Discovering Discovery

With hundreds of channels on the EPG, television can be a very crowded place these days. Discovery Networks’ UK ECD Federico Gaggio talked to CR about the challenges for designers working on TV and the latest Discovery ‘refresh’

Ever since Lambie-Nairn virtually invented the idea of broadcast branding on British TV in the 80s, things have become steadily more complex for anyone with a non-terrestrial subscription and, by extension, for the designers working on those channels. Not only are there multiple channels competing in similar areas – music, factual, comedy etc – but those channels may even be showing the same content. US science geek sitcom Big Bang Theory, for example, can currently be found both on E4 and Warner.

TV designers have to cope with both practical issues – how do viewers know what channel they’re on? – and branding issues – how do we establish a clear tone of voice amid all this clutter? Under Federico Gaggio’s creative direction, Discovery has fared better than most, utilising an impressive list of collaborators including Spin, Devilfish, Brothers and Sisters and Red Bee to pick up a host of Promax awards in recent years, but the challenges have been considerable. “It used to be a lot easier,” Gaggio admits. “Discovery was the first in that factual space which meant it didn’t need to make an effort in order to be found.”

Now, it must compete with the likes of National Geographic, the History Channel and a host of others. And because of the sequential nature of Electronic Programme Guides, with viewers flicking up and down the lists of grouped, similar content, many think they are viewing a Discovery channel when in fact they are watching a rival, he says. Things have been further clouded by the endless sub-channels that have proliferated recently – Discovery now has 13 channels including Discovery History and Discovery Science.

“Your success in creating loyalty depends on how well you deliver your branding,” Gaggio says. “People search for content but they do it in places that they feel an affinity with. If you can establish an emotional connection with your audience it might mean they will pay attention when you propose content: if that same content is on another channel, they won’t pay attention to it.”

Discovery History promo created with Brothers and Sisters

The prime tool for doing that is via idents which can fulfil that dual role of station identification and brand building. Discovery has previously based its idents around one of its key attributes – the fact that it makes its own content and has recognisable ‘stars’ such as Bear Grylls.

“We went down the route of focussing more on our content and making the association between the brand and its content clear,” Gaggio says. “We did that by getting rid of abstract idents and using the content as a branding device via show intros which featured a still of the show concerned – they were very useful for people using PVRs because when you are fast-forwarding you would know when to stop. It created a very effective package in terms of navigation and was very clear but became a bit cold and detached. We went a bit overboard, people might have missed visual presence of brand,” he admits.

Design and production: DoubleG Studios with Discovery UK Creative

In a ‘refresh’ from Grant Gilbert’s Double G Studios and Dixon Baxi, Discovery has sought to tackle this by introducing a new branding device – placing content from the shows within the globe of the networks’ logo and creating an abbreviated form of the logo using just the initial D of Discovery.

Design and production: DoubleG Studios with Discovery UK Creative

“We did a four-way pitch [for the refresh] and everyone came up with the same idea of putting content into the globe,” Gaggio says. “We’d always treated it as sacred before but it’s great to have a simpler symbol which we are now able to play with much more.”

Design and production: DoubleG Studios with Discovery UK Creative

See more from Discovery UK Creative here

 

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L’ultimo lavoro dello studio londinese Sawdust per Media Pro lo trovate qui.

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Favourite logos: looking past the obvious

When we asked readers to nominate their favourite logos last week we received a lot of votes for the classics of the genre. But the exercise also threw up some less celebrated but still worthy contenders

For a special issue in April, we are putting together a list of the 25 greatest logos. Last week, we asked readers to nominate their top five. Among the Apples, FedExs and V&As, readers also drew our attention to some forgotten classics and little known favourites.

Lindsay put forward the 1974 New Zealand Commonwealth Games logo by Colin Simon (shown top). The mark cleverly combines the 7 and 4 of the year, the NZ of New Zealand, the Union Jack and even an X for the tenth games. Read more about it here

 

Not exaclty a classic but thanks to Kevin Mills for nominating the logo for steel wool manufacturer Trollull – “‘It’s got to be the barmiest, friendliest logo ever, certainly amongst steel wool manufacturers.” Quite.

 

There was quite a bit of support for Raymond Loewy’s New Man ambigram from 1969

Alan Fletcher’s Lucas Industries mark was also noted

and don’t forget David Gentleman’s 1968 British Steel logo

Alan Clarke nominated, among others, the Leica mark

 

the 1968 Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch railways) logo by Gert Dumbar and Gert-Jan Leuvelink for Tel Design had a lot of fans

On a very different plane, ‘Fidalgo’ suggested Santa Cruz skateboards’ Screaming Hand by Jim Phillips

 

Mrfishyfish reminded us not to forget the work of Bulgaria’s Stefan Kanchev including the logo for the Publishing House of the Communist Party

and the Operetta State Theater

David reminded us of couple of British favourites from yesteryear – ATV television

and the original WH Smith logo

and AJ Kandy mentioned that “Quebec in the late 60s and 70s had some amazing logo design. Editions de L’Homme, the Caisse Desjardins’ ‘beehive’ hexagon motif for a credit union (below), Hydro-Quebec’s Q-with-lighting-bolt-tail, etc.

The classic 1974 CBC logo by Burton Kramer rocks too.”

 

American readers will be more familiar with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad logo mentioned by Luke Tonge

We’ve partnered with the Brand New blog on this exercise – you can see their readers’ suggestions here

Also transport related and suggested by a couple of you, the logo for Italian cycle maker Campagnolo

 

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions – almost 300 of you. We’d still like more, especially from beyond the UK and US, We will also be posting about the most popular contenders so far and comparing the Brand New suggestions to the ones posted on this site

 

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Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Award: The Nominations

A Love Letter For You, USA, designed by Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

Eager to find out how 2010 fared in design terms? Across all design fields, from architecture to graphics, product design to interactive? Well, the Design Museum in London has the answer (well, one answer) for you, with the announcement of this year’s Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Award nominations.

The nominations for the BIDY awards are in seven categories, each representing one area of design: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product, and transport are all featured. All entries have been put forward by people within the design industry, including CR’s Patrick Burgoyne, and the pieces nominated will be shown together at the Design Museum from February 16, in a bumper exhibition that aims to provide a snapshot of the last year in design.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, UK, designed by A Practice For Everyday Life // Published by Visual Editions

As in previous years, this will be an eclectic exhibition, with nominations from 2010 including the Angry Birds game (by Rovio Mobile), Yves Behar’s Swarovski Chandeliers, the Apple iPad, Gareth Pugh’s Spring/Summer ’11 clothing collection, and UVA’s Speed of Light installation, commissioned by Virgin Media. Combining so many genres of design in one show can result in a slightly incoherent display, but the BIDY Awards do offer a clear sense of the impact and importance of design to the world we live in, and how far its reach now stretches.

Speed of Light, UK, designed by United Visual Artists // Commissioned by Virgin Media

After the show has been open to the public for a month, a judging panel chaired by design writer and curator Stephen Bayley (and featuring novelist Will Self, graphic designer Mark Farrow, and Poke and Fray founder Simon Waterfall) will pick one design of the year from across the seven categories. Our money is on the iPad picking up this year’s award, but what do you think?

The full list of nominees are below. They make for a good list, but does this say 2010 in design to you? What’s missing? The list is dominated by design from Europe and the US – is this a flaw of the nomination system or is the best design simply coming from these regions? Are there works you feel shouldn’t have been included? Please give us your views in the comments box below.

1111 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, USA, Robert Wennett // Herzog & de Meuron

Architecture

1111 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, USA
Robert Wennett // Herzog & de Meuron
A Forest for a Moon Dazzler, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Benjamin Garcia Saxe
Balancing Barn, Suffolk, UK
Mvrdv // Co-architect: Mole Architects // Client: Living Architecture
Burj Khalif, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) // Client: EMAAR
Concrete Canvas Shelters, UK
Concrete Canvas (Peter Brewin, William Crawford and Phillip Greer)
Ladakh Commonwealth Peace Pavilion and Classroom, Tibet
Sergio Palleroni // Basic Initiative
Media-Tic Building, Barcelona
Enric Ruiz-Geli // Cloud 9
Nottingham Contemporary, UK
Caruso St John Architects // Client: Nottingham City Council
Open-Air-Library Magdeburg, Germany
Karo Architekten // Architektur+Netzwerk // Cllient: Landeshaupstadt Magdeburg
Stonebridge Hillside Hub, Greater London
Edward Cullinan Architects // Client: Hyde Housing Association/Hillside Action Trust
Tape installations, Austria // Croatia
Numen / For Use
UK Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010, China
Thomas Heatherwick Studio
University of Oxford: Department of Earth Sciences, UK
Wilkinson Eyre Architects // Client: University of Oxford
Vitrahaus – Weil am Rhine, Germany
Herzog & de Meuron // Client: Vitra Verwaltungs gmbh
Void House, Belgium
Gon Zifroni in collaboration with Pom-Archi

Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer ’11, UK

Fashion
Comme des Garçons Trading Museum Tokyo, Japan
Designed and conceived by Rei Kawakubo
Gareth Pugh Spring/Summer ’11, UK
Designed by Gareth Pugh
Lanvin Spring/Summer ’11, France
Designed by Alber Elbaz
Margaret Howell Plus Shirt, UK
Designed by Kenneth Grange and Margaret Howell
Melonia Shoe, Sweden
Designed by Naim Josefi and Souzan Youssouf
Ohne Titel Spring/Summer ’11, USA
Designed by Flora Gill and Alexa Adams
Organic Jewellery Collection, Brazil
Designed by Flavia Amadeu
Tess Giberson Spring/Summer ’11, Shift, USA
Designed by Tess Giberson // Carol Bove // Alia Raza
Uniqlo +J Autumn/Winter’10
Designed by Jil Sander for Uniqlo


Vigna Chair, Italy, designed by Martino Gamper // Manufactured by Magis

Furniture
Branca, Italy
Designed by Industrial Facility, Sam Hecht, Kim Colin, Ippei Matsumoto
Collec+ors Collection, Australia
Designed by Khai Liew // Kirsten Coelho // Gwyn Hanssen Pigott // Bruce Nuske // Prue Venables // Julie Blyfield // Jessica Loughlin
Drop Table, Italy
Designed by Junya Ishigami // Manufactured by Living Divani
Dune, Austria
Designed by Rainer Mutsch // Manufactured by Eternit
Endless, Netherlands
Designed by Dirk Vander Kooij
Origin Part I: Join, Netherlands
Designed by BCXSY in collaboration with Mr Tanaka
Plytube, UK
Designed by Seongyong Lee
Sayl Task Chair, USA
Designed by Yves Behar and Fuseproject // Manufactured by Herman Miller
Solo Bench, Brazil
Designed by Domingos Totora // Manufactured by Touch
Spun, Italy
Designed by Thomas Heatherwick Studio // Manufactured by Magis
Thin Black Lines, Japan
Designed by Nendo // Exhibited by Phillips de Pury & Company at the Saatchi Gallery, London
Vigna Chair, Italy
Designed by Martino Gamper // Manufactured by Magis

Four Corners Familiars Series, UK, designed by John Morgan Studio and collaborators

Graphics

A Love Letter For You, USA
Designed by Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Coalition of the Willing, UK
Direction and production by Knife Party // Written by Tim Rayner // Voiceover artist Colin Tierne
Design Criminals Edible Catalogue, Austria
Designed by Andreas Pohancenik
Four Corners Familiars Series, UK
Designed by John Morgan Studio and collaborators
Homemade is Best, Sweden
Designed by Forsman & Bodenfors for Ikea
Irma Boom: Biography in Books, Netherlands
Designed by Irma Boom // Published by Grafsiche Cultuurstichting
I Wonder, Canada
Written, illustrated and designed by Marian Bantjes // Published by Thames & Hudson
London College of Communication Summer Show ’10, UK
Designed by Studio Myserscough
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, UK
Designed by A Practice For Everyday Life // Published by Visual Editions
Unit Editions, UK
Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy


Angry Birds, Finland, designed by Rovio Mobile

Interactive
Angry Birds, Finland

Designed by Rovio Mobile
Cellscope, USA

Designed by Professor Daniel Fletcher and the Cellscope Team // Aardman Animation // Wieden + Kennedy // Commissioned by Nokia
E.chromi, UK

Designed by Alexandra Daisy Ginsburg // James King // In collaboration with Cambridge University’s Igem Team
Flipboard, USA

Designed by Mike Mccue and Evan Doll
Guardian Eyewitness app, UK

Designed by the Guardian Technology Team (Jonathan Moore, Alastair Dent, Andy Rockie, Martin Redington and Roger Tooth)
Mimosa, Italy
Designed by Jason Bruges Studio for Philips Lumiblade
Paint, UK
Designed by Greyworld for Nokia
Reactable Mobile, Spain
Designed by Reactable Systems
Rock Band 3, USA
Designed by Harmonix Music Systems
Speed of Light, UK
Designed by United Visual Artists // Commissioned by Virgin Media
The Elements iPad app, USA
Designed by Touchpress // Written byTheodore Gray
The Johnny Cash Project, USA
Chris Milk // Aaron Koblin // @radical.media // Rick Rubin // The Cash Estate
Wallpaper* Custom Covers, UK
Designed and developed by Kin // Art direction by Meirion Pritchard // Content by Anthony Burrill, James Joyce, Hort, Kam Tang and Nigel Robinson
Wired Magazine app, USA
Designed and developed by Scott Dadich and Jeremy Clark // Conde Nast Digital

Dyson Air Multiplier Fan, UK, designed by James Dyson

Product
Act Fire Extinguisher, Norway
Designed by Sigrun Vik
Amplify Chandelier, USA
Designed by Yves Behar and Fuseproject for Swarovski
Apple iPad, USA
Designed by Apple
Blueware Collection, UK
Designed by Studio Glithero
Contemplating Monolithic Design, Italy
Created by Barberosgerby and Sony Design // Exhibition design by Universal Design Studios
Universal Gown, UK
Designed by Ben de Lisi
Diamant Coffin Series, Denmark
Designed by Jacob Jensen Design // Manufactured by Tommerup Kister
Dyson Air Multiplier Fan, UK
Designed by James Dyson
Freecom CLS Mobile Drive, Belgium // Germany
Designed by Sylvain Willenz // Manufactured by Freecom
Flying Future, Germany
Designed by Ingo Maurer
In-betweening Clock, UK
Designed by Hye-Yeon Park
Intimate Rider, USA
Designed by Alan Tholkes
Leveraged Freedom Chair, USA
Designed by Mit Mobility Laboratory
One Arm Drive System, UK
Designed and developed by Mark Owen and Jon Owen // Manufactured by Nomad Wheelchairs Ltd
Pavegen, UK
Designed by Pavegen Systems Ltd
Playing with Lego® Bricks and Paper, Japan // Denmark
Designed by Muji // Lego®
Plumen 001, UK
Concept and design direction: Hulger // Design: Samuel Wilkinson
Prampack, Norway
Designed by Kadabra Produktdesign // Invented by Anne Morkemo // Manufactured by Stokke
Quartz Series, UK
Designed by Max Lamb // Manufactured by J & L Lobmeyr, Austria
See Better to Learn Better, USA // Mexico
Designed by Yves Behar and Fuseproject // In partnership with Augen Optics
Wall piercing, Italy
Designed by Ron Gilad // Manufactured by Flos
Yii, Taiwan
Conceived by National Taiwan Craft Research Institute (NTCRI) and Taiwan Design Center (TDC) // Creative direction by Gijs Bakker

Diamant Coffin Series, Denmark, designed by Jacob Jensen Design // Manufactured by Tommerup Kister

Transport

Barclays Cycle Hire, UK
Serco // Transport for London
Dezir, France
Designed by Laurens van den Acker for Renault
En-v, USA
Designed by General Motors
Fiat 500 Twinair, Italy
Designed and developed by Fiat Style and FPT Fiat Powertrain
Riversimple, UK
Designed by Riversimple
Vanmoof no 5, Netherlands
Designed by Vanmoof
Yikebike, New Zealand
Designed by Grant Ryan

The Brit Insurance Designs of the Year exhibition opens at the Design Museum in London on February 16 and will run until August 7. For more info on the exhibition and the awards, visit designmuseum.org.

 

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Shortlist for Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Announced

0214britdesign.jpg

‘Tis the season for the shortlist for the Design Museum‘s annual Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Awards to be unveiled, as they were yesterday. Per usual, it’s a long list, filling up seven categories (architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport) with often more than ten nominees in each. No huge surprises, as the list contains lots of the items and buildings and designers everyone has been talking about over the last year. The Burj Khalifa is there, first-year award-winner Yves Behar is up in a couple of different categories (furniture and twice for product), and you’ll also find Apple‘s iPad, Dyson‘s fan, and even the game Angry Birds, which seems to have captivated the world and is confusing to people like us who haven’t ever seen the thing in action. The most interesting sections wind up being fashion, graphics, and transport, those categories that you might not immediately know the pieces, assuming, well, you don’t work in fashion, graphics, or transport. On another note, as a nice nod, we were particularly happy to see Ben de Lisi‘s Universal Gown made the cut, given that it was a commission from the UK’s Design Council, which certainly had a rough go of it in 2010. Winners will be announced in each category, as well as a single grand prize recipient, on March 15.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Annual 2011: Final deadline

Despite us having already extended the deadline once, our awards team has been inundated with requests for a further deadline extension for this year’s Annual. So we’re giving you until February 9 to get your best work to us. Please note though, this is the absolute final deadline.

And for those who missed the news, we’ve also made some changes to the awards categories themselves this year, with the introduction of a Client of the Year award, and the judging responsibility for Agency of the Year and Design Studio of the Year now resting with Creative Review’s editorial team.

If you’d like to enter, or to find out more, step this way.

Judge Dismisses Shepard Fairey/AP Copyright Claims, Settlement Includes Collaborative Project

Hope springs eternal for Shepard Fairey, who has been locked in a two-year battle with the Associated Press over his use of AP photographer Mannie Garcia‘s portrait of (then Senator) Barack Obama for his iconic HOPE poster. Was it “fair use” under copyright law? You’ll recall the key plot points: Fairey sued, the AP countersued, Milton Glaser weighed in, as did Steven Heller. Things heated up after Fairey changed his story about the poster (and admitted to lying in previous statements), which led his high-powered legal team to flee and the AP, smelling blood, to amp up its claims with criminal charges. Meanwhile, Garcia withdrew from the scuffle and an interim ruling last summer only added to the confusion. Finally, an agreement has been reached, and U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein yesterday dismissed the copyright lawsuits.

The AP and Fairey have “agreed in principle to settle their pending copyright infringement lawsuit over rights in the Obama Hope poster and related merchandise,” according to a statement issued today by the AP and circulated by the artist. As in all good compromises, no one wins: neither side is surrendering its view of the law, and while Fairey has agreed to lay off the AP photo sampling without securing the appropriate licenses, the settlement terms get even more interesting: “The two sides have…agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs.” Meanwhile, the AP is forging ahead with its suit against Fairey’s Obey Clothing, which markets apparel with the Hope image. A civil jury trial is set for March 21.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CR Annual Client of the Year

We’re making a couple of changes to The Annual this year, including the introduction of a prize for the Client of the Year

The CR Annual Client of the Year will be awarded by the CR editorial team in order to recognise a client or client organisation that has, in our opinion, commissioned the outstanding work of the year as featured in the CR Annual.

Creative Review’s Annual has, in previous years, awarded a CR Annual Ad Agency of the Year and a CR Annual Design Studio of the Year. In the past we have done this along the lines of the Palme D’Or at Cannes – the winner being the Agency or Studio with the most pieces of work accepted into the Annual that year.

We’re going to alter the criteria this year: both the CR Annual Agency and Design Studio of the Year will be chosen by the CR editorial team. Anyone entering work to The Annual qualifies.

All work chosen for the Creative Review Annual will be featured in our special double May issue. If you would like to enter, please go here. Extended deadline: Friday January 14

 

Postal Service Announces Pioneers of American Industrial Design Stamp Series

In case you were taking a break from all your philately during the holiday season, you might have missed the US Postal Service‘s announcement for a new set of stamps to be released this July. Entitled Pioneers of American Industrial Design, it includes a number of famous designed-in-America objects, from Greta von Nessen‘s 1951 “Anywhere” lamp to Peter Muller-Munk‘s “Normandie” pitcher. And in a particularly heart-warming behind-the-scenes story behind the new release, the objects on display were selected by the USPS’ Art Director, Derry Noyes, daughter of Eliot Noyes, the long-time designer for IBM whose “Selectric” typewriter is included in the set (well worth your time reading this 2006 story in Metropolis about life in the Noyes’ ultra-modern New Canaan house). Here are the stamps’ specifics:

The selvage features a photograph of the “Airflow” fan designed by Robert Heller around 1937. Denis Farley photographed the fan for The Macdonald Stewart Foundation.

Each stamp includes the designer’s name, the type of object, and the year or years when the object was created. The pane’s verso includes a brief introduction to the history and importance of American industrial design, as well as text that identifies each object and briefly tells something about each designer.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Starbucks unveils new logo

US coffee giant Starbucks has unveiled a new identity created by its in-house design team and studio Lippincott. It centres on the Siren logo and does away with the words “Starbucks” and “coffee” altogether…

The ‘Siren’ figure has been part of the Starbucks identity since the company launched in 1971 and this latest redesign ties in with their 40th anniversary. The new logo essentially takes the Siren out of her ringed frame (see previous iterations of the identity, below), changes the background colour to Starbucks green and removes all text – perhaps a nod to the fact that the company now sells a range of other products in addition to coffee. The identity will be rolled out across all branches in March.

“From the start, we wanted to recognise and honour the important equities of the iconic Starbucks logo,” writes ‘Mike P’, the company’s senior creative manager.

“So we broke down the four main parts of the mark – colour, shape, typeface and the Siren. After hundreds of explorations, we found the answer in simplicity. Removing the words from the mark, bringing in the green, and taking the Siren out of her ring. For forty years she’s represented coffee, and now she is the star.”

The next step was to bring in a “more sophisticated stroke width and spacing and a smoother line flow.” The Siren’s hair and facial features were apparently also refined.

The question is, in light of last year’s most infamous logo debacle could the new Starbucks ever ‘do a Gap’? I very much doubt it. Despite the dissent already emerging on the company’s website from largely negative commenters – not to mention the need to monitor their 1.1m followers on Twitter – one thing that stands out is that Starbucks has ensured the big reveal is shown in context; on a paper cup.

It sounds obvious, but when the Gap identity announced itself to the world online, it was the same old decontextualised jpg that people were posting, emailing and generally taking apart. Starbucks has already countered the ‘you have to see it in the flesh’ argument by simply showing it in the way most people will engage with it. And doesn’t it seem all the better for that?

More details on Starbuck’s new identity can be found on their website, here. And on twitter.com/starbucks.