Established in 1992 but with origins as far back as 1953, Česká Televize (Czech Television, CT for short) is the public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic with four channels: CT1, for general purpose programming from movies to series to news; CT2, for documentaries and history programming; CT4, now CT Sports; and CT24, a dedicated news channel. Earlier this month, CT introduced a revised identity designed by Prague-based Studio Najbrt that will roll out in September.
Logos over the years.
The new identity replaces a slightly confusing situation that was implemented in 2007 after an open contest where a rather nice logo (here) and secondary channels (above) by Štèpán Malovec were selected. The confusing part, at least to us people who like systems that make sense, is that the main logo was not implemented but the secondary logos, derived from the main logo, were — leaving no connection between the parent logo and its channels. Part of why the logo wasn't used was because the combination of the "c" and inverted "t" to create an abstracted TV set had been used for so many years and someone didn't want to let go.
The last iteration of the CT television set logo was rather nice and elegant, a very simple form. The new logo has taken the original forms to their most abstract to create a clunky set of parentheses that are then dipped in gradient sauce to render a very unappealing look. In application, the logo gains nothing; it's just slapped big on anything that will hold it. The old channel system, which was simple and bold and led to some interesting on-air applications (that you can see here), has been replaced by a system that now indeed "makes sense" with the logo next to the channel name but that is quite uninspired. Overall, you get the point: Bad.
Custom type family, TV Sans.
Thanks to Jan Vranovsky for the tip.
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