On a recent design project for CNN International’s new a.m. news block, Toronto’s Soho Post & Graphics delivered the right morning-fresh look for three new shows and saved the news net some air miles, handling the entire project via the Internet.

Soho was charged with creating openings as well as bumpers and other design elements for three new cnni information programs aimed at a desired audience of well-educated business types in European, Asian and African markets.

Live-action clips from the network, including original news footage, comprised a large portion of the opening look. It was Soho’s task to create a color palette and a design structure to integrate the footage and other elements to convey the news-sports-weather-business tone appropriate for each of the three shows: CNN This Morning, CNN Business Morning and World Business Morning.

For the first show, the Soho team, led by creative director Tony Cleave, designed daybreak-inspired elements by shooting optical light through glass incorporated with mattes in ellipses and other shapes created in Matador.

‘When we filled the mattes with this optical color there was a morning sunlight fluid feel, and it also created a framing device for putting the video in,’ says Cleave.

The main show opening established an overall style for the package, which was adapted to the remaining shows. On CNN Business Morning, for example, Soho employed a cooler color palette, and in place of the elliptical mattes, used vertical lines reminiscent of bar codes. The lines were also used as a framing device, and as the lines intersected each other, each one morphed into a letter, creating an interesting title reveal. Elements were composited using Henry.

The only face-to-face meeting on the project would come after the fact, during Cleave’s trip to Promax/bda show, since all the in-progress material was sent via Internet and a digital master sent upon completion.