THE WEEK IN DESIGN 17

Brand (new) Connection

Who are we?
We are Sky News

What do we do?
We bring you the stories

It stands to reason therefore that the best way to communicate, whilst reinforcing our brand message, it to generate treatments which are are perfect amalgamation of our brand and the subject brand.
In this way, we communicate the story, retain connection with the package and own the design for Sky News.

Examples this week which do just that (plus, of course, some which do not).

With the NHS story, we had a very easy fit.  The blue and white of their brand, together with subtle medical paraphernalia, sits comfortably with our new design direction.  In addition, the cleanliness of the design, with white space doing the hard work of focussing the viewers attention, keeps a positive sterile feeling.

Yoghurt Culture could well have been a commercial.  It feels fresh, sharp and clean.  A simple, bold, uncluttered treatment sits perfectly with our output.  Combine this with primary cut outs and information designed in-situ and we have a combination of channel and story brand.

The Duchy design could have been a complex challenge.  On the face of it, an earthy, environmental, hand treated brand would not sit comfortably on Sky News and a regal treatment which demands a serif typeface would have alarm bells ringing.  The solution though is quite simple: keep it simple. Keep it clean, uncluttered, keep the background clear and utilise our signature tracking animation. 
By doing this, we can get away with a myriad of 'rule breaks'.


…and where we should have done better…

The BBC's brand is iconic and over the years has been distilled down until only one aspect remains; the logo.  The squares or cubes are now so embedded into the philosophy, they even informed the geometric exterior styling of NBH (seen in the background of this design).  So it's a little lazy to slap text over the top of footage taken at a building which very few people would recognise, let alone associate with the BBC (clearly, neither would we use TVC, though at least the viewer would understand what we were talking about).  The complexity of the background also backs you into a corner; there's no where to go, nowhere to add any imagery which may further the story, leaving you with what is basically a bullet point text solution.


The potential for a clear simple amalgamation is obvious.  It should go much further than the example below, but it's a starting point for direction.

So let us always consider Subject brand, Object brand and Channel brand in all our output.

CDE.
C.