Code unlocks on-screen identities

Code Design has revamped on-air identities for two music channels from Emap, Kerrang! and Smash! Hits, which go live on 31 March and 4 April respectively.

The group won both projects after two separate creative, unpaid pitches in January, against ‘six to eight’ rivals. Emap programme director Dave Young declines to name the groups involved. Code was appointed in mid-February.

The work is part of the channels’ on-going evolution, as they strive to ‘reflect the fast-changing music and culture scenes’, says Young.

Young briefed Code to ‘polish’ Kerrang!’s identity, but retain its ‘rebellious punk’ attitude.

Code senior designer Jamie Balliu, who was creative director on the project, created Kerrang!’s original channel identity two years ago while at broadcast specialist Ortmans Young.

Balliu says he wanted to stop viewers channel-hopping by keeping the ident short and expand on his Bagman character.

The character was created for the channel’s launch and now features in the magazine. The redesign sees it in a variety of new guises, including as a celebrity hounded by the papparazzi.

Smash! Hits’ channel identity has ‘grown up’, according to Young. The channel is aimed at a slightly older audience than the magazine and the redesign had to mirror that, but keep a ‘wild, sexy’ feel about it. The group has also created a character for the channel, a Frenchman named Fred.

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