Groups switch on Sky Italia brand

Rupert Murdoch’s much-vaunted Sky Italia project launches its visual identity and brand strategy on 14 May, with branding by Venturethree and on-air design by Bruce Dunlop & Associates.

BDA, whose creative director Bruce Dunlop also worked in-house at Sky for seven years, has created the platform’s on-air look. The project includes idents, colour schemes, promotional packages and weather, headline and interactive graphics.

The group, which won the brief last December without a pitch, will also create Sky Italia’s website in collaboration with the broadcaster’s in-house creative team.

According to BDA managing director Honor Bartlett, the group chose to introduce a ‘bold, consistent’ style that it claims is lacking in Italian television.

‘We have gone for a strong and confident look so viewers will know they are in the Sky environment,’ she says.

Venturethree was appointed in November 2002 to design the visual identity and brand strategy. A spokesman for the consultancy would not comment on the project.

Sky Italia is the result of a merger between Italian pay-TV business Telepiu, which News Corporation recently acquired for £629m from French multimedia behemoth Vivendi Universal, and Rupert Murdoch’s existing Italian network, Stream.

The channel goes live in July.