MEST2: Coursework Research

TV Channel Logo Analysis

For my coursework I have decided to do brief two (Synopticity Productions). To kick off my research I will begin to look at and analyse the logos of TV channels that broadcast a certain genre of lifestyle programming to get an idea of how they appeal to a certain target audience so that I can apply this to my own logo when I begin to create it.

Home is an interior home and garden-oriented lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom, as part of the UKTV network of channels. The home channel logo is a fairly plain red which indicates that the target audience is mature adults that don’t need bright and flashy colours to attract them. Whereas if the channels target audience was a younger crowd the logo would probably be more colourful. In this particular form of media I think the colour red demonstrates that the target audience is both males and females because the colour is associated with both genders equally.  It looks professional which reflects the fact that the channel stars professionals at work and therefore links to the channel and the channel’s aim well. The text of the logo is in an italic font which is effective because it highlights that the channel is about designs and things looking good which is likely to attract those who like their homes looking on point. The white lines in the circle remind me of paint lines which personally I think is really clever because now the logo completely represents what the channel is about: interior design and other things to do with home.

Good Food is a lifestyle channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom as part of the UKTV network of channels, as a channel dedicated to cookery programmes. The fact that the logo is a circle with what appears to be a star cut out of it is done cleverly because it symbolises that the channel airs ‘all-round star quality’ food. The logo’s text is cleverly positioned and the word food almost appears as it has been branded ‘good’. This is effective because firstly it informs the viewer they are about to watch a food related channel and secondly that the food is going to be of a good standard therefore so will the channel, this may have been done to attract channel viewers.  The text font is very simple but it makes it look professional and indicates the channel is aimed at a mature audience.  Personally I really like the fact they have used an orange background for the logo because it bright and appealing which should reflect the food produced on the programmes the channel airs. The colour is also effective as it shows no gender bias, by that I mean orange is not typically associated with one gender (for example pink is usually associated with women as it is seen as girly). The lack of gender bias portrayed by the colour scheme therefore indicates that the channel is aimed at both men and women as a target audience.

Travel Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that features documentaries, reality, and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. The logo is blue which is conventionally associated with the sky and water which is effective because it can be linked to travel as most people travel internationally on water for example in ferries or in the sky in an aeroplane and therefore the colour links to the channels genre. The fact that the logo is bright makes it appealing and attractive which may inspire a younger audience to watch it because it is usually younger people that move and travel.  The logo looks like an arrow which to me reflects movement and is clever because travelling is all about movement. The font for the logo is very laid back and informal which also suggests that the channel is targeted at an early 20s to mid-20s audience.

The food network is one the first networks solely dedicated to food however without the anchorage of the text it would be unclear as to what it is a logo of. Therefore proving text is almost essential on logos that have a basic shape and that are not widely recognised. One of the reasons this logo may not be widely recognised is probably because the channel has a very niche target audience, to be specific: those who enjoy food and food related entertainment. The logo is very sophisticated, it uses a maroon colour as the base of the background which indicates maturity as it isn’t a flashy or bright colour therefore adding the element of class. This conveys that food network is a classy channel which just shows how important it is to display a certain ‘message’ about a channel. The text appears to be one set font-which as shown by the previous logos I chose to analyse- appears to be conventional. This particular font highlights neatness, the ‘f’ and the ‘d’ of the word ‘food’  have almost italic like flicks that are visually appeasing which emphasise that appearance is important to the channel. Expanding on the fact that the font looks neat this may have been done to convey the fact that the channel airs clean-cut professional looking programmes and that it itself is of a good standard.

Creation of My Own Logo

For my research I created my own potential/practise logos as I believe analysing and criticising my own designs will help me create a strong final logo for Synopticity Productions.

For this logo I used a clip art type image of factory like industrial buildings as the main aspect, I think it is effective as immediately the word productions reminds me of a factory so I thought it would be a clever representation of the company. There are plant like patterns on the image which I decided to include to represent that, just like plants, Synopticity Productions is a company that is ever-growing and blossoming. In other words I wanted to create the idea that it is a successful lifestyle production company through the use of the image.

There is a mixture of black, sky blue and white used for the logo. I mainly used that colour scheme because I feel the colours complement each other well and are visually pleasing. The blue sets a neutral mood which I feel is important because the flowers could give the impression that Synopticity is a girly company only aimed at females because flowers are usually associated as something women would be more interested in, so the blue was used to overcome any misinterpreted gender bias.

For this logo I used a simple font for the name of the company because there is already a lot going on in the central image of the logo therefore I didn’t want to use any fancy fonts because I believe it would look ‘over the top’ and deduce from the professional look I aim to achieve. I believe that a professional look is a good convention to have to attract any audience because it creates a sense of trust as the more professional something looks the more likely you are to trust it. This would be effective for Synopticity because it portrays that it will be trusted to produce things of a high standard through the use of this logo.

I also decide to add the letters ‘S’ and ‘P’ to the central image in the same light blue colour as some of the patterns and the text to almost brand the building as Synopticity Production’s property.

This logo is a lot plainer than the previous one because I wanted to represent a completely different idea about Synopticity Productions. I decided that I was going to make the company’s name the main feature of the logo so that it could instantly be recognised even to those who have only just viewed it. I used white text on a black background because it enhances the brightness of the white and makes ‘Synopticity Productions’ stand out. By doing this I aimed to reflect that Synopticity as a company that stands out.

 I used ‘Monotype Corsiva’ for the font of my text as I feel it looks elegant, this increases the professionalism of the logo and I believe it’s important for the logo to communicate this idea in order for the company to be represented as successful.

I then decided to include the use of white lines to create a rectangular like shape around the text in order to frame the company’s name. By doing this I was aiming to represent that Synopticity Productions is so good a company that it deserves to have its own name framed as its logo because nothing else is worthy of representing it.

Overall it looks very basic which I wanted to use as a strong point to convey an almost unconventionally brilliant idea however this may also be a weakness because, without an explanation to the design, the logo could be misinterpreted and the company may be represented in a way of which was not the aim.

This logo is slightly similar to the previous one because although I wanted to make sure that I was open minded about how I would go about representing Synopticity through different looking logos I also wanted to keep the element of professionalism throughout. 

When designing this logo I decided to use ‘Monotype Corsiva’ again as the font because it gives across that fancy, dignified look which I believe is effective as it reflects the company as elegant and professional which are good labels to have branded to the name.

 I made ‘S’ and ‘P’ the main element of this logo joined together in a fancy way to abbreviate the company’s name. I believe it’s effective because the two letters immediately become associated with the company and, whenever seen presented in that way, the company will be the first thing that will come to mind. This increases memorability of the company and allows it to become well known.

Again I decided to use a bold black rectangular border to increase the neatness of the logo. The border frames the text and adds extra definition, I did this to represent Synopticity as a company that cares about presenting itself as high quality.  

Final Logo Design

This is my final logo design. Firstly the reason there are two images presented above is because I have decided that I want to be able to change the colour scheme of my logo to complement a certain product the company makes. As Synopticity Productions is a lifestyle production company and there are many aspects that make up the lifestyle genre, I felt that the freedom to have more than one set colour scheme for my logo is appropriate.

With the flexibity of colour scheme I think it’s important to set certain conventions for my logo so that there is no confusion of brand identity.

As you can see I have kept a bold border on both versions of the logo, I have done this because from my draft ideas I noticed that having a well defined outline to any logo is important as it increases the level of neatness. This reflects well on the brand as it represent that they are imacculate and therefore will produce well planned visually pleasing products.

Another convention I have set for my logo is to have the ‘S’ of Synopticity in the font ‘Edwardian Script ITC’ because I think it is very unique in the fact that there is a font change in a singular word. Therefore Synopticity will be more likely to be memorable as it is different. The font looks very classy and fancy and makes the logo look that little bit more appealing  than to just have a simple font. I did this to represent Synopticity as a sophisticated production company.

The rest of the text is in the font ‘Californian FB’ which I decided to use because it still has that element of neatness and elegance that I aim to achieve throughout my logo. It  compliments the font of the ‘S’ well as it contrasts well with the other font and although different, both fonts seem to unite.

In the logo the word ‘Productions’ will always be in capitals, have the same font and colour because it makes the word look official and again adds to the professional look im aimng to achieve for my logo.

Production Companies Analysis

After researching logos of other lifestyle production channels I have decided to look at a production company specialising in lifestyle programming to help me gain an understanding of the conventions I need in order to present Synopticity Productions as a strong company. I will do this by researching e-media that they have created. This will help me with my own coursework as I am opting to do one of the e-media tasks.

Red House is a production company that specialises in lifestyle programming just like Synopticity Productions.

 Red House promotes itself by having its own website. As you can see in the screenshot on the right they have a mission statement like text on the welcome page of their website. The company begins to promote itself in a positive light by discussing the success and high quality of its programs and what it aims to achieve as a production company.

The red house website has a very neat and professional looking house style. Red house has deliberately gone for a plain but professional look because their programmes are aimed at an older audience therefore their viewers are most likely to be mature. By using a house style like that it indicates that it was created to be aimed at other adults who are interested in finding out more about them because adults are more likely to look for professionalism and are more likely to visit a production company website solely to learn more.

It appears the website has been created mainly to inform as there is hardly any interactivity which makes it boring and it won’t encourage many people to visit the page as there is a lack of attractive factors and things to view and do on the webpage.

After looking at this example of a webpage I have come to the conclusion that when designing my own form of e-media I will aim to use a professional and neat house style like Red House have. However I will use brighter colours to attract a wider audience because when something is more visually desirable more people are likely to look at it and I will apply this concept when creating my own e-media product. I will also increase the interactivity of my e-media pages or website to increase the purpose rather than just to be informative like Red House’s website in hopes that this will encourage more page visitors. 

Audience Research

The brief mentions Synopticity specialises in the production of lifestyle programing and that the company sees the benefits of finding and appealing to a strong niche group as this can be a potentially very loyal audience. In order to produce anything for the company I need to know the audience I’m targeting. I have now decided that food is the area of lifestyle I wish to focus on.

The BBC have their own webpage dedicated to food. The obvious observation of target audience is those who are interested in food, cooking and baking. The target audience is also displayed through the colour scheme of the page. A very neutral, calm and relaxed colour scheme has been used here which adds an element of sophistication. This indicates the target audience is most likely to be older, mature adults in their late 20’s and over because they don’t look for bright colours that stand out they look for more of a professional neat look which the BBC have successfully created through the web page. The font the web page uses is very simple which I think has been done because it looks neat which highlights the target audience again is mature adults. There is not much that gives away the gender of the audience as previously stated the colour scheme is fairly neutral therefore the target audience is likely to be both genders.

After analysing this form of e-media for target audience it appears there is a gap in the market for a younger target audience such as that of teens aged 16-18 or younger adults. There is also a gap in the market for anyone younger than 16 however I do not think it would be wise to try to appeal to them especially in the food area of lifestyle programming because there may prove to be too many restrictions. The lack of bright colours is likely to appear boring to someone who is younger than the target audience age the BBC has chosen to appeal to therefore if I were to aim for a younger target audience I would have to use a brighter colour scheme.

The food network is run by a production company called Scripps Networks that specialises in lifestyle programming just like Synopticity. 

A LOOK AT FOOD NETWORK Launched in 1993
Parent company	Scripps Networks
No. of subscribers	86.3 million homes
Median viewer age	48.6 years old
Average primetime viewers*	693,000 people
Average total-day viewers*	469,000 people
Avg. primetime 25-54 viewers*	305,000 people
Avg. total-day 25-54 viewers*	223,000 people
Target audience	Adults 25-54 (female skew)

After looking into the target audience of the food network I found that they had a median viewer age of 48.6 years old. From this it is safe to conclude that the food aspect of lifestyle programming appeals to an older audience.

The target audience as suggested in the table is mostly female which is very conventional as stereotypically it’s the women who cooks and stays at home so is more likely to watch food related lifestyle programming. This indicates there is a gap in the market for a male audience.

In 2005 the channel began to try to appeal to a younger audience by introducing more shows with celebrity chefs and shows such as ‘Food Network Challenge’ with chefs competing in cooking competitions to continue broadening its reach. This suggests that to pull in a younger audience I will have to increase the entertainment factor linking to food if I choose them to be my target audience.

Front Cover Analysis

I am also opting to do the second print task for my coursework, which is to create a front page and at least two pages of a specialist magazine. In order to do this I think it’s important to research conventions of magazines similar to the one I aim to produce and how to appeal to a target audience.

Baking heaven is one of three magazines that Food Heaven produces. Food Heaven is the UK’s top selling baking and cake decorating magazine series. Launched in 2012, it brings together three quarterly magazines that perfectly capture the Great British Bake Off generation of modern, enthusiastic bakers: Baking Heaven, Cake Decoration Heaven and Cupcake Heaven.

They have an established target audience of females averaged 36 years old.

Baking Heaven uses a dominant central image for their magazine as a main attraction. There is only one page number on the whole of the front cover and that is the page number of the central image. This aids in the emphasis that the central image is the main attraction and is a convention of Baking Heaven magazine.

 At the bottom there are smaller images of some of the recipes that will feature in the magazine along with the name of them printed over the image. This is another convention the magazine follows, the smaller images are always linked by a feature that makes the issue special and unique and therefore is done to encourage people to buy it because it is new.

The food heaven logo is placed neatly in the corner to keep the immaculate look of the cover intact and to enforce the idea of brand identity as Baking Heaven is part of the Food Heaven brand.  The date is placed in a small font under the masthead as it looks visually appealing and professional.

The magazine follows a strict colour scheme. In the masthead the word ‘Baking’ is in red and evidently has been done to compliment the colour scheme of the central image which is a strong convention of food magazines. As you can see the red runs through on the whole of the cover, dominating it and making it stand out. This increases the attractiveness of the cover as it is bright therefore makes it more likely for the audience they aim the magazine at to buy it because it has a high standard of professionalism. This is important in order to keep the audience ‘loyal’ to the company.

The magazine follows the convention of having straplines of the main stories and features inside the magazine. This is important because when the reader looks at the cover they can instantly establish whether or not they would enjoy the content of the magazine and helps establish appeal quickly. The straplines again are colour coded to compliment the central image with the main stories in yellow as opposed to red or white. The top story ‘International Bakes’ in this case is written in capitals and in the largest font to emphasise the overall content of the magazine so the reader knows what the content is about overall before they start reading the magazine.

Baking Heaven have a unique selling point of using 101 recipes or 50 cake decorating projects in every issue which is always displayed clearly in a circle with a pretty border. This is likely to add extra appeal and help the magazine stand out in the market.