In the world of broadcast design, Toronto-based Tango Media Group puts the emphasis on talent.

"[Tango] is a team of graphic designers, not techies," says Tango managing director Claire Marier. She explains that computers are merely a tool to serve the artistic vision, and company president Christian Castel couldn’t agree more.

"I’m a designer first," he says. "[At Tango] we try to seek professional designers instead of tech-skilled people. Everyone can do a similar quality of production, but what we do is communication. We’re designing for the client, not for our portfolio."

Tango, which specializes in on-air branding and animation, has done work for TVOntario, TFO, TSN, RDS, Teletoon, Prime and, most recently, for Discovery Channel Canada, garnering a mention at the New York Festivals.

Tango redesigned TVO’s on-air branding for last September’s launch. The station ID features a simple blue background, onto which the TVO background swings, followed by an explosion of light. The broadcaster noted increased ratings for two consecutive months, which it attributes partly to the re-branding.

With the growing industry trend of companies hiring in-house designers, Tango endeavors to keep its customers coming back by providing clarity both in its graphics and professional relationships.

"We don’t want to be known for a single style, but there’s a cleanliness and a simplicity to our design," says Castel. "We don’t design based on visual trends or what’s cool this year. We keep communication [with the client] strong and make sure we’re still on target. In our four years, we’ve had only one project where a storyboard was given. Sometimes the client has a set of goals or a study with a target audience and a strategy or tag-line, but mostly we’re given a blank slate."

Castel explains that the job of the designer is to "tickle" the client’s mind. When Tango is handed that blank slate, it designs "conceptual" boards.

"It’s like an interview with images – flashcards for the clients," he says. "Then we see what makes them react positively. In a way, we’re learning to read their minds."

Other factors Tango sees as keys to success are efficiency and speed, which have the studio contemplating the implications of design conversion for the Internet.

"We want fast-loading transfers, but transferring TV animation to the Web takes lots of time," explains Marier. "There is a tendency to do flat 2D for the Web, whereas right now TV is less limited. But the tools and software are quickly becoming more sophisticated."

Speed and ease are why Tango invested in the Apple Final Cut Pro system for its third anniversary studio expansion.

"It’s a hell of a system for the money," says Castel. "Designers tend to be Mac people, but we didn’t buy it because it’s Mac-compatible, but because it’s simple, yet powerful and digital. It allows full, uncompressed audio and visual and we get to capture everything in realtime, as opposed to frame-by-frame. It also features a tool to pre-visualize the design, and all this makes days’ worth of difference in workflow. What used to take three or four days we can now do in one or even half a day."

As proud as Castel is of Tango’s design capabilities, he is almost embarrassed by its current lack of a website.

"We’re redoing it, but we’ve been so busy," explains Castel. "We want to do it ourselves – it’s hard designing for other designers."

Design of the site has been completed by one of Tango’s newest staffers, Steven Nederveen, who comes from Global Television Vancouver. The site is expected to be up and running shortly. *