Grampian Television - Identity

Identity

Grampian's company logo and on screen identity made use of The Saltire, the Flag of Scotland, in all incarnations of the company's independent life. Grampian's first on screen identification film, or ident for short, featured a black, white and grey image of four mountain peaks, which turn into the saltire, with the grey peak at the bottom, against the tune "Scotland the Brave". This ident lasted until 1971, when colour came to the region at the same time as the 10th anniversary of the station. The replacing ident started with the four sections of the saltire coloured red, yellow, blue and white merging to form a white diamond from which the saltire emerges upon a light blue background accompanied by a harp version of the Scotland the Brave jingle.

In 1980 a new black background ident was introduced and a newer version of Scotland the brave jingle used as well. It run along side the Dark blue version until 1983 when it was withdrawn from use. "Black" Ident was not used for links into ITN, until the start of 1983, During the same period the idents were seen less and less as in-vision continuity was used for the majority of links.

Grampian's first computer generated ident was introduced in April 1985 and featured various diamond and dot shapes flying around in space, changing colour against a tune of an electronic tune. As the ident progresses, the dots move closer, and the diamonds bend to that it becomes a three dimensional saltire shape as the 'Scotland the Brave' music begins to be more noticeable. The saltire logo then forms up in the place of the box.

However, this colourful and dynamic ident was only to last a four years, as Grampian adopted the first ITV generic look in 1989 and used it from then until 1998, which made Grampian the longest ITV company to use this look at nine years. As the majority of links were done by in-vision continuity, the ident was rarely seen for most of the day. When the new ITV logo was about to be launched and after SMG had bought the channel, the ident was replaced by a saltire on blue background, tilted slightly, with the sections of the saltire bursting into place, accompanied by the generic music from 1989.

In 1999, Grampian refused the second generic look and, like Scottish Television, took a branding package based on a blue square with the words 'Grampian TV' in the bottom of the square. Launched on 28 February 2000 and featuring various scenes of Scottish people and places up and down the country. Various scenes featured a lady horserider along a beach, a young lady and dog returning home, elderly tweed workers in the highlands, waves crashing below Dunottar Castle, a tea dance, an oil rig in the North Sea, the grampian mountains, chefs in a restaurant kitchen and a waitress in a pub. The look is notable for its cool colour pallette and ambient music.

On 6 January 2003, the idents were replaced by the celebrity idents, mostly used by the Granada and Carlton regions, and adapted for use by Grampian. The ITV1 logo was replaced with Grampian's logo, and additional idents made depicting Scottish and Grampian celebrities. However, this was not to last, as in 2006, the Grampian name was to be lost on screen in favour of STV. The idents featured Scottish people passing around the logo, an elongated 'S', to other people in other scenes off screen until the 'S' is placed in the centre of the screen. The upbeat music and dynamic filming gives the idents an energetic quality to the station. These idents were shared with Scottish, as were all idents following the package as the two networks have ceased as separate entities.

The current ident set came into force in February 2009 and was an extension to the theme. A scene, similar to the last look, flips over to reveal another scene. This continues, with increasing pace and a wider perspective, until the STV logo flips into view against a blue background