Idents for Living created by Virgin Media with help from Artem.

Design Company: Artem

Client: Living TV

Brief: Physical effects specialist Artem was commissioned to help Virgin Media develop its Living and Living 2 rebrand by designing physical apparatus for new idents.

How it was done: Stencils of the channel names were cut from steel using a water jet and the various live action elements shot through them. Of the seven new idents, three were seasonal elements featuring snowflakes and brightly coloured baubles for Christmas and a variety of firework effects for New Year. In addition to these, four further idents utilise fog, glass, petal and paint effects and are airing throughout January.

The idents were Directed by Virgin Media Television’s Calum MacDermuid and produced by Kelly Palmer. Bob Thorne, special effects supervisor at Artem said: “It was really nice to do physical elements for idents as they seem to be mostly computer generated these days. All of the idents have a really nice depth to them that I think you can only get by using physical effects.”

Watch it: The idents are airing on the various Living channels now.