BIRD Design, a strategic creative consultancy based in Hollywood, CA, collaborated to create a rebrand on behalf of the multi-platform network, FEARnet, across all media. As a result, BIRD Design contributed to the win of a 2010 CableFaxie Award in the category “Best Advertising Campaign for a Network.” BIRD Design’s co-founders Peter King Robbins and Tabitha De La Torre made the announcement.
The company’s contributions to the FEARnet rebrand have also resulted in two Promax/BDA Award Finalist Nominations for 2010. These are in the categories of “Total Package Design: Network/Channel, Image On-Air,” and “Best Logo: FEARnet Blood Splat.”
Eric Shiu, FEARnet’s Head of Marketing, engaged BIRD Design for this project. He said, "We asked BIRD to ‘re-fresh’ the network in a sophisticated and nuanced way—avoiding the expected, while clearly communicating fear in all its forms: Horror, Thriller, and Suspense. Achieving this allows FEARnet to speak directly to its core audience in an authentic way, while extending its appeal to a broader audience, and by delivering the full value of the network."
BIRD Design developed the strategic thinking behind the rebrand, including the development of the new FEARnet logo design, typographical treatments, color studies, imagery, and a brand style guide. Based on FEARnet’s recommendation, and their excellent track record, Los Angeles based animation house Buster was selected by BIRD Design to create 3D motion graphics and animation, comprising a full, on-air graphics package, along with a series of network promotional IDs.
Peter King Robbins, Chief Creative Officer at BIRD Design, said, “Delivering on FEARnet’s key brand promise—’The movie network that owns fear’—the brand refresh needed to straddle these worlds by being true to both claims. It was about horror, thrills, and suspense and the feeling of fear that this film genre creates in viewers. The FEARnet movies are provocative, the feelings are real, and the presentation is authentic without being cliché. As in many of the best films that make up the genre, we played on the minds of viewers in this rebrand and hinted at the sinister things to come.”
Adds Robbins, “Our work on the FEARnet rebrand was all brought to life through our use of dimensional typography and stark black and white landscapes. We developed a unique type design that employed a distressed texture and filled in knockouts in some of the letter forms, and we created a rich library of visual elements that ranged from duct tape to a signature ‘viscera,’ all of which worked to bring the horror genre to a new level in the FEARnet brand.”
“After developing the creative thinking, strategy, and storyboarding for FEARnet’s rebrand, we were excited to team up with Buster for the animation. By combining our natural strengths in strategy, art direction, motion graphics, print, and out-of-home media, we were really able to create an amazing look and feel for the network. We love collaborations on large-scale projects like this one because it creates a real synergy between the agencies involved," added Tabitha De La Torre, President of BIRD Design.
ABOUT THE CABLEFAXIE AWARDS
The CableFAX awards provide cable professionals the opportunity to showcase their best programs, initiatives and people. The awards are matched with an event and either a special issue of CableFAX: The Magazine, or CableFAX Daily. The CableFAXIES salute the year’s most outstanding communications initiatives and programs in the highly competitive and dynamic Cable arena. The coveted awards set the industry benchmark for excellence across all areas of PR and Marketing. The winners of the 2010 CableFAXIES Awards took chances, made tremendous strides, and understand the power of PR and marketing in the cable industry. For more info, please see: http://www.cablefax.com/cfp/awards/
About the PromaxBDA Awards
The PromaxBDA Awards is the only competition dedicated to recognizing excellence in Marketing, Design and Creative content in the entertainment industry. With thousands of entries each year, the competition is stiff. But if your work is strong enough to bring home a Muse, you’ll understand why the PromaxBDA Awards are the industry standard for excellence. See:
www.promaxbda.org
ABOUT FEARNET
FEARnet, the world’s premier destination for horror, thriller and suspense, is a cutting-edge, multi-platform movie network available on demand, online, and on mobile, 24/7. Its unrivaled modern horror library unites Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) (NASDAQ: CMCSK), the nation’s leader provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, along with Sony Pictures Television (SPT: US), and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the two top studios producing and distributing entertainment of this genre.
FEARnet On Demand has generated over 365 MM views, is the # 1 rated Comcast Free Movie VOD network and the # 1 free HD network, and is also available on Comcast, Cox Communications, Verizon FiOS and AT&T (mobile.fearnet.com), Insight Communications, Bresnan and Guadalupe Valley Systems. The destination http://www.fearnet.com is the # 1 horror website.
PC Magazine recently named FEARnet.com among “The 15 Best Websites for Movie Fans.” Users can explore the world of the macabre on a visually arresting, video-rich environment, packed with movies, interactive community features, and fresh, original content.
ABOUT BIRD DESIGN
Conceived in 1990 as a collaboration between Peter King Robbins and Tabitha De La Torre, BIRD Design is a full service strategic branding agency based in Hollywood, CA. Serving the entertainment and consumer products industries, BIRD Design delivers strategic thinking and potent creative necessary to build powerful brands and market leadership. The company’s primary goal is to help clients transcend ingrained patterns and arrive at new, actionable insights that can be executed consistently and powerfully in all media.
BIRD Design has a track record of delivering rebrands and strategic creative thinking for such high profile clients as Flip Video™, Cisco Systems, Inc.,
E! Entertainment Television, OLN (Outdoor Life Network), Versus, FEARnet, Oxygen, Wise Brother Media, G4, Focus Features, and many others. BIRD Design is the winner of multiple awards in design and marketing.
BIRD Design is located at 7039 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028. The phone is 323/962-4908, and the web is www.birddesign.com.
