[James2001]

Strangely though, Brookside didn't have EPG friendly credits or a Channel 4 ligo on their endcap until a few episodes into the 2002 revamp. They had a "next time" promo running on the left hand side of the screen and the credits scrolling on the right, and they had to squeeze the credits after the next time promo had finished to use an EPG.

A few episodes into the 2002 revamp they finally switched to running the next time promo before the credits and having the credits aligned for the EPG to be overlayed, TV Ark has the 14/11/02 edition and they'd done it by then, but the first few episodes still had non-EPG compliant credits.

[Brekkie]

I don't recall Channel 4 having their logo on endcaps until the 1999 revamp.

Their logo did appear on the break captions on some shows in the 1995-99 era though, most notably Brookside and Hollyoaks.

Sorry, I meant the trailer endcap. They had the 4 circle design but I think by the time these one week idents came in they were largely dropped in favour of just text on the screen

[James2001]

Strangely though, Brookside didn't have EPG friendly credits or a Channel 4 ligo on their endcap until a few episodes into the 2002 revamp. They had a "next time" promo running on the left hand side of the screen and the credits scrolling on the right, and they had to squeeze the credits after the next time promo had finished to use an EPG.

A few episodes into the 2002 revamp they finally switched to running the next time promo before the credits and having the credits aligned for the EPG to be overlayed, TV Ark has the 14/11/02 edition and they'd done it by then, but the first few episodes still had non-EPG compliant credits.

Just looked, these two videos cover it:

www.youtube.com 

www.youtube.com 

Shows that the first 3 episodes of the revamp (the last episode of the first video and the first 2 of the second) still had non-ECP compliant credits (though the "next time" bit does run before the credits, not during them like in the pre-revamp episodes) and they had to squeeze them, it's from the 4th episode of the revamp where the credits finally become ECP compliant, and the Channel 4 (and Mersey TV "MTV" logo) first appear on the endcap.

The first 4 episodes in that video use the strange short lived "blue" Brookside titles- which were otherwise the same as the previous set apart from being filmised and blue rather than black.

[Milkshake]

Here is a piece from Feb 1999, it makes no indications about the minor revamp in Nov 1998.

www.designweek.co.uk 

C4 to drop rings in logo revamp - Design Week
Channel 4 is ditching its "constraining" circles logo and on-screen id…
  Source: www.designweek.co.uk

Channel 4 is ditching its “constraining” circles logo and on-screen identity, and replacing it with a new image created by London consultancy Spin and the channel’s in-house design team.

The new design is yet to be signed-off, but is expected to feature vertical bands of colour moving across the screen, and a Channel 4 logo in a square. A prototype screen identity has been developed and the on-air launch is expected “in weeks rather than months”, according to Channel 4 controller of marketing Polly Cochrane.

She says the new on-screen design, which arose from a broader review of the channel’s screen positioning, will “break a lot of television rules” and provide a more flexible off-air identity than its circle-based predecessor. Introduced in 1996, this was developed in-house with early design input from Tomato.

“It will embrace colour again which had been drained out by the circles,” says Cochrane. “Off-air they had become rather constraining and formulaic. They were really struggling to produce off-air ads where the circles worked in a meaningful way.”

The new direction is hinted at in a current poster campaign (extract pictured) to advertise Channel 4’s forthcoming Sex in the City programme. Devised by The Creative Partnership, with art-direction by Spin, the posters include a Channel 4 logo without its circles, but inside a square.

Spin was established six years ago and last year won a silver D&AD Award for its new media work for Diesel. Before appointing the group, Channel 4 had talked to several better known screen-design companies which had failed to impress.

“We were getting to the point of wondering if we’d ever find someone,” says Cochrane.

She adds that the new identity is not under the same time pressure as its predecessor, which was “rushed out” ahead of the Channel 5 launch.

Cochrane is keen the identity will not be over-dominant. “The programme content and attitudes should be taking centre stage,” she says.

Matt Baker, Channel 4 deputy head of corporate affairs, says the channel has decided to reinforce its brand at a time when on-screen branding is becoming increasingly important.

“The four circles have worked well for us in many ways,” says Baker. “We had a very strong [launch] logo with the geometric colours. We tried something different and now we’re moving it on.”

It will be only the second major redesign of the channel’s identity. The original logo was designed by the then Robinson Lambie-Nairn in 1982 and was updated in 1996 to the current circles logo.

With the advent of digital TV, Channel 4 faces new challenges.

[James2001]

And right on cue, here's a video of some continuity from said short lived era:

www.youtube.com 

[Milkshake]

That is interesting, there no clear picture before you see the square boxes, Does that mean they tweeked it again or was this what was used in broadcast?

Was it only used for that one week 19th - 25th oct 1998 then disappearing before the revised format reappearing first week of November?

The revised, revised Idents were in use by the second week of November:

youtu.be 

[Brekkie]

They were the generic version.

The 4 circles promo board survived that week then.

[Milkshake]

Here is a video from 13th October 1998:
youtu.be 

Fast forward to the Friday Night and the breakbumper is in use Did it come on Friday 16th? Or did it come in for peak time only from the 13th?
www.youtube.com 

HERE is the NEW LOOK in use on Sunday 18th October 1998.
youtu.be 

[WillPS]

Interesting that so many junctions had no CA at all back in the 90s (by design too, not just an ident playing out in silence).

[James2001]

I can also remember Channel 4 having that strange short lived version of IVC which consisted of a camera in the announcer's booth, with the announcer acting like the camera wasn't there (so staring at their script, a monitor, a fader etc.), was bizarre.