Understanding the limitations of the television ident
1. 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 allfonts 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 TVident 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
2. Aliyah Ryan
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.
A main limitation when it comes to using colour with identsis
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
3. Aliyah Ryan
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.
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.
4. Aliyah Ryan
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 thecompany of the channel to loses rating as people
are not watching the program because of this.
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.
5. 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
theident because the ident’s they have created is special
and is not in often.
6. Aliyah Ryan
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 anident 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 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 anident of a hippo, at
different times of they day they show the full length of the
ident or sometimes show shorter clips of anident. An example
of this in the visuals bellow:
