AS1: Task 2: Understanding the Limitations of the Television Ident

Understanding the Limitations of the Television Ident

Typography:

• Typography is the style of the font. For example the size of the font itself.

There are similarities represented in logos. An example would be the BBC, these similarities are demonstrated by having the same font and font size. They would all have he same house style to an extent.

Typography is seen as a limitation but this isn't necessarily a disadvantage. The channels "CBBC" and "CBeebies" are children's channels and the typography on their logos appear to be childlike for a younger audience. By having these designs, the channels are able to cater to young children, so therefore I would say that this is an advantage.

"BBC three" has a different kind of typography as it appears to have a slight curve in the letters. This could represent a different take on some programmes. "BBC three" was a channel (that has recently been discontinued on television but is still available online) that used to broadcast shows from 7:00pm/19:00pm onwards. This demonstrates that the channel would cater more towards viewers in their late teens and adults due to the broadcasting of adult themed shows and cartoons (for example; "Family Guy (1999)".

Colour:

• Colour also has limitations. For a specific channel i.e. "BBC one" they would use the colour red and this give viewers the acknowledgement that they are watching that specific channel. This is a positive limitation because the channel shows its consistency through the use of colour.

"BBC TWO" has a green background colour on its logo, "BBC three" has a pink coloured letters on a purple background and "BBC FOUR" has a black background on its logo. This is ideal for the channel's consistencies because of their brand identity. Due to brand identity, viewers would know which logo belongs to which channel.

Aspect-Ratio:

• A high definition broadcast programme would be shown in a 16:9 widescreen.

An active picture should be able to fill a 16:9 widescreen today. Beforehand when televisions used to be smaller in size, the screening would also be smaller, whereas today televisions are bigger so therefore the screens would also be bigger and would broadcast programmes to fit this format.

Adhering to a Desired Tone:

For example, "BBC FOUR" broadcasts programmes desired for matured adults as this would appeal more to their taste, whereas "CBeebies" caters to a much younger audience, so therefore their idents must be vibrant, colourful and appear to be big and fun to adhere to young children (relatively infants and toddlers). Shown below are examples of television ident for CBeebies and BBC Four.

Duration:

When creating an ident, you will need to consider timing. If a show is running behind schedule, for example the news, then the ident's full version would be broadcast to give the news station time to prepare and be ready for going live on air. However if this isn't the case and programmes are on time to be scheduled next, then the shorter version of the ident would be shown instead. An example of this would be for example - from BBC One, again. Personally I was waiting for a programme that I wanted to watch to start, however I realised that the ident was being broadcast for a long period of time and that was when I established that the production team was running behind time. Shown below is a short and long version of BBC One's "dog team" ident.