Soho has dodged the trend. The Toronto graphics firm has kept extremely busy with its specialty in broadcast design despite the movement toward broadcasters doing their design work in-house.

Although Soho has completed design projects for Canadian networks including cbc, ontv, Showcase, Vision tv, and Report on Business tv, Soho creative director Tony Cleave understands ‘the Canadian market is finite. It’s very, very small in comparison to the global scale or the u.s. market. The u.s. market is monstrous. Every little town has one of the four affiliates. Then there’s the big networks on the East Coast and West Coast. Our aim is to go even further into the American market.’

Soho is well on its way. After completing jobs for such u.s. and international broadcasters as CNN International (European and African markets), the design house is currently pitching a design for espn’s coverage of Major League Baseball.

Cleave explains the pitch: ‘Our creative would call for us going down and directing one of these big sluggers crunching a cg ball out of the park. It’s very exciting – a whole virtual environment that they can customize each week for their promos.’

A former in-house designer for both Global and cbc, Cleave comes to the broadcast design game with an intimate knowledge of how the industry has evolved in the past decades.

He describes how they continue to get jobs in the new environment.

‘Most of the time, with larger networks or larger-scope projects, the in-house people don’t have the resources [to get the job done]. They’re usually tasked with day-to-day responsibilities. They’re just getting the daily shows and graphics on the air. Now, in many cases, the in-house department will tender a request for a proposal, have them pitched and evaluate them.’

Soho approaches broadcast design projects with the client in mind. ‘Some clients really have a good sense of self,’ Cleave explains. ‘They do their own research and come to the table with a brief that says we are ‘this’ and this is how we’d like to be presented. The client has a good understanding of who they are now and a better understanding of where they want to go. They just can’t put their finger on it visually. That’s our job.’

Cleave fears that many ‘designers tend to approach clients and say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll come back with something great and you’ll love it.’ A lot of that seems to happen in a vacuum – with maybe a little too much ego. It’s the designer that really listens to, explores and researches the client, and then applies creative thinking, who is going to succeed.’

Understanding the importance of a client’s market niche is key for Soho. ‘So much of a design project is based on the exploration of who the client is,’ says Cleave.

‘What is their brand? Is there any equity in that brand? Have they been around a long time? For example, [Soho design project] Hockey Night in Canada would never change that music.’

Soho not only provides clients with self-contained identities, it will also ‘strip the pieces apart’ to give the broadcaster flexibility. In fact, they sometimes publish style guides so the client actually has a hard-copy book of ‘all the combinations and permutations of the elements we supply.’

Cleave, in closing, says: ‘I think the successful design studio of the future will be one based much more on an understanding of marketing, brand strategies and where the client fits in the marketplace. How do they differentiate themselves? That’s really what it’s all about. Differentiating one channel, network or satellite from another.’