[CGnews]

Troika Design Group, a strategic design and branding agency, has created a new on-air identity for Great American Country, E.W. Scripps’ 24-hour country music video network.

The new look comprises a redesigned logo, IDs, bumpers, promo toolkits for day and nighttime programming, billboards, and a music package with signature mnemonic. Troika handled everything from concept, design, and animation for the rebrand, which is centered on the visual theme “Modern Tradition.�

“Troika is familiar with how to market a country music brand and has worked with other Scripps properties such as HGTV, Food Network, and Fine Living, so I knew the company had the corporate sensibility and know-how to strategically and creatively market GAC,� said music network veteran and repeat Troika client Stacey Killian Hagewood, VP of Client Services, Great American Country.

The GAC redesign takes inspiration from the colorful patchwork look of quilts and the rugged feel of honky-tonk bar signage. Titles, live-action footage provided by the network, graphics of western iconography (cowboy boots, mandolins, Gibson guitars, bulls), and Troika-shot still photography are layered together, along with peeling paint textures and stencil lettering effects that are incorporated to add a vintage and organic feel. Troika also delivered a toolkit of elements comprising still photography of instruments, Americana mattes, and paint textures, for GAC to use in future branding efforts, as well as two music packages—a light acoustic one for day, and a harder honkey-tonk one for night.

Work on the GAC rebrand started in Summer 2005, when Troika assisted in a series of focus groups. Troika discovered that the differentiating factor between GAC and its main competitor was the perception that GAC’s shows, which range from the “Grand Ole Opry� to alternative country program “Edge of Country,� were more purely focused on music and music videos. Feedback also pointed to two distinct kinds of country fans—“traditional� listeners of artists like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, and “progressive� listeners, who like Shania Twain and other contemporary artists.

Said Dan Pappalardo, Executive Creative Director , Troika, “We wanted to highlight the network’s dedication to music while speaking to both kinds of country fans. Our solution addressed all mandates. Modern Tradition, to us, meant embracing traditional iconography within a fresh aesthetic. For GAC, this was realized by combining musical instruments, cowboy icons and weathered textures with clean layouts, unusual juxtapositions and vibrant, unexpected colors. We didn’t want to run away from the expected. We wanted to have fun with it.�

Adds Reid Thompson, Troika’s lead creative on the GAC project, “We aimed for something unpretentious and authentic—like you could get a splinter from it.�

About Troika Design Group
Troika is a multidisciplinary, award-winning design company in Hollywood consisting of more than 20 designers, producers, animators, editors and conceptual thinkers who specialize in network branding, promotional and advertising campaigns and show packaging. Established in the spring of 2001 by industry leaders Dan Pappalardo, Mark Bohman and Chuck Carey, Troika has emerged as one of the premier providers of strategic design and creative production for television . Troika works closely with television and cable networks including Fox, ABC, E! Entertainment, UPN, Food Network, ESPN, Comedy Central, HGTV, Fine Living, Style and VH1. For more information, please visit http://www.troika.tv or call Robert Blatchford at 323.965.1650.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Production company: Troika Design Group/Los Angeles, CA
Executive Creative Director : Dan Pappalardo
Creative Director /Designer: Reid Thompson
Designer: Heather Kim
Executive Producer: Holly Eddy
Associate Producer: Jessica Ferguson
Lead Animator: Mark McConnell
Animators: Craig Stouffer, Jim McDaniels
Logo Designer: Daniel Garcia
Design Assistant: Hema Mulchandani
Editor: Tim Samuel
Composer: Rob Cairns