Thursday, December 12, 2019

Logos of the 2010s: Specialty television


In our second and final instalment on logos for TV channels in the 2010s, we move on to speciality channels, mostly the ones associated with cable and satellite. One of the most substantial changes in branding during the '10s has been the decreasing importance of television. We started the decade just as the idea of launching new TV channels started dying off and by the middle of the decade we actually started seeing relatively significant broadcasters shutting down less important TV channels.

The Branding Source had quite extensive coverage of TV branding in the beginning, publishing special TV logo round-ups and special summaries of motion branding. You'll notice that most of the creative rebrands here are from the earlier part of the decade. Over time, TV rebrands started becoming less creative, with changing brand positions as the entire industry shifted from growth to managed decline. So, here's a summary of what's probably the last decade in TV branding.

American cable

In American cable TV, the early 2010s continued the shift towards more generic programming, with different networks losing their previous focus on different genres. The later part of the decade saw a bit of a reversal in that trend, with more clearly defined genres appearing once again.

Discovery Channel has always had messy and inconsistent branding. Back in 2008, they tried to fix that by revealing a fresh new logo. Then they spent the next decade tinkering with that, before revealing an all-new logo on April 2, 2019.

Discovery Channel
Revealed: April 2, 2019
The Hollywood Reporter
Brief

Comedy Central
Created by: The Lab
Revealed: December 9, 2010
Launched: Early January 2011
Brand New

One of the first notable brand redesigns of the decade was MTV truncating its logo slightly. This was mostly notable for the fact that they actually dared to mess with such an iconic design.

MTV
Launched: February 2010

TNT
Launched: January 2016
The Branding Source

Bravo
Created by: Sibling/Rivalry
Launched: February 7, 2017
The Branding Source
Sibling/Rivalry


TBS
The Branding Source

Cartoon Network
Brand New


Boomerang
Created by: Art&Graft
The Branding Source
Brand New
Design Week

In the 2000s, the general trend was that American thematic channels decided to broaden their remit. Two examples of this were the Sci-Fi Channel and Animal Planet, who both introduced logos in tune with more generic programming. In the last couple of years, they reverted these changes, introduced more clearly genre-based programming and launched more thematic logos.
Syfy
Created by: Loyalkaspar
Revealed: May 11, 2017
The Branding Source


Animal Planet
Created by: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
Revealed: October 16, 2018
Launched: October 28, 2018
Brand New
Press release

VH1 gave up their weird box-or-whatever logo in 2013 for a fresh and simple one from Gretel.


VH1
Created by: Gretel
Launched: January 6, 2013
The Branding Source
Brand New


Travel Channel
Created by: Loyalkaspar
Revealed: No
Launched: Late January (?)
Branding Source
Brand New
Brand New 2


C-SPAN
Created by: Grafik
Launched: March 2019
Brand New


QVC
Revealed: February 6, 2019
Press release
Brand New
A creative flag for Al Gore's Current TV in 2011. This failed to push the network into profitability, so it was sold to Al Jazeera in 2013 to launch Al Jazeera America. That channel, in turn, was closed down in 2016.

Current
Created by: Wolff Olins
Revealed: 2011
Launched: 2011
Brand New
NewscastStudio


Spike (2015)
Created by: Blue Marlin
Revealed: March 3, 3015
The Branding Source

TV One
Created by: Eyeball/ModOp
Revealed: February 3, 2016
Launched: February 5, 2016
The Branding Source
The Branding Source follow-up

Food Network (2013)
Created by: Troika Design Group
Launched: January 6, 2013
The Branding Source

HGTV (2010)
Launched: March 1, 2010
Multichannel News

Cooking Channel
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: 2010
Launched: May 31, 2010
Design:related

We TV
Created by: Troika Design Group
Troika - rebrand
Troika - logo

The Independent Film Channel shifted from independent film to quirky comedies in 2010, introducing its new "slightly off" branding. In 2014, Gretel put the logo on an angle, making it slightly more off.

IFC (2010)

IFC (2014)

Created by: Gretel
The Branding Source

There were several networks whose logo were subject to constant tinkering. These included Lifetime, Oxygen, TV Land, Freeform (formerly ABC Family) and Science.


Lifetime (2012)

Created by: Leroy + Clarkson
Revealed: May 2, 2012
The Branding Source
Brand New


Lifetime (2013)

Created by: loyalkaspar
loyalkaspar
Braden Wheeler


Lifetime (2017)

Launched: January 2017
The Branding Source


Oxygen
Created by: Eyeball
Revealed: July 15, 2014
Launched: October 7, 2014
The Branding Source

Oxygen
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: May 11, 2017

Science
Revealed: April 5, 2011
Launched: June 8, 2011
Ryan McCullah (archive)
Branding Source

Science Channel
Created by: Sibling/Rivalry
The Branding Source
Sibling/Rivalry

TV Land
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: May 9, 2012
The Branding Source
Brand New

TV Land
Created by: Roger
Launched: June 23, 2015
Press release
AdWeek
Vimeo
Roger

Freeform
Launched: January 12, 2016
Brand New

Freeform
Launched: 2018
Created by: Ferroconcrete
Deadline
Ferroconcrete
Sleuth, the channel dedicated to crime series, became Cloo in 2011 with graphics by loyalkaspar. The channel closed down in 2017. Other channel that made a high-profile relaunches before being closed down were the Style Network (replaced by Esquire) and Centric (replaced by BET Her).
Cloo
Launched: August 15, 2011
The Branding Source
The Branding Source update

Style Network
Created by: Gretel
Revealed: June 20, 2012
Launched: June 25, 2012
The Branding Source
Gretel (archive)
Vimeo
Brand New

Centric
Created by: Gretel
The Branding Source
Gretel (archive)
Brand New

The Oprah Winfrey Network had been postponed multiple times before launching in 2011.

Oprah Winfrey Network (2011)
Revealed: Mid-October 2010
Launched: January 1, 2011
The OWN blog (archive)
Brand New

Oprah Winfrey Network (refresh later in 2011)
Branding Source

There were some other stabs taken at launching completely new cable TV brands, with Viceland proving to be a costly hybrid between cable and new media.

Viceland (2016)
Created by: Gretel
Brand New

FYI (2013)
Revealed: December 11, 2013
Launched: July 2014

The Hub (2010)
Created by: Troika Design Group
Revealed: January 14, 2010
Launched: October 10, 2010
Troika
Discovery press release (archive)
PRNewswire

International


Eurosport did a neat refresh of their classic ten-star logo back in 2011. Then in 2015 Pentagram and DixonBaxi overhauled the channel completely.

Eurosport (2011)
Revealed: January 17, 2011
Launched: April 5, 2011
Branding Source

Eurosport (2015)
Created by: Angus Hyland, Pentagram
Launched: November 13, 2015
The Branding Source
Creative Review

The BBC overhauled its international channel portofolio, launching three completely new brands, designed by Trollbäck + Company.

BBC First
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: June 2014
The Branding Source

BBC Brit
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: Autumn 2014
Launched: February 1, 2015
The Branding Source

BBC Earth
Created by: Trollbäck + Company
Revealed: Autumn 2014
Launched: Februari 1, 2015
The Branding Source

Sony Channel (2019)
Revealed: July 24, 2019 (in the UK, possibly earlier in other markets)
Launched: August 12, 2019 (Latin America), September 10, 2019 (United Kingdom)
The Branding Source
Prensario
Sky Media
Rapid TV News

AXN (2015)
The Branding Source

Crime+Investigation Network (2017)
Created by: DixonBaxi?
Launched: January 2017
Brief
Multichannel News

Universal Channel (2010)
Created by: Heavenly
Launched: March 24, 2010 (South Africa)

Universal Channel (2013)
Created by: Red Bee Media
Revealed: April 2013
The Branding Source

Universal TV (2018)
Created by: Red Bee

Euronews
Created by: Lambie-Nairn
Lambie-Nairn (archive)
Design Tagebuch

United Kingdom


UKTV, the suite of British TV channels half-owned by the BBC completely relaunched its portfolio around 2007-2009 and then spent much of the '10s slightly tooling with that relaunch. Agencies like DixonBaxi and Art&Graft helped out.

UKTV
Created by: Landor Associates
Revealed: March 19, 2013
Launched: March 26, 2013
The Branding Source

Watch (2010)
Launched: September 23, 2010

Watch (2012)
Created by: DixonBaxi
Revealed: January 23, 2012
Launched: March 9, 2012
Branding Source

W, formely Watch (2016)
Created by: Art&Graft
Revealed: January 5, 2016
Launched: February 2016
UKTV (archive)

Yesterday
Created by: DixonBaxi
Revealed: July 10, 2012
Launched: July 24, 2012
The Branding Source

Drama
Created by: DixonBaxi
Revealed: April 2, 2013
The Branding Source

Really
Created by: Red Bee Media
Revealed: May 10, 2013
Launched: May 15, 2013
The Branding Source

Gold
Created by: DixonBaxi
Revealed: July 15, 2015
Launched: July 16, 2014
The Branding Source

Alibi
Created by: Art&Graft
Launched: July 1, 2015
The Branding Source
The UK's Freeview service saw several new channels launch.

Quest
Launched: April 16, 2014
The Ident Gallery
Vimeo

Blaze
Created by: DixonBaxi
The Branding Source
DixonBaxi

Freeview (2015)
Created by: DixonBaxi
Revealed: February 12, 2015
The Branding Source
Logo Design Love

Challenge (2016)
Created by: MMMultiply
Launched: June 23, 2016
Twitter

Canada

Canada's peculiar media ownership laws means they have several local cable TV brands.

Sportsnet (2011)
Created by: Troika Design Group
Revealed: September 29, 2011
Launched: October 3, 2011
Branding Source
Brand New
Troika - rebrand
Troika - logo

MuchMusic (2011)
Launched: 2011 (April 1?)
Branding Source

Showcase (2015)
Created by: In-house
The Branding Source

Family Jr (2015)
Created by: Roger
Roger
The Branding Source

The Comedy Network (2011)
Created by: Bell Media Agency
Revealed: October 28, 2011
Launched: November 1, 2011
Branding Source

Space (2013)
Created by: Bell Media Agency
Launched: March 4, 2013
The Branding Source

France

France has unusually many striking local TV channel brands, some of whom deserve a mention.
Ciné+ (2011)
Launched: May 17, 2011
Lenodal
Branding Source

Canal J (2015)
Created by: Motionfanclub
Revealed: January 2015
Launched: January 13, 2015
The Branding Source
Blog.Lenodal.com

Tiji (2012)
Created by: Gédéon
Launched: February 10, 2012
Actulogo
Megazap 1
Megazap 2
Média+
Youtube

Voyage (2011)
Launched: March 2011
Branding Source

Voyage (2016)
Created by: Gédéon
Revealed: September 2016
Launched: October 4, 2016
The Branding Source

Histoire TV (2019)
Created by: W
TF1 & Vous
CB News
Megazap

TV Breizh (2014)
Created by: Dream On
Revealed: June 2014
Launched: June 28, 2014
Blog.Lenodal.com
Newstele
Graphiline

Jimmy (2014)
Revealed: January 2014
Launched: February 18, 2014
The Branding Source

Equidia (2018)
Created by: Dragon Rouge
Launched: January 8, 2018
Blog.Lenodal.com
Press dossier

Others


Star Sports
Created by: venturethree
Launched: November 2013
Brand New

MTV-owned German music and entertainment-owned launched a cool and well-received rebrand at start of 2011. The channel closed down forever on New Year's Eve 2018.
Viva
Revealed: November 2010
Launched: January 1, 2011
Brand New

SF (Australia)
Created by: Ink Project
Revealed: July 18, 2012
Launched: July 23, 2012
The Branding Source
Ink Project

Lifestyle (2016)
TV Tonight

Telecine (2019)
The Branding Source
Cinemundo
Guidelines

Odisea / Odisseia (2011)
Revealed: February 17, 2011
Branding Source

Premium TV


Foxtel (2017)
Created by: Maud
Revealed: June 6, 2017
The Branding Source

#0
MundoPlus

Canalsat (2011)
Created by: Nude
Launched: September 2011
Branding Source

C More (2012)
Created by: Ohlsonsmith
Revealed: June 7, 2012
Launched: September 4 (scheduled)
The Branding Source

C More (2016)
Created by: Bold
Launched: March 2016
The Branding Source
Bold

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