ManvsMachine creates “badly behaved” new ITV2 branding

ManvsMachine has not only managed to incorporate dachshunds in hotdog outfits, explosive biscuit dunking and a whole lotta flippers into its ITV2 channel rebrand, but it’s also ensured that there’s not one, not two, nor even 100 different iterations of the ident. Nope, there are a whopping 300,000 of them. As the agency puts it, “you would have to stay tuned-in for 36 years to enjoy every possible combination.”

The new look for the channel aims to convey ITV2 as “the naughty sibling of the ITV family,” says ManvsMachine. The overall identity is centred around the theme “amplifying everyday life,” so we see a brighter, more banging approach to making a cup of tea than you’d expect. Look a little deeper, and there’s a little visual pun in each ident, too. The hammers falling against a wall of clocks? Hammertime, of course.

“We created a badly behaved channel brand system that disregards the norms of scheduling,” the agency continues. So as well as having cheeky visual cues – it’s all riotous toasters and biscuits falling from the sky – it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever see the same sequence of idents. The agency explains: “We worked with ITV Creative to develop an automated modular play-out system that assembles idents on the fly. Like a digital tombola, the system randomly sequences snippets from bespoke ITV2 branded ’scenes’.”