Kemistry and Brand42 overhaul branding for CNN

TV news station CNN International relaunches with an overhauled on-screen look today, in a redesign project involving Kemistry, Brand42 and independent creative consultant Frank Lampen.

Kemistry was appointed by CNN’s US head office in Atlanta last summer, to undertake a strategic plan for the CNN brand. Its work includes creative treatment for news presentation and navigation graphics.

London group Brand42, which had been working on a ‘tweak’ of the CNN International identity prior to Kemistry’s appointment, was then asked to create all on-screen idents, stings and title sequences, produced with production company CC-Lab. These branding elements will also be extended to other delivery platforms and off-air communications.

Although the existing red logotype remains unchanged, Brand42 has set it in a white carrier and updated the company’s globe icon, which distinguishes the channel from the US CNN, which will become a silver and glass globe in a square window.

‘The idea was to give the identity a contemporary look, distinct from CNN in the US. The new identity is about closing in on the globe, which pulses, as a focus on where the news happens,’ says Brand42 creative director Adge Gittins.

According to Kemistry creative director Graham McCallum, the on-screen look is intended to appeal to CNN International’s target audience of the ‘urbane, travelling, global citizen’.

The consultancy’s on-screen graphics system abandons the traditional news ticker in favour of displaying one complete story at a time.

The redesign was overseen by Mark Halivand, marketing director for CNN Europe, Middle East & Africa and the company’s US-based creative director Mark Wright. CNN International serves global markets outside the US and is owned by AOL TimeWarner.