AS1 Task Two - Understanding the limitations of the television ident

Typography

Typography is the way in which the text is arranged (e.g. colour, font, design etc.) which can be used to help identify a company. Below is an example of the logos from the BBC which shows how the typography is used. The first two logos differ as one is red and in lower-case, with the second being blue and in capital letters. With that said, they are both presented in a simple way with them both being plain. The same font can also be seen throughout most of the logos although this may limit the BBC. This could be a negative aspect as they would not be able to redesign their logo as it would have to have the same design as the others. If they did redesign the logo then the audience may not know it's from the BBC as they are not familiar with it. On the other hand, it creates brand identity and lets the audience instantly know which company they are looking at. Whenever they see this design they will think of the BBC. 

Colour

Colour can play a big part in a television ident as it does not only make the brand memorable but it also sets the mood. An example of this would be in the BBC One/News/Parliament logos where the design is red. The colour red is said to be used to make things stand out and be bold, representing the channel showing programmes with danger, action, war etc. For the channel CBeebies, the background colour is  light blue and the text is yellow to show that it is playful and bright. This reflects the type of programmes shown on that channel as it is for children, so it aims to make them happy. Colour is both a positive and negative aspect; if colour is used in the correct way to reflect the programmes then this is successful and lets the audience know what to expect. On the other hand, the colour could be used in the wrong way and put people off of watching a channel. An example of this would be using black and white on the CBeebies logo.  

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is the dimensions required for a picture to fit a screen. Most high definition programmes are shown in 16:9 widescreen as this is the required dimension to fill the whole screen. This means that it will fit a 16:9 screen without having any distortion. Having an ident that is the correct aspect ratio means that it will fill up the screen and will not become distorted due to it being stretched. If the aspect ratio is different to the screen size then parts will be missing/cropped as shown in the example below. 

Desired Tone

 Adhering to a desired tone is a way to let the audience know which type of programmes are shown on a certain channel. The channel would want to keep a certain tone that reflects the type of programme/s that will be shown. It would not be appropriate if a humorous ident was shown before the BBC news as this is a serious programme. This would not keep a steady tone to the channel as the audience would feel happy and then feel sad. A humorous ident would be acceptable on a channel such as BBC Three as this channel also shows comedy programmes. If a certain tone is not kept on a channel people will not watch it; this could be because they switched to a channel looking for, for example, comedy and although the programmes may have been funny the ident shown was boring.

Duration

Idents can be shown for either a short period of time or a long period of time, depending on how much space is needed to fill for a channel's schedule to run on time. If an ident is made to be shown for a long period of time, it can always be cut down to be shown for the time needed. In the example below, an ident shown on BBC1 has been created for both a long period of time and short period of time. One lasts for 46 seconds whereas the other lasts only 16 seconds. These can be placed at intervals where either a long/short time needs to be filled.