^{The purpose of idents.}

^{An ident is the short clip we usually see between TV shows, they only last a few seconds but tell us lots of information sometimes without us even realising. The main purpose of an ident is to make the target audience aware of the personality or nature of the channel; they do this by giving the viewer a clear insight into the channel through the way the ident is presented. The ident could be interpreted as a ‘snapshot’ into the channel’s personality.}

^{Idents are a key part of television, as they can influence the audiences that will end up viewing the channel and watching their programs. One ident that is a good example of targeting specific audiences is E4's. Simply by viewing the E4 ident we can instantly tell that it is aimed at a younger audience, we can see this through the way the small fun things are presented to us which would attract the younger audiences.}

<sup>This ident from E4 features very bright vivid colours, multiple sound effects, upbeat music and a bizarre situation which is fun and exciting to watch. Firstly, the dominant colour in the ident is purple, purple is E4’s main colour and is consistently found in all of its logo’s and ident’s, purple is a very unisex colour as it is a mixture of blue and red which is useful to attract a audience of both genders. The other main colour is green, which contrasts the purple causing them to both become much bolder and vivid. They are both very bright bold colours which are fun and exciting which will attract the younger fun seeking audiences. The upbeat music and strange yet fun sound effects also play a part in attracting young audiences, they are much more suited to the upbeat fast and playful lifestyle of the younger generations in comparison to people of the age 50+ and therefore is more likely to attract them to the channel and its programs. Additionally, the exciting situation of a normal living room being transformed into a strange green and purple swamp with trees sprouting from the ground and purple sheep walking around portrays an image that E4 is fun, exciting and you never know what crazy thing could happen next. All of these individual concepts put together create the E4 ident and show us a clear image of what their views and aims are, aswell as the target audience of their channel/programs. This is why idents are a very useful tool for channels to use as it can help them gain the target audience they desire, and in some cases idents can even be used to inform audiences. 

For instance, channels such as History HD use their idents to inform their older audiences on the timings of their programs and the days of the week and what will be playing as the channel is much more formal and informative rather than an entertainment led channel. The colours are a lot less vibrant consisting of mainly white yellow and red which are much more formal colours suited for an older audience. The overall composition of the ident is also very basic, with just a simple animation of the logo and some text. Telling the audience that this channel is information led rather than entertainment led.</sup>   

       

The design of idents

When designing an ident there are 6 main concepts to consider. The density of information, composition, space and time, tempo, the interaction with the audience and also if it is information or entertainment led.

The density of information is how much information  is given in the ident, some idents give lots of information such as times for shows etc whereas others are purely to attract audiences by looking fun and exciting. This also partially links to if the ident is information or entertainment led.

The composition is to do with how everything in the ident is composed, you have to consider how each of the visual elements work together in the ident to portray the meanings and aims you are trying to reach. The visual elements would be things such as the shots, any visual effects or CGI  as well as any text that may be in the frame. A good example of all visual elements working together would be Itv 1 HD. The shot of the sunflower field along with the Itv 1 HD logo and lens flares all works very well together as they create a subtle warmth within the frame which works well together and makes the overall look very enjoyable and easy to view with no bold harsh colours contrasting through. 

Space and time is when and where the ident is set. More informative idents would be set in a real life situation or something that would link to the channel, for example the ident of a history channel may have an ident set in the past. This is because they focus on more formal subjects and therefore must appear this way through their idents, whereas the more entertainment based idents would be set in a fantasy world which is fun and abstract such as E4's ident with the room turning into a swamp. The space and time is a key part of an ident because if the ident was set in the wrong place/time then the audience may be misled into the values of that particular channel and therefore they could lose viewers. 

The tempo is how fast the ident is. This alters depending on the mood and aims of the ident. For example a more informative ident is more likely to have a longer duration and a slower paced edit in comparison to an entertainment ident which is more likely to have a shorter duration and a much faster paced edit to suit the specific target audiences that the individual idents are trying to attract. This also works alongside other concepts of design such as density of information. A more informative ident is likely to have a slower pace and longer duration as there may be additional information in the ident which may take the viewer some time to process, if the ident has a fast paced edit and a shorter duration they may not see the key information that the ident is giving them. This alternatively works for entertainment led adverts, if the adverts is purely to attract the audience and not give information it needs to be much shorter and faster as you do not want it to drag out and bore the audience. 

Interaction with viewers is all about communication. This is about how information is presented and communicated to the viewers, depending on the channel and its aims, target audience etc, will influence the way in which the information is presented. It could be formal or informal, some channels with younger audience may present their information more visually than ones with an older target audience as they would want to communicate the fact that they are enjoyable and fun to watch. Whereas channels with an older target audience would be more likely to present information in a more formal way such as having text displaying times of shows etc. 

And finally, if the ident is information or entertainment led. This is decided by the aims of the channel and its target audience, if it is trying to provide information it will be information led, an example of this would be BBC Parliament, which gives information on the timings of events. whereas other idents which are simply there to attract and entertain their audience would be entertainment led, an example of this would be Film 4 as their idents mainly display action scenes to entertain and attract their audiences.

The BBC One ident (composition)

This is one of many BBC One idents. This is a very good example for the composition of the idents, all of the visual elements work well together giving the ident a very clean sense of flow. The fluent movements of the space robot along with the rotating red lines work very well together as they are both very slow and consistent. The colours of the darker blue space environment also contrasts the rotating red shapes which compliment each other and make everything much bolder and distinctive. This makes the ident much easier and more pleasant to view as well as making it look very professional which helps promote the channel and its programs as it portrays an image of the channel caring and putting time. effort and money into what they do attracting more viewers. 

The ITV 1 ident (space and time)

This is an ITV 1 ident, this ident is a good example of space and time. At first the location appears to be a normal street at night, which suggests that ITV 1 is more of a formal channel but when the yellow liquids burst through the surface of the roads and form multiple fountains we soon gather that actually ITV 1 is not as formal as it initially appears and that it can be rather entertaining because it has changed an ordinary environment into something unexpected and unusual. Also from the location being set at night it could suggest that there is almost two sides to ITV 1, during the day there could be more formal channels but then after the watershed it may display more comical programs that are unexpected and bizarre. 

The Discovery Knowledge ident (density of information) 

This is the Discovery Knowledge ident, in this ident we can gain a clear understanding in the density of information. Throughout this ident there is lots of tiny little interesting facts; which are constantly being presented to the viewer. The pieces of information fill up the landscape almost like an overlay of a 3D blueprint and because of the high amount of information in such a small amount of time/space this ident has a high information density. The way the information is presented as part of the environment makes the information more subtle  This is crucial for a channel such as Discovery Knowledge as it is an informative channel and therefore the ident needs to represent that to attract the target audience.

The FX ident (Interaction with audience)

The FX ident communicates it’s information very visually, there is no bold titles telling us any information yet simply from the visual effects, scene and props such as the ‘crime scene do not enter’ banner, and the traditional body outline on the ground. We as an audience gain a clear understanding that the channel and some of its programs will have some involvement in crime dramas which can be both entertaining and informative to watch. On the other hand some idents such as BBC Parliament features much more information in a text format, such as what's on and program timings. This is more appropriate to the channel as it is more of a formal channel with programs based on more serious topics and therefore requires a more informative and formal ident which needs to be clearly communicated to its target audience. 

The Film 4 ident (tempo)

The Film 4 ident has a very slow tempo to it, the majority of the ident is in slow motion which creates a sense of tension, this suggests that Film 4 is a very dramatic channel that likes to build up tension to give a dramatic conclusion. Also the clip in the ident is a very almost stereotypical scene of an action film, with a character running away from a location which the explodes as the character dives through the air which could also suggest that Film 4 will display many classic movies of multiple genres for everybody to enjoy. In contrast the BBC Three ident has a much faster pace, this suggests that although the channel is still an entertainment based channel it is more of an upbeat fun channel in comparison to a more dramatic tension building movie channel.

The  History HD ident (Information or entertainment led)

History HD has an information led ident, this ident is designed to inform the target audience about program timings for days of the week which is more appropriate to this channel as it is a very factual channel with informative programs so the ident has to represent this aspect of the channel. This is why there is not many complicated things happening in the ident In comparison some idents are entertainment led such as that of Channel 4. In which the parts of the environment all align to form the Channel 4 logo and no real information about program timings etc is given to us.