Proud Creative gives S4C identity an international scope

A fresh brand identity for Welsh television channel S4C has won the Welsh Brand Category prize at the 2007 Bilingual Design Awards.

The channel’s rebrand, which launched last January, was designed by London-based Proud Creative under direction of S4C’s creative director Dylan Griffith, who was also awarded the awards scheme’s Designer of the Year prize.

‘We wanted to create a channel identity firmly rooted in Wales, but with a more global outlook to better reflect Wales as a bilingual nation – and winning the awards was a testament to our success,’ says Griffith.

Focusing on the theme of ‘uncontrollable attraction’, all the new channel idents were filmed on location throughout Wales, but carefully steered clear of the outdated dragon and daffodil clichés of the old S4C branding, which hadn’t been updated since 1993.

According to Griffith, ‘We’re not pandering to the traditional motifs. It was definitely time to move on. We’re Welsh, but we’re global citizens as well.’

With S4C’s new identity sweeping the board at the Bilingual Design Awards, as well as taking home top honours at the prestigious European Broadcasting Union Connect Awards last month in Switzerland, it seems that S4C has put Welsh design firmly on the map.