This document discusses various limitations that graphic designers must consider when creating television idents. Some key limitations mentioned are screen tempo, readability of complex fonts, number of colors used, aspect ratio, adherence to the channel's tone, and time constraints of typically being 20-30 seconds. While these pose limitations, the document also notes they can provide clear guidelines for designers and make the job easier, such as sticking to a channel's established colors or fonts. Overall, the limitations help ensure idents clearly and briefly communicate their intended messages to viewers.

1. It is important to note that, with the limitations of typography and
graphics, a graphic designer is limited by the tempo and how much a
person can take in. For example: complex and curly fonts can be
difficult to read on a screen, especially if the screen tempo is very
quick and the fonts and graphics are not on the screen for a very long
time. This would therefore be a limitation because the audience
would not be able to take in all the information that the ident is
trying to communicate with the audience.
For example channel 4 uses only the number 4 in their idents, it
takes a while for the number 4 appears on the screen. It’s very clear
that it’s going to be a number 4 but also not too distracting so the
voice over can get the message across about the next show.
Being limited to a channels regular font or clear typography can also
be a positive for ident designers. This will make an ident designers
job a lot easier as they will not have to come up with an effective
font instead they can stick to what the channel has come up with
before.
Colour can also be considered a limitation because having lots of
colours or patterns on one screen can distract from what the ident is
trying to communicate and its overall message, which would
therefore make the information hard to process and this therefore
means that the ident will not have as much of an impact as it would
if it only had a few stand-out colours and patterns in it. All of which
can be seen as limitations for a graphic designer when creating a
television ident. In some cases the designers will have to think about
using particular colours that represent the channel or TV show. For
example BBC 2 idents often use greens and blues in their idents as
their logo for the channel is teal. This can make the designer’s job a
lot easier as most channels will have one main colour that the ident
designer will have to stick to and base the ident around.

2. Ident designers must consider aspect ratio, they don’t want the ident
to look distorted or appear off screen at any time. They need to make
sure nothing is too hard to read in the ident especially as some
people have different sized televisions making the picture on screen
look stretched or pixilated.
We can see in this BBC 2 ident the number 2 is shown very clearly
as the camera zooms out. In the last shot the number 2 is clearly in
the middle of the screen, we can see from the aspect ratio on the TV
sizes above the 2 would appear clearly on any of the TV sizes. This
can make an ident designers job a lot easier as they will not have to
think as much about what’s going on in the sides and will have to
simply base the main logos in the middle of screen.

3. Having to adhere to the channels desired tone could be another
limitation when creating an ident. For example if an ident was before
the news the ident would have to speak in a formal tone whereas if it
was before a TV drama the tone would be less professional. Also for
local and regional channels or TV shows they may use the local
accent in the ident. However the adhering to a channels tone doesn’t
just include the voice over the ident must relate to the style of the
channel. For example E4 uses a lot of random objects which relates
to its wide range of TV shows and also that the shows are not too
serious more reality TV and comedy. This can also be a positive for
an ident designer as they will base their ident on what the channel
does, what kind of shows they show and what idents they have made
before.

4. The average TV ident will be between 20 to 30 seconds long so
designers are limited to short and simple ideas. Most idents use only
one setting and some will only use one shot. If an ident is too short
the voice over will not be able to tell you what shows on next and its
likely that the ident will not portray the channel as well as they could
have in terms of their mission statement. If an ident is too long the
audience will get bored and message the channel was trying to give
can seem dragged out. For example this BBC one ident uses slow
motion shots of some people surfing. The ident is interesting and
keeps the audience entertained but the slow motion and the cut to
under water makes it not too exciting or fast pace so you can listen
to what the voice over is saying. The short style of TV idents can
also be a good thing for ident designers as they don’t have to think
of a story line or anything like that as they don’t have the time for
anything that complex.