T3 - Understanding the design of a suite of television idents

What is a suite of idents?

A Suite of idents are a collection of several idents that are all linked by some theme. This provides a variety of idents to choose from and makes it more interstin for the audience to watch. As well as maintain the channels theme or create a new brand identity in the case of a new channel.



Time and place

Having this variety of idents to choose from ensures the right type of ident appears next to the right program content, for example, a positive ident wouldn't be appropriate next to something such as "The Godfather". It is also useful to have different idents for different times of the day.





Re-branding a channel

New ident suites can help to rebrand a channel and change the image affiliated with this channel. This has happened recently with more4, who have changed from a mature channel with documentaries  to a more open ended channel.




 These 3 idents are part of the same suite for BBC1, and all use the theme of circles. They don't really appeal to a specific audience, unless its appealing to circle enthusiasts. They aren't aimed at a specific time of day but may be used before certain programmes, such as the hippo ident would be used before a documentary,  and the footballers before a sporty program. They're intended to be used throughout the year, and convey no particular message about the channel.

The 3 idents used the theme of circles in different ways, the 2 lower ones use live action, whereas the hippos are likely more CGI than entirely live action.