The U.S. has seen much of what many television viewers knew and expected of its music-centric stations, move to non-music related content and more toward reality-based programming –sometimes in the face of a high level of disappointment over the diluting of what was always touted as a singular, dedicated focus.
Among the big players, what might have been called one of the “last standing” channels, trying more strongly to run on its original mantras, is VH1, or “Video Hits One,” for anyone that might not remember. The channel’s deeper attempt to go against the trend of similar avenues like MTV felt like a special oasis but, the brand has recently taken a next step to transform away from its days of old. As reported by Co.Design, an intimate design agency in New York, Gretel, has worked on the VH1 visual identifier, creating a new logo, using new typography and integrating a very specific non-alpha numeric symbol into the mix.
Though an agency of smaller structure, Gretel is actually the brain behind visual re-brands and the visual component to specific event campaigns for many notable, large and longstanding companies, some of which include: Yahoo! Nickelodeon, PNC, HBO and Cover Girl, among others. In fact, VH1 has worked with Gretel in the past, with the promotion of its “Rock Docs” project, fusing music and film.
For this larger more overarching project, VH1 and Gretel worked together to realign the company’s brand within a world that now exists beyond television. While this may incite a knee-jerk reaction of presuming the channel is just jumping to virtual music abandonment, the singular addition of a plus sign is actually indicative of more than just use of a wider programming frame and better highlights the activity surrounding music, rather turning music into more of an afterthought. An additional aspiration is to revive viewers’ associations with the general VH1 brand rather than its individual programs, as explained by Gretel’s breakdown of the endeavor:
…Brand awareness was slipping as viewers had become increasingly more loyal to the shows than to the network.
In our exploration we looked at everything VH1 stood for, ultimately deciding we wanted them to take and embrace everything: the good, the bad and the ugly as their own. The key was finding a way to link the various pieces together, to create a simple connective tissue that could be easily implemented, adapted and instantly understood. We realized the answer was simple: a symbol that is both visual and verbal: plus.
Plus speaks the language of their viewers: short, textable bursts + descriptive search terms. It creates narrative by association and collection, not through curation or judgement. It speaks with hyperbole + overflowing enthusiasm for everything.
The core strategy of the brand is embedded into the logo itself. In doing so we created a tag-mark: a logo that doesn’t need a tagline to communicate the brand story.
The change over of VH1′s objectives and logo came into being in a somewhat ‘under-the-radar’ type fashion, openly admitted by VH1′s President, Tom Calderone. Its aesthetic change has a two-fold set of benefits, both for optimized mobile appearance and for a clearer, more self-explanatory message to consumers. The plus sign, addition, inclusion… these ideas are all instantly conveyed with this single, new mark in the logo and it can be fused into the “header[s] for each piece of [categorized] news on VH1′s website.” as Co.Design also points out with an example of, “A Rihanna interview gets ‘Interview + DGAF Attitude.’.”
The line VH1 currently walks, between not completely losing appreciation and esteem of its musical identity and going the way of the crowd is still a bit precarious, seeing as how the main tagline when the website loads up reads as, “VH1 | Shows + Celebrity + Music + Pop Culture.” (Music is listed third). However, perhaps the mindset and thought process behind this small sign of addition will translate better to keeping the spirit and integrity of music alive on VH1, rather than having bleeps and stunts take over in the minds of the everyone who sees the logo.
Below is a short video promoting VH1′s re-branding across various tech platforms:
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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