Rai 5 is the Italian public broadcaster’s cultural television channel, launched in 2010 and managed by the Rai Cultura structure. Its programming focuses on the arts, offering documentaries, reportages, and entertainment such as music, dance, and theatre. The channel’s current visual identity dates from April 2017, when it was introduced as part of a coordinated rebrand of Rai’s thematic channels.
Design and History
On 10 April 2017, Rai completed a rebrand of ten thematic channels, including Rai 5, that had begun in September 2016 with the four generalist networks. The project was curated by the Rai Creative Direction led by Massimo Maritan, directed by Roberto Bagatti, Chief of Brand & Creative, in collaboration with designer Florencia Picco. The stated goal was to give the entire public service portfolio a coordinated image for the first time, making each channel instantly recognisable as part of the Rai network while giving each its own visual identity. [1]
The design system was built around the square, the shape of the Rai logo. According to Bagatti, for the thematic channels the square becomes a container from which the themes and genres of each channel’s editorial offering emerge. [1] Italian press coverage at the time described Rai 5 as identified by a logo that evokes classical culture. [2]
As part of the same 2017 rebrand, Rai 5 changed its logo, graphics, and colours, moving from orange to olive green. [3] The channel’s on-air identity was described by the European Broadcasting Union as a new visual identity for the Rai cultural channel, moving between music and art, documentaries and architecture, with idents that describe the editorial themes in a hand-drawn animation style. [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
Bagatti explained the conceptual foundation of the square-based identity by citing designer Bruno Munari, noting that the square has signified the idea of home and country since the earliest human structures and cave images. For the thematic channels, the square acts as a container where the representation of each channel’s editorial themes emerges. [1] Rai’s Director General Antonio Campo Dall’Orto stated that the rebrand drew on elements of strong innovation while referencing the teaching of the most important Italian designers of the twentieth century. [1]
Typography and Design
Rai has used Futura Bold as its primary typeface since the butterfly identity introduced in 2000. In the September 2016 rebrand of the generalist networks, the channel numbers were set in a slightly modified ITC Lubalin Graph Bold, a typeface also used off-the-shelf for other aspects of the brand. The April 2017 extension of the identity to the thematic channels, including Rai 5, was carried out within this same typographic system. [5]
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