The 10 top TV idents of 2012

A TV ident is the little bit of video that plays a few seconds before a programme starts, informing the viewer of which channel they're watching. A promotional sequence, it's a critical part of a TV stations brand identity.

Every major TV channel has one and this year has seen the arrival of some seriously cool ones. Here are 10 great examples, which is your favourite?

Also read:

• How to brand a logo: 15 top logo and branding trends for 2012
• 20 top tips for great logo design

01. UKTV Watch

This year, digital cable and satellite television network UKTV launched these cool idents for its general entertainment TV channel Watch.

Creative agency Dixon Baxi - which UKTV had appointed to create the brand concept, look, direction for the overall channel brand - recruited London-based production studio Analog to produce four ident sequences under their direction: Smoke, Liquid, Crystal, and Hair.

02. Boing TV

We just love these super cute and funny idents for Boing TV, part of Turner Broadcasting Italy. And, it would seem, so do a lot of other people with it receiving a Gold Award at The 2012 PromaxBDA Europe Conference - the largest gathering of marketing, promotion and design professionals in the European television and entertainment media. All of the characters are awesome but our favourites have to be the not-so-fierce T-Rex and the shape-busting robot.

03. 4seven

4creative recently appointed design and motion studio ManvsMachine to create this cool ident for its new channel 4seven. The short video follows the Channel4 coming together of the logo, where the viewer is always travelling around a corner from left to right. The ManvsMachine team comment on their website, "The graphic elements take the brand into three dimensions with a reactive seven, which reflects the amount of 'buzz' around programming throughout the day."

04. Europa Plus TV

These seriously sexy sequences for Europa Plus TV were created by Moscow-based art director Alex Mikhaylov. Three in total, the videos combine super-cool motion graphics, CGI and hot models, obviously, to create the identity for TV channel of the leading Russian radio.

05. Plus Plus

These cute, funny, and playful idents for new Ukranian kids TV channel Plus Plus were created by London-based animation studio Animade. The team worked in collaboration with design studio Build, whose design work includes character direction, typography, and all on-air menu systems.

There are 5 more epic 2012 idents on the next page!