom of it (and winks as the camera zooms out on him). A hot-air balloon shaped like a giant bear's head then flies down into the view from the top of the screen, and the camera zooms in on the logo as Roger flies off into the distance and the camera pans down to "Telly Tots Town"; this is where the strand took place. It was also around this time that two other regular idents were introduced featuring Roger and Bubbles on a yellow background before they transformed into the oval.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: Unknown.

8th ID (2002-31 August 2003)

Unknown

9th ID (1 September 2003-9 March 2006)

Visuals: On a white background, there is a "flat" version of the previous logo; there were at least thirteen different variants, featuring the logo getting covered with snot, bouncing on the ground (and occasionally falling down a hole that opens up in it, falling over, and getting jammed in the ceiling), being inserted into a slide projector upside down and reinserted the right way up, swinging on a trapeze and flying into the camera, being formed of twenty tiles, exploding, as a neon sign, as the moon (as two bats fly past it), and with Engie Benjy (from Cosgrove Hall's then-latest stop-motion programme of the same name), along with Jollop the dog, and Dan the van.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Unknown.

10th ID (10 March 2006-1 November 2009)


Visuals: On a red background, there is a black inverted triangle (with a white "C" emblazoned on it); the text "itv" is also emblazoned on the "C" in black, and there were at least five different variants featuring a cooked chicken wearing a red vest with the logo on it, a turtle wearing a blue vest with the logo on it, a purple hippopotamus wearing a blue vest with the logo on it as well as a pirate's hat and patch, a maraca-shaking sausage wearing a red vest with the logo on it in a pile of mashed potato with eight sombrero-wearing beans, and two astronauts, a ninja, a dinosaur, two horses and a baby standing in front of it. It was also around this period that in-vision continuity was abolished by CITV for a second time, and the strand later disappeared from ITV1 altogether towards the end of the year (except for at the weekends).

Variants:

  • At the start of a day's strand, there is a wooden block stand, with between six and nine blocks on it (all featuring the new logo on a sky blue background); the blocks then rotate on their Y-axes towards the camera to reveal letters on blue, orange, magenta, green, and red backgrounds (which spell out the name of the day).
  • This logo was also used as a still, in-credit version at the end of shows.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Unknown.

Availability: The in-credit variant was shown on a 2011 episode of Horrid Henry.

11th ID (2 November 2009-13 January 2013)

Visuals: On a yellow background, there is a yellow "C", with a pair of antennae on top of it, and the text "itv" written on it in black; there are at least six different variants, featuring the camera panning over the logo:

  • A one-eyed yellow alien throwing a rock at a sleeping two-eyed one, who then pulls the light switch over him and causes a rock to fall on him (leaving the imprint of the logo on it)
  • A burglar being lowered down from the ceiling and turning off the laser security system before straightening the logo's right antenna
  • Two black stickmen practicing kung-fu moves on the logo (before cutting their arms and legs off and becoming its antennae), two men and a woman practicing their climbing on the logo and a man dressed as a robot (with "itv" written on his right leg) "transforming" into the logo and poking his head out of it.
  • During "Mini CITV" (the channel's strand for younger viewers), the logo is displayed next to a yellow rectangle with the text "mini" on it in white, with a group of aliens known as the "Minis" in a live-action setting in the background - and the Minis also featured in several shorter educational spots that appeared between programs.

Variant: On 5-6 January 2013, CITV held an "Old Skool Weekend" to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary (the regular digital on-screen graphic was also changed to say "OLD SKOOL WEEKEND"); the idents used on those days were a "mash-up" of the previous logos, featuring the rocket ship from 1983, the four horizontal lines from 1988, the sun and numbers from 1991, the crab from 1998, and the sausage from 2006 with the then-current logo and "OLD SKOOL WEEKEND" in the centre. See the 8th logo's 2nd variant.

Technique: CGI, stop-motion, and Flash animation.

Audio: Unknown.

12th ID (14 January 2013-2018)

Visuals: Over a white background, the logo starts with the letter "C" with the then-new (and still-current) ITV logo next to it in yellow; there are at least nineteen different variants of it, which feature the "C" as the mouth of an animated chameleon, an animated duck (on a live-action pond), an animated Godzilla-like monster, an animated seagull on the live-action Brighton Pier (with an ice-cream on his head), and an animated shark (in a live-action washing machine), as well as: having thirteen hands coming out of it and twelve eyes on it, having an elephant's trunk growing out of its top, being the handle of a mug, having a pair of eye-stalks, a mouth, a pair of arms and a pair of legs growing out of it (to make it look like an alien), being the hook of a crane at a car scrapyard, being the mouth of a goldfish, a horse, a "Venusian Fly Trap" and a frog, floating around in space, having a masked face drawn inside it with a pair of arms (holding a straw in its left hand) and a pair of legs growing out of it (to make it look like a scuba diver), having a Viking warrior standing on it, and being a robotic claw. Some of these idents were designed by 7-, 8-, 9- and 10-year-old children.

Variant: See the eighth logo's second variant.

Technique: 2D animation by Carl Hadley.

Audio: Unknown

12th ID (2018-1 September 2023)

Unknown

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