MTV Idents: From Music Channel to the Voice of a Generation
MTV was born as the world’s first music television network — an electrifying fusion of pop, sound, and attitude. As the audience evolved, so did MTV. The brand faced a new challenge: to reinvent itself from a mix of music and television into a channel that reflected something bigger — the pulse of youth culture itself.
This evolution wasn’t about abandoning music; it was about expanding the stage. MTV became television by and for the young; a cultural playground where creativity, irreverence, and identity collided on screen.
Brand Strategy: The Evolution of Youth
To express this shift, we created a retro-futuristic cast of characters that embodied MTV’s new spirit—each one a living, breathing TV ident that mirrored the laissez-faire, ever-evolving attitude of our audience.
These characters portrayed the same values that define both MTV and its viewers: individuality, rebellion, playfulness, and a refusal to stand still.
Across programming, they appeared as surreal, textured beings—evolving from prehistoric furry to bubbly surreal to robotic metallic—illustrating an ongoing metamorphosis that felt both nostalgic and futuristic.
A visual language of evolution—timeless, unpredictable, and unmistakably MTV.
Recycling Paramount Programming as MTV Programming
MTV in Spain was launched from a paid cable channel to a free-to-air one. The new channel showed popular programming from its Paramount sister channels.
Programming Brand Strategy: Integrate Programming into Iconic MTV Logo
As a first step we created a subversive, graffiti-filled MTV log to emphasize the youthful attitude of the brand and the programming. Then we graphically integrated the programming’s narrative into the iconic logo so that the channel would take “ownership” of these recycled media properties, like South Park or The Hard Times for RJ Berger.
