Apple drops the '+' and films its new Apple TV logo in real glass — Design GP

For years Apple TV+ carried a '+' suffix that Apple used only to distinguish paid tiers of free services. Inside the company everyone already called it Apple TV, and the streaming identity no longer needed the qualifier — so the brand simplified the name and rebuilt the look around it.

Rebrand Apple TV+ as Apple TV and shoot the new logo and intro in real glass with studio light — no CGI — so the identity itself celebrates hand-made cinema craft.

TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Buck carved the logo in real glass, rotated it around a point of light and captured every rainbow reflection in camera, with no CGI or AI. Finneas composed a new brand sound in three lengths — five seconds before episodes, a one-second sting for trailers and a twelve-second cinema version — and Apple announced the rebrand with the film 'This is just the beginning'.

The rebrand gave Apple TV a warmer, more human identity at the exact moment rivals leaned on AI-generated imagery. The Cannes Design jury called it probably the most significant rebrand of the year and awarded it the 2026 Grand Prix, praising work that was 'human-made, gloriously'.

In late 2025 Apple renamed its streaming service from Apple TV+ to Apple TV. Eddy Cue said no consultants were involved: inside the company everyone already called it Apple TV, the plus only existed to mark paid tiers of free services like iCloud+, and the subscription identity was now established. 'Let's just do it,' he said.

The visual identity went with it. TBWA\Media Arts Lab and creative studio Buck made the new logo and intro by carving the icon in real glass, lighting it with coloured sources and rotating it around a point of light, so every rainbow reflection and flare was captured in camera — no CGI, no AI. Finneas composed a new brand sound with three lengths: five seconds before episodes, a one-second sting for trailers, and twelve seconds for cinema. Apple announced it with a film titled 'This is just the beginning'.

The jury of the 2026 Cannes Design Lions gave it the Grand Prix. President Greg Quinton called it probably the most significant rebrand of the year: 'What could have been made far quicker, far more easily using tech, was made by hand. Human-made, gloriously... We feel emotionally better about the brand, and that is the power of design.'

The rebrand removed a suffix nobody used, aligning the official name with what millions already said out loud.

Shooting the logo in real glass made the identity a tribute to cinematic craft — the brand's own category — instead of another digital render.

In an AI-saturated moment, choosing no CGI and no AI made the work stand out precisely because it was human-made.

Finneas's three-length mnemonic turned the intro into a designed brand sound that scales from a one-second sting to a twelve-second theatrical cue.

The name, logo and sound changed together, so the rebrand felt like one coherent creative act rather than a logo swap.

When everyone else races toward the new technology, doing the opposite by hand can be the sharpest strategic move — craft becomes the message when the medium is the brand.

The rebrand rolled out across Apple's platforms through late 2025 and 2026, and the new intro now opens Apple originals on TV, trailers and in cinema. At Cannes Lions 2026 it won the Design Grand Prix — jury president Greg Quinton called it 'probably the most significant rebrand of the year' — and it became the reference point for a wave of handcrafted, no-CGI brand identities celebrated at the same festival.