Introduction:
There are more than 7200 television channels broadcast in europe alone, and a further 1400 available. World wide the estimated number of existing channels ranges from 15000 into the 'millions'. This drives a need for each station or network to step out from the crowd and draw in an audience already buried under a deluge of media. Creative brilliance is therefore a requirement of channel design, program packaging, promotion clips, and advertising concepts.
In comparison to the disciplines of "classic" design the area between contemporary film and television design occupies a gap in the publishing market. Few literary resources are dedicated to the subject and those that are tend towards specific individuals who are of great influence but do not represent a fair cross section of the industry.
This lack of literature is understandable when the age of the industry is taken into consideration. Television broadcast began in the 1930s with John Logie Baird's transmission from the Epsom Derby. Motion graphic design began it's popularity in the 1950s with title sequences by Saul Bass. Finally broadcast design took hold in the 1980s with Channel 4's Ident by Lambie-Nairn giving the discipline only 3 decades to develop. In comparison, the cinema is almost a century older and yet Film Studies after nearly 40 years of development as a subject is still a fragile one. So much so that in 2002 an essay by Lisa Cartwright, a tutor of film studies at the University of Rochester, was published in The Visual Culture Reader (Mirzoeff (2002)) discussing the vagueness of the subject and even questions it's title. Broadcast design, therefor, is still in it's youth. Free of constraining traditions it is a fast paced industry demanding equally quick development of high quality work. In this age of networking, trends flare with unbelievable speed giving rise to constantly fresh and new concepts where anything goes and nothing is taboo. Specialised channels are targeting increasingly defined markets generating an abundance of artistic directions, even the most mundane subjects are presented in an engaging and entertaining manner. "TV Design is creation at the highest level" (Bartholdy (Showreel.01))
This study looks to facilitate an understanding of motion graphics within broadcast media and to construct an initial set of creative guidelines to help guide the creative process of any motion designer. To do this, research has been conducted and presented in three areas: past, present and future (see Appendix C for an explanation of the aims and objectives). With very little in the way of history, the 'past' chapter will focus on a condensed introduction to the disciplines from which motion graphics has grown: graphic design, animation and film. The 'present' chapter shall address the studios of today and form a proposal for creative guidelines. Examples of broadcast design will form a solid understanding of the productions and their development. With this introductory understanding of the industry the final 'future' chapter shall look to a prediction of possible advances or changes the motion designer is likely to face in the coming years.
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