MTV

MTV International Visual Identity Montage

Context

Design a holistic brand experience that aligns all of MTV’s international properties with a modern look for on-air, digital, and social platforms.

Strategy

Develop a flexible system to unify the brand’s digital presence and guide MTV's internal teams in creating expressive, future-proof visuals in every region.

Solution

A bold identity system unifies MTV across every platform, creating a cohesive brand for 370MM TV viewers and an even bigger digital audience spanning 45 countries and 13 languages.

MTV International

Brand Language

We looked to MTV’s iconic logo to inform brand language and unify the experience.

The simplified mark delivers a strategic device that activates key pieces of messaging, while a flexible type system provides a visual hierarchy for all existing sub-brands and future partnerships. Robust style guides and toolkits establish design parameters that lend structure to MTV, prioritizing efficiency and consistency in content generation.

Screen Architecture

Our design system creates consistency across every screen for every platform.

Our graphic language speaks in a digital vernacular, with a clean, flat, and modern sensibility that amplifies MTV’s brand voice and maximizes legibility for smaller screens. We also worked to future-proof all digital components of the brand including the re-skinning of multiple apps and websites. So no matter where you are, you know you’re watching MTV.

Digital Platforms

Our graphic language speaks in a digital vernacular.

Clean, flat, and modern sensibilities amplify MTV’s brand voice and maximize legibility for smaller screens. We also worked to future-proof all digital components of the brand including the re-skinning of multiple apps and websites. So no matter where you are, you know you’re watching MTV.

Social Channels

Flexible design constraints empower MTV’s internal teams.

Efficiently generating social content and evolving their brand voice to keep the brand top-of-mind in the music and youth culture landscape. Templates adhere to the brand’s on-air and digital grids, with clear delineations for promotional and editorial content using key art, skins, and speech bubbles.

MTV News

Graphic Language

Pivoting MTV News from broadcast to digital began with bold, new colorways and a modern motion language.

A bold header font and monospaced supporting typeface fulfilled the network’s request for an old-school news aesthetic, while text-message and app style animations took the system into a fresh, contemporary framework. Legibility and scalability played a key factor in the design, with flat graphics and simple, streaming animations allowing the brand to live easily across all of its linear, digital and social platforms.

Show Package

We were inspired by electric pulses and the transmission of digital information.

Transitions, bugs and lower-third animations stream and click into place, bringing a dynamic, modern feel to the iconic MTV program. A series of toolkits, grid systems, and graphic frameworks enable this bold style to be easily replicated and built out by MTV’s in-house design and from show to show, and season to season.

Digital Strategy

We also developed best practices for MTV News digital and social channels.

After a comprehensive survey of MTV’s social and digital landscapes, we built out a toolkit of best practices for standing out in the sea of online culture. Mortises help seamlessly display social media content on the air, while an ownable thumbnail sidebar helps strengthen the MTV news brand off-platform, where content has to compete for attention.

MTV Cribs

Creative Context

How do we resurrect a classic show and give it an entirely new life?

Reviving MTV Cribs in a post-covid era meant reintroducing the show at a turning point in culture. In the early aughts, the series drew audiences for its bling.

Cribs in the 2020s is much more about how stars showcase their personality through their homes—a trope audiences can certainly relate to after spending over a year indoors.

Taking the original Cribs’ iconic blueprint show open as inspiration, we amped up the playfulness to create a modern, stylized world of interior expression.

Show Open

An eclectic mix of bold colors, shapes, and decorative accents create a lively atmosphere with a ton of personality.

Geometric shapes build a quirky fantastical floor plan on an isometric grid for a show open that calls to mind both The Sims and Ettore Sottsass.

A curated palette of bright orange, purple, green, red, and pink evokes currently trending retro interior design aesthetics. Within this world, we see fun, personality-laden elements come to life: plants, furniture, statues, a skateboard ramp, and even a cute cat.

Animation Toolkit

How do we expand the structure of the show open into functional space for messaging?

Building off of the show open, geometric shapes create playful transitions, backgrounds, and wayfinding graphics. Modular typography compliments the bold color palette and delivers clear, legible messaging.

Services

Visual Identity –– Brand Strategy –– Brand Architecture –– Brand Guidelines –– Animation –– Graphic Design –– UI Design –– Web Design –– App Design –– Editing –– Post-Production –– Toolkits