*this is a call for cooperative participation in collecting tv design work from the 1980s until today. The main goal of this is to prevent all that good stuff from getting lost in the digital void and to make it accessible for young generations of screen designers.
The idea of sampling and publishing a collection of tv design work from the mid-80s, when we all faced the beginning of digital graphics, until today in our all-encompassing digital life has been on my mind for a long time. With an upcoming sabbatical I now have the opportunity to start making this a reality, but I can't and won't do it without you.
You all have done outstanding work in the field. So – if you feel similar about wondering where it all went and are interested in seeing it published, I am asking you now to join into a cooperative effort to create a compendium of great "historic" tv design material. You started out contributing to the broadcast industry as a creative individual during that time and were/are part in the competition of the delivery of new images, videos, sound and outstanding creative ideas. You may ask yourself a similar question as I do: "...where did or does all that work go in the end?" Yes, some of it might still be sitting in the back rows of our shelves, on outdated vcr tapes, other great work may have its only place in our memory. This is about to change. I am asking you to go digging.
*visualizing constant change in tv design – tell your story
We all are aware of how many stations or channels changed and thrived due to a new design image while others died or were merged with other stations due to diverse circumstances. We all met year by year at the BDA conferences, which in the earlier years – until the mid-90s – happened only once a year in the US and there we always enjoyed a sparkling review of amazing work and conversations, made friends for life and what not. And do you remember Michael Eisner's enthusiastic prediction during his keynote speech at the Orlando/FL conference in 1993 of the soon-to-come 500 (and more) tv channels ? This made a huge impression on me, in spite of - at the time - I thought this guy seemed to be quite a bit "out there..." in Disneyland. Well, whatever my little understanding then made me ponder way back then – we all set out to work on exactly what he had predicted and created audiovisual corporate designs for those new stations all over the world. Each year brought along new ideas and created new trends in how to represent the latest design hype on screen for new tv stations and channels.
*We have stories to tell.
How did you happen to be in that business? Remember where you came from, what you set out to do and where your adventure led you to? Addressing these individual whereabouts – simply telling about our sometimes unusual career paths already could be thrilling and inspiring young ones to go for it... Many of us collected awards which are most probably still sitting on some office shelves... collecting dust? Our VHS tapes with the awarded clips from then will hardly play on any of our present devices and from some of you I heard that they already eliminated their digital tapes.
*stop that for a moment!
So much has happened during those years – some of us are still in the business, others (like me) went into universities, helping the youngsters to grow into this meanwhile completely digital world and others are done with their working career, enjoying their retirement – creatively, of course ;). With tv now merging into the internet, using social media and is presented through other new and unprecedented communication tools, the permanent change of looks, needs and strategies for tv design, branding and marketing is open again for the next big adventure. To me it feels as if the present time is marking the end of one era and the next big change in our kind of work - happening as I write this. So – it's time to look at where we came from and appreciate it together now.
My dream is to turn all of this into a cooperatively written, edited and printed publication from where QR codes lead to the creative work that you hopefully will be able to dig up and are ready to share.
My side dream is to manage to store all the good stuff you bring to the table on a database which I hope can be installed at our university.
*one last word
Still - you may think: ”…why publish all of this in a book when there is the web and everything could be uploaded at ease?"
Reason 1: The general lack of literature on the topic. The reality I perceive during literature search for my lectures: there is very little valuable written and printed stuff on tv design out there. Douglas Merritt's book on tv graphics from 1983, Martin Lambie-Nairn's wonderful book on branding television from 1997 and two later studies of German and Austrian broadcast design from 2012 - black and white print without pictures or illustrations is all I find relevant. Oh yes, there is this one great collection of work in "Type in Motion”, put together 1999 by Jeff Bellantoni und Matt Woolman and there are some interesting articles in the web.
Reason 2: The disappearance of digital data. Today a book represents more value than any contemporary online publication which you now may find awesome and bookmark in your favourites, but soon forget. A book has its place in your life, on your shelf and in libraries and endure many more years than a website.
Reason 3: The younger generations. Students of media design like the ones I teach who want to explore the field of design in television with true material can't find more than those few valuable books mentioned above and digital data are spread out on too many internet channels under too many key words – very confusing.
Said enough.
Now you think about it and share your thoughts here for each one invited to this blog to read, comment and re-comment and exchange. Then we will find out together how we can pursue this best. I have some ideas but first want to hear what you all, whose first reactions were utterly positive, think and share. Feel free to share this link to others who might be interested!
*thank you in advance!
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