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The influence the ZDF Germany Network redesign project had on my career is immeasurable. I finished it with enhanced skills and knowledge, but more importantly, I grew in maturity. The friendships, laughter, and personal growth outweighed the hours, efforts, and heart we put into this project.

Our IDs, opens, guidelines, and toolkits stood strong for a total of 10 years on air!

The team, stationed in Frankfurt, designed, produced, and created the ZDF redesign. Frankfurt was a short distance from the client’s campus in Mainz. Each day, we parked ourselves at Das Werk, working hard and applying our expertise to the project.

We collaborated with Neue Sentimental Films for our live-action and special effects. This production took us to Berlin to shoot, using the city’s background and landscape as our backdrop, and to Munich for the transfer and color correction of our footage.

During our long stay in Germany, I spent several months working with editors and producers creating a network promotional toolkit. Early were the days when HD was coming to light first in Europe long before the US. We shot and created every element 4:3 AND 16:9. To accomplish this on set we put black tape on monitors to ensure we had every element correctly in frame. 

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This also meant double the work on toolkits. The ZDF umbrella marketing strategy, along with each genre—entertainment, sports, and news—had its own set of IDs and toolkits. We had to carefully think through how these elements were to be used, ensuring that every scenario was worked out to a tee. Font choices, key elements, and user execution and conversion between PAL and HD were all part of our big-picture thinking while creating this toolkit and style guides. The ZDF orange was also a significant undertaking that I took on, ensuring it stayed true to the brand while addressing the technical challenges we faced during execution.

RUSH HOUR

Here we meet Flint. Flint is just your everyday working pup, RUSHING home to settle in and watch his favorite block of programming on ZDF. Shot on location in Berlin, Flint and his trainer worked very hard to create this ID. Flint even had to take a nap before we could shoot his apartment scenes.

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WINDOWS is very conceptual. Shot on location in Berlin, we see the sky beginning to darken and lights turning on at home, representing the timeframe for this block of programming. This idea is both conceptual and simple in thought and execution. The young talent was added by the client, and we even reintroduced Flint! However, the simplicity of this concept effectively conveys the message and serves as a strong ID for ZDF.

 

COMEDY

The insanity, the confusion, and the quick-thinking attributes of comedy play out as our letters share their journey across Berlin, where we coincidentally find red backgrounds and elements for ZDF’s entertainment bucket. Finally, they find their meeting place and haphazardly take their spots. 

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BEST TEAM EVER! Bob English, Maribeth Phillips, Melissa August, Tom Bayer, Beth Vogt, Thom Hallgren, Jason Fisher-Jones and Nicola Scott.

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