Purpose and Nature of Ident Design

An ident is used between television programmes to identify the channel. There are six main elements that need to be considered for creating an ident they are; identity, branding, marketing, packaging and repackaging, scheduling and segmentation within scheduling. The main idea is to give the audience an insight into what the channel is about. Idents can be incredibly powerful because a good ident can make a company millions or indeed break them.

The challenges while making an ident is that the look, movement and music need to all match. It needs to be something that is simple yet unique. The problem is that traditionally television and marketing do not mix together as one would say it is harder to sell a programme than it is to sell a television. There are certain principles that when it comes to television cannot be used to develop their own marketing craft. This is because it is known in television that too much time is spent on analysing it's markets and too much on developing its long term marketing strategies.

Another problem that designers have is that television producers have no idea about positioning. A distinctive position separates one company from its competitors. However unlike a lot of other brands they have their own word or concept. With television companies instead of being unique and credible they have a 'me too' attitude where they are copying and following what the market leader is doing. An example of this is 'We need to target a younger audience therefore we need to look at ...' Therefore these companies aren't coming up with any original ideas however copying those that already exist.

Due to television companies being in charge of themselves for far too long it has meant that they are not prepared to change their structures and accommodate to a market led approach which then the responsibility and control will lie with the senior television management. Therefore this is meant that they don't see the value in marketing and don't incorporate into their company structures. Which means respect isn't gained.

Television companies are not based to one country and now many are international and based in 100s of countries. Therefore they need to create a brand that is going to be recognised in several different locations; channels such as BBC can help establish an identity that can be sold across the world. With things like online platforms such a websites showing programmes it is essential that they keep up an image that can be shown across the globe.

'The concept of brand identity is mouthed by people in television but i'm not sure if it is truly understood' - Andy Birchall

 The limitations for an ident are; typography, colour, aspect radio, a desired tone and the duration.

Typography - Needs to be big, bold & easy to read. Majority of the time it is on white font with a coloured background. This is a limitation because the designers have to display who their company is aiming at. While they are doing this they have to hold the audiences attention for the 20 seconds its on the screen. An example of this is Channel 4 the simplistic design it doesn't require much other attention. In contrast to the old BBC 2 ident which was known for being boring.

Colour - A completely different colour to the font. There is sometimes a problem with using certain colours because when they are put on the screen they can go a little discoloured. Also the colours have to stand out so they are suitable for everyone to see such as people who are colour blind and those that are impaired sighted. An example is the BBC as its background colour is themed and different every day. Along with being on the television screen the ident is shown on billboards, advertisments etc and therefore shown more than once. ITV change the colour of their billboards depending on what show it is. An example of this is when Downton Abbey' ident is shown. The colour of the theme of the Downton Abbey ident is usually brown/gold therefore that is will be the colour of the logo. In contrast I'm A Celebrity where the theme colours for the show is green/brown due to it being based in a jungle therefore if the colour of the logo was gold it would look stupid and nobody would take interest in it because it wouldn't look right with the ident.

Im a Celeb vs Downton Abbey

Aspect Radio - The sizing of a widescreen is 16:9 therefore they need to make sure that everything is fitted inside of the screen. Along with that it needs to have no geometric distortion, clear pillar box edges and must be black outside of the picture. If everything is not fitted on the screen it can look unprofessional. Below I have inserted two versions of the BBC 2 ident; one inside of the safe zone and one outside of it.

What is a safe zone?

Safe zone/area is used in television production to describe the areas of that the television picture can be seen on the screen. The use of safe areas is that they ensure that the most important parts of the picture are seen by the majority of viewers.

Title Safe Area 

The title safe area is the rectangle area which is far enough in from the four edges so therefore the text and graphics are shown neatly with a margin and without a distortion. The problems occur when the editor of the content does not take care to ensure that all titles are inside the title safe area. Some title edges could be chopped off when viewed in some screens.

In the safe zone - correct

Not in the safe zone - incorrect

A desired tone - Majority of these are aimed at families therefore the tone their idents gives is that they are family friendly. An ident gives the audience an idea of what type of channel it is. Each channel depending on their audience will have a very different tone. 

An example of this is E4; it is very big bold and bright. The white and purple wouldn't interest everyone yet because their audience is mainly teenagers they cater their ident for that audience. Also the entire ident has a very teenage feel about it. The reason for this is because E4's ident is someone taking a can out of a pretty empty fridge which looks as though it has some pizza and cake inside of it. The character makes it obvious of the audience along with the fridge this is because when the logo goes back to the seat it is very messy like a teenage environment while watching something on the television. 

In contrast ITV which is seen as a family friendly and warm channel. Therefore Matt Rudd of Rudd Studio designed it so that the logo should be based on handwriting to show the family feel. He decided to do it so it was in lower case and the letters were all joined together so it seemed like less of a logo and bringing more life to it. By adding extra features to it, there was a feel that it was too much with the warmth feeling it already had by just putting it into digital. 

Another ident which is the complete opposite to E4 is BBC 4 the reason for this is because the ident is very studious. From watching the ident it is very obvious that the audience for this channel is working adults. The idents mainly show a working environment whether it be people working in an office or a library. This is important because it expresses the tone in the ident and therefore throughout the channel. 

Duration - Usually an ident is before the beginning of the television programme/film therefore only last for up to 30 seconds. Taking an outside perspective from this ident it shows that the BBC 4 ident is infinate as it goes on forever after the ident is shown, it doesn't just stop it goes in a loop. The reason for this again is because of the audience, this ident in a way represents the audience as they are working adults so they keep going around doing a very similar cycle each day. Compare this to BBC 2 where it starts with action and settles down, you know that after each ident on BBC 2 has finished then that is it and they don't carry on. 

The logo is continuously changing. It can adapt its texture & colour to the surrounding environment. The ident isn't just on the screen, it is also used to market the channel. It can be put onto billboards, magazines, stationary etc. This is the biggest marketing technique. 

ITV use colours correctly which ensures that all are recognisable to the audience. They only use tints when it is essential in them communicating their message to the audience. While Channel 4 use a basic colour palette to avoid using different versions of the same colour. Percentage tints can also be used in any of them colours, which other colours are used when it is appropriate such as when placed over a photograph the colour of the logo may be taken from the image. 

The type face has been designed to be used throughout the channel. The writing that Channel 4 use is called C4. It is supplied in the open type format and supported by PC & MAC therefore they can only use certain fonts. The fonts they use include C4 text regular, C4 text italic, C4 medium etc along with condensed fonts. C4 headlines are used for copy on billboards and press aids. Within the advert there should never be more than three levels of typography hierarchy;

• Headline
• Qualifying statements and tuning information
• URL

In the text box colouring the colours may be used to help differentiate between types of information when placed over a photograph. However if not the colours will be taken from the colour palette. The typography position will provide more flexibility for the information it can be moved up & down the left hand margin in order to the imagery to have room to be the main focus.

When it comes to the advertising it is important that the tone of the voice comes across right. The tone needs to be bold, surprising and challenging. Sound bites are also used in posters and advertising to keep the communication clear and simple. In the writing copy it is all in lower case because it is a lot easier to work with and to read. The advertising signature is the URL of the channel the URL is used when there is relevant and corresponding information of the Channel 4 website. The URL should always be on the left hand side but it is aloud to appear broken or unbroken. The position of the logo is in the centre right in any advertising format. This is the only place it is aloud to be in and should never appear at any other size. 

The imagery of an advert needs to be engaging, original, memorable and eye catching in order to reach its full potential. The questions that will be asked are 'How the images are going to be used?' The use of pictures dictates the type of photographer or illustrator needed. The format of the advertisement or poster will also affect how artwork is produced, although the most important thing to remember is where the logo type will sit. 

There is a lot of media considerations when it comes to advertising and particular media have a stronger appeal to some groups than others. It is important to understand what an advertisement needs to say and who it is speaking to, this is because all parts of the media have its advantages and disadvantages and therefore this needs to be taken into consideration when creating the advert. 

Newspaper

Adv - Delivers current messages and quick turnaround which means it is very topical. 

Dis - Cheap paper and bad printing means that the images are very low quality. 

Magazine

Adv - better image quality & targets a certain audience 

Dis - Magazines have a long life span which can be up to a month therefore the advertisement can be out of date before it is seen. 

Billboard

Adv - Attracts a lot of people because of its size and the location 

Dis - Had to be specific on a billboard advertisement

Brand identity for television with knobs on Martin Lambie Nairn - 'Brand Identity for Television' - October 2014

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/channel4/ - October 2014

http://www.itv.com/news/2013-01-14/new-itv-logo-rebrand-2013/ - October 2014

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_area_(television)  - October 2014

http://www.slideshare.net/stefan-constantinou/limitations-of-television-ident - October 2014

http://www.logodesignlove.com/itv-logo - October 2014

http://www.ruddstudio.com/project/channel-4-re-brand-2010/ - October 2014

http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/styleguide/downloads/C4StyleGuide1.1.pdf - October 2014