ITV, On The Mend
Celebrating NHS staff coming together by mending the ITV logo.
Client: Imperial Health Charity and ITV.
4 months, 1 day filming, 1 week live on TV
The Challenge
The Problem
Creating a framework for a group of NHS staff to make an ITV ident together and celebrate the contribution of healthcare professionals across the UK.
The Outcome
The framework for a workshop where a group of NHS staff was given broken sections of the ITV logo and had to mend the logo by using a craft related to their profession. A surgeon, for example, glued and stitched pieces back together with filler and thread. The participants constructed the logo live in front of cameras, in order to create the ident. The piece emphasised the journey of the shapes from broken pieces into a ‘fixed’ whole and celebrated the important role that creativity plays in supporting our health and wellbeing.
Research and development
- Must be made and filmed entirely in one day
- Must allow for different levels of participation
- Must look good as an ident and as a finished ITV logo
- Must have a cohesive theme that will work well visually but also have room for surprise
When approached by ITV and Imperial Health Charity, our only guidance was creating an ITV ident collaboratively with a group of NHS staff, which celebrated Britain coming together. We spent lots of time brainstorming what that meant to us and how it could be visualised. We wanted to highlight the NHS coming together but also the importance of making something fun. After pitching to Imperial Health Charity and ITV Studio different concepts, we decided to work with a cut-out ITV logo that would be mended using different foam shapes.
Product design
The main part of the project was spent on designing and producing the pieces used for the workshop. We designed everything ourselves and got the different foam shapes cut from a local mattress company and the ITV cut-out in plywood from a local laser-cutting studio. We created shapes that evoked body shapes and organs but still looked playful and organic. We then tested various materials and ways of mending things together such as stitching, taping, gluing, paining, etc. in order to give the NHS staff different ways to express their creativity through mending.
Delivery
The workshop was facilitated entirely by us and filmed by the ITV film crew. We gave simple instructions to the NHS staff and showed them how the materials and tools could be used and played around with but then erased ourselves from the process as much as possible. This allowed them to have full autonomy on what the finished product would look like and give them the confidence to show and use their own creativity.
“I think it’s incredible to see how good we were working together.”
— Workshop Participant
“It’s really nice to be working with colleagues whom I don’t normally see.”
— Workshop Participant, ___ (Orthopedic Surgeon)
“It’s just a release really. It’s been a really positive experience.”
— Workshop Participant, Carol (Dementia Care Nurse)
“I probably haven’t done something this therapeutic in a long long time.”
— Workshop Participant, Harvey (Child Physiotherapist)
“We’ve produced something fantastic and that’s pretty much what we do everyday in the NHS.”
— Workshop Participant
“We were delighted to work with On The Mend and our NHS colleagues to bring this fantastic interpretation of the logo to life. The finished artwork beautifully represents the invaluable role of the NHS in looking after the nation’s health.”
— Lucy Zacaria, Head of Arts at Imperial Health Charity
The Insights
That design and making really can bring people together and that creativity plays such an important role in supporting our health and wellbeing.
Results
- Working relationship with Imperial Health Charity
- Exposure through ITV channel, the third most popular TV channel in the UK with more than 5 million viewers weekly
Sustainability
Let’s be honest, the materials we used for this ident were not sustainable and were only used for a one time event. It would have been great if we could have spent more time looking for more sustainable materials or reusing old materials other companies were not using. Ideally we would have also liked to give the final piece a second life and install it somewhere so it didn’t go to waste straight away.
Feedback from all workshop participants
It would have been really useful to send out an anonymous survey to all NHS staff who participated to understand a bit more about which aspects of the workshop they enjoyed and which we could have improved.
People and press
Workshop development and facilitation – Sophia Luu and Mathilda Della Torre
Charity partner – Imperial Health Charity (Lucy and Kate)
Workshop participants – Harvey, Carol, Lily
Film crew – ITV Studios
Generously supported by ITV Studios.
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