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Just like there is a sucker born every minute it seems like a TV network is born every other minute to satisfy all us suckers. The most recent addition to the airwaves is the all new ReelzChannel, devoting its 24/7 airtime to everything there is to want to know about movies. The identity of the channel along with that of some of its original programming was designed by New York-based Trollbäck + Company, whose TV track record includes the redesign of CourtTV, AMC and the repackaging of CBS’ On-Air graphics.

“The resulting identity and on-air package” reads Trollbäck’s web site, “celebrate the simple graphic shapes associated with movie language, from our film-reel-like logo, to the network ID’s, and show opens that draw inspiration from film-reel leaders, the MPAA logo, and movie posters.” The channel’s main identity is indeed simple and effectively so with an equally simple, bold and legible wordmark — maybe a little extra leading in the two lines would help though — to accent the icon making it a highly legible logo as a TV bug and a highly impactful one in interstitials and opens. As Trollbäck’s on-air montage demonstrates, the icon animates beautifully and in a variety of ways. If this identity suffers from any affliction, it might very well be Circleitis and the unavoidable circle-filled world that it lives in in environments like the web site — this screen shot [pop-up] shows five logos plus the icon on the sign up box, totaling 30 circles! — and I assume in printed materials where circles are likely a big part of the visual language. Nonetheless, ReelzChannel has the advantage of claiming ownership of the four circles-in-a-square motif and that goes a long way in establishing brand awareness as its programming makes its way to more and more cable and satellite providers. Which brings us to the ID’s of these programs.

Trollbäck’s style veers heavily unto the simple and flat side, most of the time to great visual effect, but these identities fall lacklusterly flat and become the lowest common denominator in graphic language, from the faux 70s typeface of The Big Tease to the literal check mark in The Check List, all these identities feel undeveloped and, more importantly, do not display the elegance of the channel’s logo. Overall, though, this seems like quite a succesful identity launch for Trollbäck and only viewers’ interest will determine the fate of a channel that has strong competition from all the entertainment shows currently on TV, not to mention sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Ain’t it Cool News that bring us the reel (ha!) dirt on the movie business.

To read (and see) more about ReelzChannel, visit Trollbäck’s sub-site for this work, and a press release on Dexigner.

By Armin on Nov.11.2006 in Entertainment › Link

The way the C and L hang on "Channel" bothers me.

I am not sure if the IDs really need to be all that developed. They are not supposed to be printed and you also only see them for a few seconds usually. Sure, it would be great if they were fully developed, but I think if you look at IDs of some other channels trollbäck have done a good job.
The only thing that really worries me is the big tease. I had trouble reading the black in white type, I would've been unable to if it also moved and disappeared after a few seconds.

The problem with this logo is, take away the word 'channel' and you don't know what it is or who it's for...but over time, popularity might allow them to drop that word and be recognised just for the symbol. But, it's too similar to the 'Secret's Out' one for my liking, maybe a left-over effort from the drawing pad??

And why would you remove the word "channel", when that is part of the name? a mark should work with the name the company wishes to use, not partial pieces just because. (Just imagine what would happen to all the word marks out there?). The word and the icon work in conjunction with each other to tell us who is behind the logo.

At first I didn't care for the mark. Its simplicity made me cautious. But I think they nailed it in the montage. I am OK with the other sub-identities looking under developed. I could even see that as a strategic choice (or backpeddling justification). Regardless, Trollbacks ability to trust such simplicity and make it come to life is inspiring. No gradients or reflections!

And its similarity to Secrets Out in entirely intentional. Hello?

Type treatments for programs are usually undeveloped, just like these. Only difference is Reelz doesn't try to hide it with 3d extrusion or faux-distress. The retro look comes close, though.

Trying not to over-crit the logo- it looks fine. It's simple, almost obvious, yes, and animates nicely in their montages. It works. Any more to it? The whole brand does not seem entirely groundbreaking, or innovative. It's not that interesting. It doesn't have to be. Just another new addition to the homogenous culture of tv.

Somewhat similar to the all music all the time station, http://www.shopthetubetv.com/ who make very, very unique use of their logo in how they build it. Since it is commercial free they have several cool transitions that build their logo.

This is probably a case where the quality and importance of the company's content outweighs the importance of the image portayed by the logo and graphics.

Which is refeshing these days, a good example of this is the all time music channel The Tube which was previously mentioned before.

The Tube logo and graphics while they are obviously simple and lack flashyness they do compliment the channel quite well. The Tube channel itself,while it's graphics arn't particularly groundbreaking it's content offers an exellent variety of music spanning hundreds of decades from artists famous and some not so famous.

It's hard to explain in words, but once you watch The Tube you'll understand what I'm trying to say.

I think the problem is with many companies these days is that they're so focused on so much how they look to the business world (like does my logo have the latest gradient effects? or the latest swoosh? oh shoot my logo doesn't look 3D enough etc.) that they lose touch with costumers, in that the entire quality of service has become secondary. (UPS still is complained about how careless they are about delivering packages, Ford in reaction to falling sales redid their slogan and image at least 3 times, Walmart tried to appeal to a wider demographic and failed, GM is continually trying to entice buyers with sales,McDonalds is attempting to clean up their image after being sued countless times,and Macy's is still getting reprocussions from changing the Marshall Feild's name.)

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