Tube Images bigwig Danny Bergeron remembers a day 20 years ago when broadcast design was his major source of work. Now, with the bulk of Montreal-based Tube’s work in commercial animation and long-form projects, Bergeron speaks of Tube’s continuing love of broadcast design and the projects through which they express it.

‘For us, [broadcast design] was a lot of business in the ’80s because broadcasters didn’t have all the cg equipment in-house. Now they’re doing most of it,’ says Bergeron.

‘In the ’80s, the big, big market was only broadcast design – 3D animation was the luxury tool, when the broadcasters had a lot of budget. Since Jurassic Park fever, broadcast design has really become marginal, especially in Montreal. It was not my choice. The market is evolving. It switched to commercial and long-format in the ’90s.’

Despite the shift to in-house broadcast design production, Tube still gets broadcast design jobs, explains Bergeron, ‘when, for some reason, the broadcaster is tired of going in-house.’

Bergeron is excited about Tube’s most recent project. ‘What we did recently was totally repackaged tqs’ [Television Quatre Saisons’ news program] Le Grand Journal. We did a package for the whole news show: the bumpers, the background, weather, special reports, beginning, ending, teaser and so on. Everything for the standard, classic tool kit for handling the news show.’

This tool kit helps Tube to work with the in-house broadcast designers to create the best possible look for the program.

Bergeron explains: ‘There are 20 elements. They are not linked. The broadcasters have a lot of equipment in-house: switchers, character generators, and paint box – stuff like that. The advantage of having the in-house designers is that when the design is done, they understand how to use it. They ask for an empty background and they want a copy of the font that we used. We’re just creating the style and they can do a lot knowing the color palette, the lettering and the way we animated.’

Bergeron is pleased with the work of the in-house design teams. ‘Often, I’m looking on-air and it’s perfect. They use it perfectly, in the continuity of the design with it.’

Bergeron is also proud of his team on the tqs project: Nacira Ouamalich (producer), Denis Dulude and Marie-Helene Galarneau (conception and graphic design) and Jean-Marie Boissonneault (compositing).

The Tube team understands it’s the creative that sets them apart. Without their innovative designs, broadcasters would have little reason to go outside for their ‘look’.

‘We were four companies bidding on the project [Le Grand Journal],’ Bergeron explains. ‘Their [tqs] sort of slogan is the black sheep of broadcasters.’

Tube works to fit the personality of the network and the program.

‘So we said, ‘You have to be really edgy and a really bad guy.’ And we designed graphics that were really edgy and the font was really aggressive, moving all the time and not written well. You know, mixing upper and lower case and really scratchy. So we worked in bright yellow. Usually news is associated with a blue.

‘We went really to the opposite and said ‘OK, you are the black sheep. You are not in front of the [news] event. You are in the back street waiting for the thief going that way’. And [the client] liked it. When you see it on-air you cannot miss it. It’s really, really distinctive.’

It’s clear Bergeron still relishes his cracks at the ‘big market of the ’80s’, broadcast design.