In an ITV-first, two creatives from different industries were chosen to craft the logo ident shown between programmes on ITV thanks to a unique collaboration between broadcaster and garden/landscape designer Mark Lane, and collage artist Sharon Walters.
Head Gardener at Fullers Mill, Annie Dellbridge says:
“When Mark asked if he could film ITV’s new ident at Fullers Mill, I was delighted to accept. He had been to the garden before, but given that he must visit and work with so many gardens, I was thrilled that Fullers Mill had made an impression on him and that he thought of us. Fullers Mill is primarily a woodland garden and they filmed the ident beneath our beautiful birch trees. It will appear in between programmes every day this month so keep your eyes peeled.”
Mark and Sharon teamed up late last year to create the collaborative biophilia-based ident which combines hand-crafted paper cut collage and landscape design. Inspired by the beneficial power of nature, plants in Mark’s Kent garden and Sharon’s love of plants and flowers, the pair reinvented the ITV logo using an intricate layered collage. Their creation was then enlarged (4m x 8m) and temporarily installed for filming in Fullers Mill’s silver birch woodland.
The ident, which will be broadcast throughout January on ITV channels, aims to encourage viewers to pause, reflect and exhale whilst enjoying the simplistic, natural beauty of the work. Entitled ‘Layered Exhaled Expressions’, the project also raises the issues of accessibility, identity and ethnic diversity, and the effects of climate change.
Mark, who is the UK’s first garden designer to be in a wheelchair, said: “Sharon and I are from communities often described as marginalised and through this collaboration we highlight ability in disability and the identity and power in blackness, and the diversity in both.
“Last year was awful for so many, and with our already complex modern lives submerged into unimaginable challenges, we wanted to create a collaborative work that would encourage people to slow down, relax and breathe.
“The concept was that paper would return to the woodland, illustrating renewal, sustainability and biodiversity, and displaying the journey from root, to tree, to final use. I also knew of the perfect spot for the ident installation, a stunning woodland at Fullers Mill. The natural world, flora and fauna, have an incredible ability to improve our mental and physical well-being and we hope our collaborative creation brings just a little of this biophilic power into people’s living rooms.”
Sharon said: “By first creating a hand-cut ITV logo stencil, I initially used a layering of images approach by cutting and gluing new sections until the design felt complete. This method proved difficult to transfer to the scale Mark and I envisaged, so I returned to the ITV template, this time creating a collage using real flowers and foliage. I had used this creative process previously in pieces for my ‘Seeing Ourselves’ series and it worked perfectly for the new ITV project.
“To recreate the design to a larger scale I photographed the work so it was ready for Mark to transfer to his landscape design CAD programme where large-scale pieces were planned and designed. This was a truly collaborative approach at every stage, and Mark and I have become great friends throughout this process.”
