In 1861, Welsh native Mary Jones wrote a patriotic song for her homeland, "Hiraeth am fy ngwlad" (or "Longing for my country"). The word "hiraeth" is central to the song's sentiment; loosely translated, it represents the desire, or need, of the Welsh to be close to their roots.

Fast forward to 2007 and the word is a central part of the rebranding for Welsh network S4/C, undertaken by London-based Proud Creative. According to CD Dan Witchell, the concept of the rebrand, and 10 recent idents directed by HLA's Simon Ratigan, is "new hiraeth" - illustrating to a younger demographic the magnetic pull that Wales has for its citizens, a sort of "uncontrollable attraction." Thus, one ident features chairs skating across a hardwood floor and piling into a chair pyramid, while another shows drops of water collecting on a car window and inching ever closer to each other while the auto speeds past green fields. The message is beautifully shot yet subtle, married to evocative sound design from Freefarm.

"We set out to visually translate the untranslatable," says Witchell. "We thought that inanimate objects coming together of their own accord represented that draw in your heart [and] soul, the draw that will one day pull you back to your native Wales."

The magnetic concept was arrived upon by Proud Creative and UK-based creative studio Universal Everything. With the cooperation of creative director Dylan Griffith (ex-BBC), hired by S4/C to oversee the rebrand on behalf of the network, Proud Creative enlisted a wide talent pool for the project, including Ratigan, Freefarm, onedotzero (talent consulting) and Rushes (post and effects). Both Witchell and Universal Everything CD Matt Pyke heap praise on Ratigan, with Pyke saying Ratigan's vision of the concept "worked fantastically."

"We made a plan to keep as much of the magic in camera as possible, and more than that the plan was [to] not have any cuts - just one clean sweeping pass," says Proud Creative's Witchell. "The post was mainly painting out the hundreds of wires and people that we used to pull the objects." And while each film contains varying degrees of effects work, the only wholly CG elements are a set of balloons featured in one clip.

Another conceptual requirement for the idents was to strictly avoid using what could be considered "traditional" Welsh icons or imagery.

"We wanted to portray [S4/C] as [representing what] Wales is today - a vibrant modern European country," says Witchell. Pyke concurs - "The aim was to look forwards rather than reiterate the past."

Proud Creative http://www.proudcreative.com
S4/C http://www.s4c.co.uk
Universal Everything http://www.universaleverything.com