Channel 4 came on air with a new look on New Year's Eve 2004. The station's well known logo was retained but the new channel idents use "the very latest special effects techniques" to show the different elements of the logo converging to form the familiar '4' in a potentially infinite range of contexts.

The idents were put together by the Moving Picture Company. Conceived by creative director Brett Foraker, the branding incorporates the original '4' logo in front of various familiar backgrounds, such as a cornfield, a high-rise estate and an urban street.

The aim of the redesign is to "recapture the boldness and dynamism" of the channel's original logo from 1982 but in "a thoroughly twenty-first century way."

"The new identity is a highly innovative piece of work that reflects Channel 4’s unique values and once again puts us at the forefront of contemporary design," said Polly Cochrane, Channel 4's director of network marketing.

"In 1999 we pioneered minimalist cool and others followed. Now, in a more competitive digital environment, it’s time for something big, bold and engaging. Brett and his team have found a way of delivering the impact of the original identity but in a thoroughly modern way."

The idents show the channel 4 logo broken down into its nine blocks, subtly disguised as elements found in each environment shown. While the blocks are static in each of their surroundings, the first person perspective camera moves through the sequence to reveal the Channel 4 logo at the mid-point. The twelve different locations of these events dictated what the actual moving material was; scenes included privet hedges gliding through a bowling green, hay bales stacked on a stubbled field, looming pylons trailing from a nuclear power station, road work signs on the motorway and neon hoardings for an American diner.

Designer and MPC CG supervisor, Russell Appleford and his team created wire frame models of each of the elements making up the 4’s characters in Maya. The blocks were then rendered and the relevant textures were applied to ensure they appear to be part of the environment they are seen in. These animated elements were subsequently tracked into backgrounds using boujou. MPC’s team of Inferno artists worked on the various films over a period of six months. Lead operator, Mark Stannard painstakingly matched the 3D animated elements to the live action background plates. Once the rigged ‘4s’ were sitting correctly in the shots, lighting and textures had to be corrected so they were perfectly integrated throughout.

Talking about the production, Russell Appleford added: "It was great to work on such a high-profile and extensive project, especially when the experience is enhanced by attention to detail remaining the main impetus of everyone involved.

Brett Foraker, creative director of Channel 4 and Russell Appleford of the Moving Picture Company again collaborated to direct and design the second series of ‘Atlas Project’ idents. Post production and 3D animation were carried out at MPC.

The second set of idents show the iconic Channel 4 logo again broken down into its original nine blocks. This time the series of logos is made up of, from amongst other things, storage containers, Tokyo street signs and a music festival stage.

Sources: Channel 4 and Moving Picture Company.