[benzj]

Personally, I'm not that impressed with Dave's new look. Like many in here, I took quite a liking to the particularly quirky style of Dave's previous looks. As much as the qualm of them being somewhat "blokey" or masculine is valid, it still exhibited a level of character and creativity rarely seen done so memorably in television branding.

Even regardless of whether you compare it to Dave's previous looks, the new Dave branding leaves a lot to be desired. The "add a bit of Dave" concept is a strong idea, but it's poorly executed in the idents -- I couldn't help but think of the execution as a more direct, quippier version of E4's 2013-2018 ident package. I feel the new execution of the logo and the new typeface was welcome and refreshing, but the rest of the presentation design feels unfocused. The instant-messaging "typing..." ellipsis, simplistic styling and backgrounds, and relatable-if-dull break bumpers feel achingly generic, and could be tied to any number of channels, including, perhaps damningly, siblings Gold and W, as others have mentioned. Through this rebrand, Dave feels confused in terms of channel direction. Is it looking to skew younger, to pick fights with the likes of E4? Is it doubling down as a comedy outlet, at which point it perhaps ironically looks more like a revival of UKTV G2? Even if Dave's staying where they are in terms of positioning, the new package is achingly weak, in my eyes, and doesn't speak to what so many viewers have come to enjoy about the channel over the years.

Arguably, it could be said that the outgoing 2014 package was a better conceptual execution of the "add a bit of Dave" idea, and I'm almost certain there are more clever ways to extend that into the rest of the presentation.