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www.postmagazine.com 36 POST JUNE 2017 BROADCAST DESIGN t's 12:58 a.m. on a Tuesday night. You're binging 13 Reasons Why. Work is just five hours away and you've come to the last episode. The suspense is crushing you. You can't wait for the answers. This is the exact moment where traditional broadcast design has evolved into what it is today. SMALLER, BOLDER, FASTER The increasingly mobile and streaming nature of television as we know it means the branding around it needs to be bold yet simple, and scaleable to varying screen sizes. The Broad City show open, for example, is clearly cognizant of UX, getting us right to the laughs with a logo animation that's unmistakably Broad City. The logo's colorful, straightforward shapes stand out on even the smallest screens — and, culturally, its short run-time is the perfect format and length for sharing as an animated GIF, for instance. THE VALUE OF MOMENTUM & THE PREMIUM OF LONG FORM Short Bites: Because we can binge-watch with ease nowadays, show opens have to be short, good, or both. Here, 13 Reasons Why stands out visually among other shows on Netflix at the moment. Like Broad City, the really short animated open understands pacing and UX. Featuring embellished "tape" drawings, numbered per episode, the hand-drawn aspect of the piece not only ties into the youthful theme of the show, but also its relative simplicity reads well at various sizes. Premium Long Form: On the other hand, the Westworld opener is longer, but beautiful. What's interesting about Westworld is that the execution of the title sequence is so creative, it trumps general tendencies of wanting shorter opens. There's a new take on the visuals. They're wonderfully imaginative, and cre- ated at such a high level of craft that isn't easily replicated. Pieces like the Westworld titles, and the artists who make them, will always exist and become the exception to the collective way media is consumed. In my estimation, along this line, the new premi- um content will be long form even on the Internet. But to pull it off, like Westworld, it will take an incredibly gifted imagination and execution to be successful. THE NEW MARKETING, SHAREABILITY & DESIGN MINDSET Shareability: The free market aspect of the Internet, social media and metrics are also evolving television branding and design; and in the same way we describe how shows are consumed on iPads, so is the marketing. As social media becomes the new portal for reaching audiences, screen size and UX are integral to branding. The concept of scrolling is the same. It's got to catch your eye fast. Then there's shareability — eye-catch- ing content that is so cool that you want to share it with friends. Sites like Facebook let you target specific de- mographics, such as interests, location, age, industry and everything else in the world. Then there are metrics to mea- sure this all, which keeps it honest. It's super overwhelming at best, but also precise for marketing feedback. The Design Mindset: So what does all of this mean in the age of the Internet, where you can literally buy a template for an animated show open on videohive.net? How do you keep ahead and stand out? Two ways: Typographic-driven brand- ing and distinct color, and extremely imaginative and un-salesy visuals. Think about Facebook or Google. By one color and font, you know exactly whom you are branded under. Same thing on TV. Type, color and simplicity will reign supreme. Take the branding we did at Laundry for The Simpsons on FX. We accounted for nearly all of the variables I've men- tioned so far: staying true to the DNA of the show itself, we kept the branding bold, really owning The Simpsons' yellow color with one-of-a-kind hand-drawn art; through an FX Network mandate, we kept the length short; and referenc- ing successful internet artists like Cyriak, we made some of the IDs loopable and GIF-friendly for sharing online and on social. Ultimately, and quite intentionally under the thoughtful direction of the FX team, we made art instead of blatant marketing. Audiences do not like a hard sell, especially considering how much marketing they're barraged with online. So we didn't. THE TAKEAWAY The state of TV branding isn't completely upside down. And while there is still a huge audience for traditional broadcast, we're nevertheless constantly adapting to the fast-changing ways content and information is consumed and shared. The solution is to be bold and quick to match the user experience effectively. But remember when TV trumped radio? The exception and the rule of thumb is that being well informed and culturally aware of the audience can inspire relevant and unexpected creativity. Those will be the winners. BINGE-WORTHY, SHARE-WORTHY TV SIGNALS: THE FUTURE OF BROADCAST DESIGN I BRANDING NEEDS TO BE BOLD YET SIMPLE, AND SCALEABLE TO FIT VARYING SCREENS BY PJ RICHARDSON EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PARTNER LAUNDRY LOS ANGELES WWW.LAUNDRYMAT.TV