New ITV ident by Mark Lane

ITV Ident Mark Lane and Sharon Walters

Millions of ITV viewers are getting a flower-powered telly treat during January with an important underlying message, thanks to a unique collaboration between broadcaster and garden/landscape designer Mark Lane, and collage artist Sharon Walters.

In an ITV-first, two creatives from different industries have been chosen to craft the logo ident shown between programmes on the channel. Search ITV Creates.

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 a silver birch woodland at Fullers Mill garden near Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk, owned by horticulture welfare charity Perennial.

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.