Trollback for ESPNEWS and TMN

Posted by Bran Dougherty-Johnson

Broadcast design doesn’t often get covered over here. That may be because it’s usually a wasteland of overly-beveled rotating type on busy backgrounds, or … (well I’ll leave it up to you). But if anyone’s doing nicely-designed and well-thought out broadcast packages, it’s NYC-based Trollbäck. They recently unveiled full branding packages of ESPNEWS and six channels of Canada’s The Movie Network.

The Movie Network is utterly simple and elegant. Taking it’s main navigational element from the film frame of TMN’s logo, they’ve created a very limited, but fully functional system for displaying information and also differentiating between the various channels.

ESPNEWS is a bit busier, but for a sports and news channel it’s pretty restrained. Trollbäck still managed to keep the combination of live-action, light streaks, symbols and statistics very graphic and abstract. They’ve boiled the elements down to their essentials, paring away what’s not necessary. That’s pretty smart.

12 Comments

MHR

You’re spot on with this post, Justin. In this age of overworked, flashy graphics, Trollback is the epitome of the reserved (and thus, highbrow) mograph artisan in the community. And that’s refreshing.

I really wish he was coming back to Inspire this year. His poetry-intro in ’07 really left a mark… I’d definitely get them coffee every morning.

MHR

Sorry…

*brandj

monovich

Wonderful work. The ESPN has some great moments but the Movie Network is so great all around. I love how they give winks and nods to cinematic cliches but do it in a clever way.

Jurriaan

Thats some really slick stuff. The movie network is just tight. This is design whitout addons to make it look cool. Its cool on its own.

Douglas

TheMovieNetwork package is so nice. Great work! The ESPN package has a strange video feeling like it was rendered at 60 w/fields. I’m sure it was done on purpose, but then that one football helmet shot in the middle looks like it’s back at 30fps… strange.

MilkmanD

“Broadcast design doesn’t often get covered over here”? I thought 75% or more of everything in here is broadcast to TV, Cable and Satellite and into our homes…. and I also don’t think that it’s a wasteland of “sh*t” There’s tons of great smart/work out there….the proof is to the left hand side under Cream my crop.

Love the Trollback stuff!

najork

It’s funny that “that strange feeling” of watching something at 60fps carries the association of lower quality, like teevee news or video games. And the pinnacle of perceived quality is film’s measly 24fps.

jasonk

that’s the strangest thing. it _is_ playing back at 60fps.

zeniamai

pretty slick… Both of em.. I would have to agree that the ESPN has this strange feeling… The video was dramatic in its own way, but the music was like, what?!

milkshake

ESPNews broadcasts their HD feed at 59.94fps progressive. Apparently it’s becoming a trend with sports since it gives a hyper-real feeling of almost being there live. The graphics are therefore at 59.94 to match the rest of the programming. The tricky part was converting 24fps film footage to 60fps without it feeling stuttery.

justin

@MilkmanD: ““Broadcast design doesn’t often get covered over here”? I thought 75% or more of everything in here is broadcast to TV, Cable and Satellite and into our homes”

The term “broadcast design” usually refers to motion graphics created for television networks and their programs. Most of the work covered on Motionographer is commercial and/or web-based. While it’s technically “broadcasted” to our homes, it’s not “broadcast design” in the traditional sense of the term.

MilkmanD

oh thanx 4 the skooling. I thought it wuz like fishing… a well designed broad cast out into the lake. I wuz way off.

Comments are closed.