Understanding the limitations of the television ident

Aliyah Ryan

Understanding the limitations of the television ident:

When creating Idents, there can be limitations when it comes to designing idents. One of these limitations when it comes to creating I ident are they typography they use. A limitation with the font is that if a TV channel uses swirly font with their ident, not all fonts will translate properly this could then cause the typography to appear broken up or pixilated. This could cause the audiences to not be able to read the text, as the font being used is difficult to read and not be able to take in all the information that is being displayed on their screen because of this.

Also much wording on the screen can cause visual problems as people might not be able to read it if the wording on the screen is moving at a fast pace.

Colours can also cause many limitations when It comes to making idents and there a many reason for it. Colour is a main issue when it comes to idents because having too much colour within the ident can cause the audience/viewers to get directed and would not be able to concentrate or acknowledge the information o what the TV dent is about and it is telling them, or what the TV ident is informing them whether is it telling the audience about shows that are coming on later of advertising shows that will be coming soon to the TV programme.

Another issue with colour is the use of bright vibrant colours being showed at a fast pace can cause people in the audience to suffer from epilepsy. This is a limitation as this could cause harm to the viewers/audience if they watch the ident they not been told through a disclaimer that the ident they are about to watch contains bright flashy images/ colour which could cause epilepsy.

Aliyah Ryan

A main limitation when it comes to using colour with idents is colour association. Some TV channels have colour themes that are associated with their brand. For example BBC One and BBC Three both have different colour associates, BBC Ones colour theme is red and BBC Three colour theme is Pink. If other TV channels use the same colour themes as other channels some viewer/audiences may get confused as they might feel as though they are watching a channel such as the BBC Three but are watching another channel that uses the same colour theme pink. Here is an example iof this through these two visuals:

TV channels have to be very carful when it comes to picking the colours for their idents as not everyone has colour TV; this limits the TV channel as they may not be able to get across their message of the ident. By choosing bold plain colours this would make their ident look more consistent. Another problem of the colours being used in ident’s is that some of the viewers/audience may suffer from colour blindness or colour vision problems; this is when some people have trouble seeing colours such as red, green and blue.

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Aspects – ration (the dimensions required to fit a TV screen) could be a problem with channels broadcasting their shows, this is because some people have different types of TV’s; some people have bigger and wider screen TV’s which may show the full aspect on the ident that is being displayed on the screen where as some people may have smaller inch TV where some of the ident that is being displayed may be cut off due to the smaller screens or be distorted. The visuals bellow demonstrate the different of the aspects-ratio when viewing shows on different types of wide screen TV’s.

Adhering to a desired tone can be a problem when It comes to idents, this is because If the viewers find the tone of the narrators voice annoying or irritating they may not watch they companies ident’s or watch their shows at all; this could cause the company of the channel to loses rating as people are not watching the program because of this.

Aliyah Ryan

Programs ident’s need to reflect the feeling of their tones, for example BBC Two have a more serious genre to their channel compared to E4, which have a funny tone throughout their ident’s because the genre of their channel is funny. This can be a limitation because if the tones of the program do not match the ident’s it could cause the viewers to be confused.

Duration:TV ident’s are normally 10-20 seconds; this could be a limitation because the information that is shown can be very limited as there is not enough time for the viewers/audience to read it all. Another limitation with this is that the channel cant not go into great detail when in comes to telling the viewers information, for example if a channel is launching a new program they might not be able to get all the information they would want because the ident’s are so short. As you can see from the visual bellow the BBC made their information statement very short and simply as well as clear so the audience is able to understand what is happening.

Aliyah Ryan

Some ident’s have different durations depending on what their ident’s about, for example if a channel were making a special seasonal ident they would expand the duration of the ident because the ident’s they have created is special and is not in often.

With television ident’s they are not always negative limitations there are also positive limitations when it comes to making them. A positive limitation when it comes to the typography on an ident is the font that can be used, although the TV channels are limited with the fonts they can choose, this is positive as they can pick a range of simple font types and would not have to stress about making the font creative and original.

Colour is positive limitation as they have guidelines to help them with what type of colours they should use. By

Aliyah Ryan

not using too much colour the audience would be able to recognise the channel because of their main colour, by using a consistent colour the audience will be able to link that colour with that channel.

A positive limitation of aspect ratio is that TV companies have to hire other companies to fix their ident’s, this is because different people have different variations of TV’s. Broadcasters can charge more as they are creating ident’s to fit different screens and be different sizes, as they need to be shown on different types of devices such as apple and android devices, laptops, TV’s and computers.

Adhering tone is very important, as the audience would be able to connect with the tone. From the tone they would be able to know what the program is about and the channel is about, For example BBC Two may use a may serious toe within their ident because they channel is suited towards a more mature audience in contrast to BBC One who target audience is family and would use more of a mfamily friendly soft tone. The duration of an ident can also be a positive limitation as they company of a channel might change the duration of their ident’s that would be shown through out the day. For example the BBC have an ident of a hippo, at different times of they day they show the full length of the ident or sometimes show shorter clips of an ident. An example of this in the visuals bellow:

Aliyah Ryan

Sources:http://phoebeseston.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/limittations/http://detimination.wordpress.com/kerry-western-tv-idents/tv-idents-task-2-1-limitations/tv-ident-task-2-1-limitations/http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/tc/color-blindness-topic-overviewhttp://naomibillington.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/opportunities-limitations-of-tv-idents/http://jasminjohntvidents.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/historical-context-of-tv-idents/