Design an Animated ID

As stations and networks expand their offerings, designers are faced with bringing more complicated concepts to bear on a single ID. Your first step is to design a hallmark animation that encompasses all of your client’s brand attributes and balance the network’s logo. In this case, we needed to sum up Sky Italia’s brand without using footage.

In our example for Sky, we started with their existing "Sky" logo, which consists of white and two tones of cyan. The words Prima Fila live beneath it in a simplistic rectangle. The challenge was to create razzmatazz for three very distinct genres of entertainment-sports, cinema and events-all under the Prima Fila umbrella. So within Sky typography, we will bring these different environments under the Sky logo. For the cinema part, we’ll bring in red carpets and projections. For the concerts and events, girders and laser light. For sports, a feeling of an open arena with lots of LCD monitors, displays and banners. As you design, choose your colors wisely. For this project, the client warned us against the purple tones of a prior Sky Italia ID (purple connotes bad luck in Italy). The only way to avoid purple is to contain red, so we will bring in red to complement the cyans. This sparks the motion-definitely red carpet.

The spiraling curves of the "S" and the sharp edges of the "K" and "Y" are the perfect shapes to create this architectural environment. Look for similar attributes in your client’s logo for design cues. We literally need to go inside the letter and create walls, glass, hydraulics, projections, etc. All of this can be conveyed in elegant animations-a rotating branded environment that takes the viewer inside the curves of the "S" of the Sky logo. In effect, the viewer is arriving on the red carpet. We become the architects of Prima Fila’s new home.

Once you build a three-dimensional model, you can then begin to add your textures, lights and architectural details, a graphic language that captures the necessary attributes for your client’s brand. Once you set this space in motion, you can control its attitude through the choreography of your elements. Here, we used a blend of deep motion, smooth motion, jarring motion, graceful motion, etc. All of the motion contains attributes of cinema, sports and events.

The Prima Fila hallmark animation sets the tone for the design of the rest of the network’s package, which consists of transitions, promo elements and inserts. Each format, of course, requires very specific needs, but using this approach, we can fully integrate them within the larger Sky Prima Fila brand.

Zoa Martinez
President/Creative Director
Zona Design

Zona Design, founded in 1999 and located in the Empire State Building, has created projects for major broadcast networks including Disney, Discovery, and A&E. Through her use of strong geometries, moving messages and provocative concepts, Zoa has earned numerous EMMY, Telly, New York Film Festival, BDA and PROMAX Awards. In addition to being one of the most experienced creative directors in the broadcast design industry, she is also a fine artist.

Zoa Says Keep In Mind…

We received a very concise creative brief, in Italian, from our client, Sky Italia Network, outlining the design considerations for its new network ID for Sky Italia Prima Fila. Prima Fila, an Italian word meaning "Front Row," is the premiere video-on-demand television platform for the Sky Italia Network including sports, cinema and concerts. The description we received for the job, however, was rather broad: Design "un look spettacolare" for Sky Prima Fila.

There are four key points to consider for this design, which you can apply to the design of any station or network ID:

Tools Used:

Paper, Sharpie, Apple computers, NewTek LightWave, Apple Final Cut, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Zona Design, Inc.
www.zonadesign.com
350 Fifth Ave., Suite 321
New York, NY 10118
ph. 212.244.2900

zmartinez@zonadesign.com