With an influx of more than 40 diginets vying for eyeballs and branding the name of the game, broadcast design firms and in-house design departments are pulling out the stops to create distinctive and memorable graphics reflecting their respective channels’ programming philosophies.

‘Without a strong brand identity, you’re not going to hold the entire network together,’ says Rob Pilichowski, art director at The Studio Upstairs, the Toronto firm that designed MenTV’s on-air look for Groupe TVA and the Global Television Network.

‘If your objective isn’t to make yourself stand out, then you aren’t understanding that the marketplace is demanding you stick out,’ adds Dolores Keating-Mallen, creative head of Corus Entertainment, and the broadcast designer for Discovery Kids Canada.

Only 2.5 million Canadian households are presently even equipped to receive the diginets, and sponsors remain sceptical about the diginets as an advertising avenue. Recent ratings from Nielsen Media Research show that overall diginet numbers are low and that it’s highly competitive among the channels. In the Sept. 10 to Dec. 9 period, Global Television’s Lone Star, the top-rated diginet, managed an average minute audience of 13,600, trailed by CTV’s Animal Planet with 5,600 and Global’s Deja View with 5,100.

To achieve strong, on-screen brand identity for Discovery Kids Canada, Keating-Mallen combined the far-out look of Corus’ YTV with the reality-based feel of The Discovery Channel. The results are promos showing a manta ray morphing into a stealth bomber and then a boomerang. It’s a progression from nature through technology to a child’s toy, encapsulating what Discovery Kids is all about.

‘We also tried to make it as funky-looking color-wise and as attractive and interesting as we could,’ she adds, ‘because we know kids enough to know they need compelling images.’

Meanwhile, The Studio Upstairs wanted to give MenTV a look that would attract adult male viewers, ‘but we didn’t want to turn off the female viewers sitting next to them,’ says the Toronto design firm’s executive producer Michael Churchill.

This meant that Playboy-style titillation was out. Instead, ‘we created a look called ‘M Machine,’ ‘ Churchill says. It combines machine parts with graphics and fluid motion in a ‘fun, playful way.’

Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting faced a different challenge. The Toronto company launched six new services, including Canadianized versions of established brands BBC World (BBC Canada) and National Geographic Channel, as well as extensions of its Showcase brand in Showcase Action and Showcase Diva.

‘For all of the channels we launched, we went through upfront strategy sessions and formal brand marketing plans,’ says Janet Eastwood, AAB’s executive VP of marketing, communications and creative services. ‘[We covered] everything from target audience to objective strategies, positioning lines, and ultimately consumer slogans, which has been done internally and in conjunction with our agency, FCB Canada.’

AAB’s in-house broadcast design department used 2D illustrations by artist Jason Munger as a basis for 3D-animated Diva IDs featuring ‘girls in command’ in various scenarios. Since the Showcase channels broadcast movies, they offer design elements related to and on par with the programming – Showcase Action, for example, runs cinematic shoot-em-up clips in a 3D virtual world. (Toronto studio Crush was hired on to produce the Action logo.) Meanwhile, promos on National Geographic Channel, Discovery Health, BBC Canada and BBCKids rely heavily on the design department’s graphics to highlight programming.

Finally, CHUM Television has not only designed distinctive looks for new diginets SexTV The Channel and FashionTelevision, but it has also revamped the broadcast design of stalwarts such as Citytv and MuchMusic. ‘We’ve sort of been forced to, because we’ve added so many channels over the last few years,’ explains David Johnson, CHUM’s senior creative director.

At City, this has meant combining letter-boxed street scenes with bold, clean typeface. ‘It’s a more stripped-down look, to differentiate ourselves from the big networks,’ Johnson says. ‘So, Citytv being the downtown station, you’ll actually see images of Toronto as backdrop rather than just a field of red or black behind type.’

-www.thestudioupstairs.com

-www.corusentertainment.com

-www.allianceatlantis.com

-www.chumlimited.com