Branding following the 2022 refresh
2025 rebrand
In August 2025 we relaunched a fresh looking version of STV News on television, social media, and our website. This project comprised of 3 main parts: upgrading the studio sets in Glasgow and Aberdeen, changing out the live graphics system from Avid Maestro to Chyron Prime, and refreshing the look of our graphics to both modernise them and to align our Broadcast and Digital outputs, visually.
Early explorations with graphics software providers began in late 2023; project build began in earnest January 2025, and after a summer crunch the new STV News at 6 went out live in August, on Monday 18th.
I was the main designer heavily involved with the project, supported by my graphics desk colleagues Jordan McDowall, Jack Strand, and Elaine Freitag, with brand development work undertaken by Toshiaki MacKay and Kay Petrie, both from STV Creative.
Explorations
They key sticking points of the brief were to keep the colour palette largely similar and to not change the core logo other than new versions like mono, stacked etc. A brand like STV News relies on the trust and familiarity of the audience; we couldn't lose that in order to chase something shiny and totally different.
Early on we came up with a visual device extracted from the "V" in the STV logo. This creates a broad rule of using 60° angle and rounded corners for brand elements, to imply movement, action, upward momentum as we cover Scotland's news and package it up for the public.
This also gave us a nice, clear base to design templates and day-to-day graphics from.
We made Navy our key colour, shifting the previous blue to be a highlight to punch information and main points. This was a confident, warm, and very Scottish colour palette that contributed heavily to the tactile feel we aimed for. The rounded corners and large, solid shapes helped contribute to this too. Can shapes be warm? Do they have a temperature? Possibly!
Clean design and accessibility informed much of the rebrand. Aiming for digital output means the facts and data needed to be the main focus, especially on smaller screen formats. We changed our typeface from FS Me to Inter (after exploring Source Sans Pro originally).
Graphic templates
Our final visual environment makes use of a 6x6 pixel grid, a 60° slant for most vertical lines (except for ones at the edges of the canvas), and rounded corners in increments of 12px. Gradients using primarily the navy blue for News, maroon red for Sport, and dark green for Weather. fill out most colours, leaving white for secondary and text, with brighter blues/reds/greens for key detail.
Toshi MacKay in STV Creative led on drafting up the guidelines and principles, which I then used to create all of the caption variations, full-frame graphics, wayboxes, and animations.
Animation generally follows a left-right, bottom-top direction, using the brand's key colours as a flash before a main element appears on screen for a clean follow-through.
Templates for basic graphics like lower thirds, live boxes, quotes, bullet points, and phonos were drafted in After Effects and built in Chyron Prime, to be played out with both Avid Command and Ross Overdrive. In the end, we built 89 templates for News, and another 51 for Scotland Tonight, Good Morning Britain (Scottish bulletins), and What's On Scotland - these comprised of captions, full-frames, videowalls, and studio utilities. Stuart Poole, our lead Craft Editor, was vital here in template organising, testing, documenting, and training newsroom staff.
Templates for basic graphics like lower thirds, live boxes, quotes, bullet points, and phonos were drafted in After Effects and built in Chyron Prime, to be played out with both Avid Command and Ross Overdrive. In the end, we built 89 templates for News, and another 51 for Scotland Tonight, Good Morning Britain (Scottish bulletins), and What's On Scotland - these comprised of captions, full-frames, videowalls, and studio utilities. Stuart Poole, our lead Craft Editor, was vital here in template organising, testing, documenting, and training newsroom staff.
The 6x6 base grid and 60-degree constraints
More formal margins and layout guide for captions and FF graphics
STV Sport brand variation
On-screen graphics
We developed new brand guidelines to allow graphic operators the flexibility needed to meet on-the-day stories while keeping visuals within a solid brand umbrella. Inter is a very appealing, informative, accessible typeface, and our colour hierarchy provides an easy starting point for any design.
Essentially, we want the viewer to be able to understand information at a glance and to be on board immediately trusting that it's coming from us; to look at it and say "this is an STV News graphic".
The Studio
Alongside an on-screen and behind the scenes update, we also completely refit Glasgow and Aberdeen's studio sets.
We moved from one TV screen and one cropped HD videowall to three videowalls, fed by Chyron, and programmable LED strip lightboxes to fill in the space.
In order to cover more graphic real estate, which requires more time to produce artwork for, we changed our design philosophy from "montage to collage".
Where we would originally design fully animated videowalls in After Effects, we now design and curate assets to fill certain Chyron template layouts, or more detailed collage layouts in Photoshop. When the story treatment calls for it, we will still occasionally design full motion graphics in After Effects.
Design by Toby Kalitkowski and install by Scott Fleary.
We moved from one TV screen and one cropped HD videowall to three videowalls, fed by Chyron, and programmable LED strip lightboxes to fill in the space.
In order to cover more graphic real estate, which requires more time to produce artwork for, we changed our design philosophy from "montage to collage".
Where we would originally design fully animated videowalls in After Effects, we now design and curate assets to fill certain Chyron template layouts, or more detailed collage layouts in Photoshop. When the story treatment calls for it, we will still occasionally design full motion graphics in After Effects.
Design by Toby Kalitkowski and install by Scott Fleary.
Opening titles
Following the new brand guidelines, graphic operator Jordan McDowall created our new title sequence in Blender, using the pods and swoops to create a dynamic, exciting environment in which we could place images from around Scotland. Close-to real time rendering in EEVEE means we're able to swap out pictures for special programming.
You can view the titles, and his write-up on the project, below:
You can view the titles, and his write-up on the project, below:
Digital
Another major aim of this rebrand was to unite the visual environments of Broadcast and Digital. Our online operation for years had been using Inter as it's accessible typeface, and as we further pivot into digital as many news operations are, it made perfect sense to design any broadcast visual to work online as well.
I designed Essential Graphics templates for use in Premiere to create digital video, and Adobe Express templates for cover images, breaking push posts, and instagram stills.
I designed Essential Graphics templates for use in Premiere to create digital video, and Adobe Express templates for cover images, breaking push posts, and instagram stills.
Contributors
Thanks again to all who contributed to this rebrand. Most of the News team - technical and editorial - were involved in shaping our new programme in some way. shape or form. I'd like to name a few key people, without whom this project would not have made it on the air:
STV News Graphics - Jack Strand & Elaine Freitag
STV News Graphics, title sequences - Jordan McDowall
STV Creative, brand campaign and guidelines - Toshiaki MacKay
STV Creative - Kay Petrie
Craft Editor - Stuart Poole
Head of Broadcast Operations - Sam Dornan
Head of Programme Operations - John Mason
Set design - Toby Kalitowski
Set install - Scott Fleary
Music - Paul Leonard-Morgan
STV News Graphics - Jack Strand & Elaine Freitag
STV News Graphics, title sequences - Jordan McDowall
STV Creative, brand campaign and guidelines - Toshiaki MacKay
STV Creative - Kay Petrie
Craft Editor - Stuart Poole
Head of Broadcast Operations - Sam Dornan
Head of Programme Operations - John Mason
Set design - Toby Kalitowski
Set install - Scott Fleary
Music - Paul Leonard-Morgan
