BSkyB to relaunch main Sky channel brands

BSkyB is to relaunch Sky One, Two and Three, with brand identities and idents created by its in-house team Sky Creative.

The non-terrestrial channel is looking to establish a more premium status by launching a ‘family identity’ and accompanying idents for its three main channels. The new look will break on- and off-air on 31 August and represents its first major brand investment since Sky One’s creation in 1989.

The rebrand has been prompted by a new era of programme content initiated by Sky director of programming Richard Woolfe, who took the helm in 2006. His mission has been to halt Sky’s declining audiences and turn the channel around.

Sky One creative director Andi Granger, who led the 18-month-long project, reveals that he convinced Woolfe to keep it in-house, making a case for the team’s resources and knowledge of Sky’s expanding cross-platform presence. ‘The people at Sky Creative know all those applica tions and the demands,’ he points out.

Woolfe subsequent ly oversaw a three-way internal pitch to determine the best possible creative route.

The idents, based on a concept devised by Sky Creative designer Jonathan Yeo, uses the idea of elements to convey personality for each of the channels. Sky One is defined by solids, Two by liquids and Three by particles.

According to Granger, the identities will incorporate exclusive Sky content, such as Lost, to establish a closer association between brand and programming. The Moving Picture Company has worked on the 3D production aspects of the project.

One of the key design features of the identity system, Granger says, is its simplicity. It uses numerics, as opposed to words, to achieve a more com – pact look that ‘can carry other information with it’, and can ‘tuck into the corner of the screen’ on-air. The identities incorporate the Sky corporate masterbrand worked on by Venture Three, and before that Wolff Olins. The colour palette has been extended for online applications.

Granger predicts that digital design will have to become more simple to accommodate increased navigation and applications. ‘It’s not just looking at a logo, it’s looking at every single application,’ he says.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT

• Sky One introduced the ‘Onc’ logo, designed by Kaktus Film in 2004, with Amore producing typographic logo, organic animations plus all on-air menus, graphics and colour palettes
• Venture Three worked on Sky HD, Sky+ and the Sky masterbrand
• New programme commissions will include a live Noel Edmondshosted special and Hairspray: The School Musical
• Sky plans to film more than £10m of new UK drama in HDTV
• The revamp will be accompanied by a 20% increase in the channel’s overall annual budget, estimated to be around £140m