Branding, icons, web and broadcast design for Houyhnhnms.tv (internet broadcasting)
client Arroba Networks, Spain {2007}
This was a beautiful project using the internet as a broadcast medium, and which focussed on art films, short films and film festivals, for creators or a general audience. The project created a kind of film archive that was continually added to and updated permanently by users, allowing the public to vote, rank or select films. It was an interesting concept by Joan Jimenez with the support and development from Arroba Networks and Tea Time Studio (on art direction and design).
All the icons and sign illustrations were created using the logo type face forms.
http://www.houyhnhnms.tv
Case Study:
The main idea of the project was to make it simple and easy to look at using a digital platform and aesthetic not attached to the trends. Specifically, it needed to be timeless since internet projects are very used to quickly being out of date as technology changes rapidly. This is why we found that it would be a good idea to use somehow the ASCII typical images as an inspiration for the branding and for the creation of the icons used in the project.
ASCII images, mood board for the project.
From this point, the old logo was redesigned and updated with the Helvetica type face, maybe the most timeless font that is universally used for signs for example.
One of the big problems was the brand name, so the use of the orange "H" letter visually cut the brand in two and allowed us to use the short name Houy, or simply "h.tv" to make it friendlier and also more easy to use in the different digital platforms (website, broadcast and promo elements such as T-shirts).
Here is the logo with some variations.
And some motto or legend designs for the users to add to their websites, and the company to use in their emails as signatures, with the phonetical resource in which you read "winner".
Then the icons designed for Houyhnhnms, using the type forms of Helvetica mixed with the Ascii concept. All the icons were made exclusively using the forms of the original type face to make them a visual part of the branding family, and also simply to use in a very, very small size, for example the broadcast video player, etc.
Company Website
This is the website, where you can sign up (if you have an invitation), read more about the project, etc....
It has a very similar structure to the one used later in the Broadcast website, but here the branding has a bigger presence in terms of colours since its focus here is on new users and potential sponsors.
Broadcast website
Broadcast design and architecture for Houyhnhnms.tv was made to be user friendly, very simple to understand, and with reminiscences to other video players such as the basic Quicktime Player and with some functions already learned in other community platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Friendster, Facebook, etc.
The interesting concept of this particular project and video community is that you can rank the videos and the software generates an automatic ranking, so the films with the highest number of votes receive increased exposure, whilst the films without any votes simply disappear from the database. This somehow creates a competitive spirit between the users that worked very well, specially with video and film festivals and competitions (the main sponsors of the project), and of course it is a great platform for new artists to be exposed to many curators and festivals.
