Talk of
the town

Here's how we helped BNNVARA with the design of their new prime time talk show Khalid & Sophie.

Services

  • Art direction
  • Motion design
  • Visual identity

Year

2021

BNNVARA's
challenge

After pinnacle prime time Dutch TV programs ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ and ‘De Vooravond’ left a massive void, BNNVARA introduces a new talk show to fill the gap, alternatedly hosted by Sophie Hilbrand and Khalid Kasem. Accessible to a wide target audience and serving its diverse Dutch community.

Define
Success

Good talk shows need to display urgency, appear modern, yet feel familiar to appeal to a wide audience. The broadcast design should symbolize inclusivity and carry a reference to the BNNVARA brand.

The
Concept

We decided to emphasize this inclusivity by focusing on the connecting ampersand symbol that’s used within the program’s title Kahlid & Sophie.

By using three lines we created a reference to the BNNVARA identity. The use of three lines in branding is also visible in the trinity of items in the set, for example the three screens displaying the topics.

The ampersand becomes a dominant, consistent style throughout the program. The three lines are animated and take us from topic to topic. With it we created a visual language that forms or reveals hot topics.

Friendly
typography

Typography is a big part of the identity since it needs to not only have character, but be easily legible when displaying topic titles.

We went for a geometric sans-serif font that stays legible, even when distributed over the different screens. A font that is pleasing to the eye. The absence of capitals makes it without pretense and people’s names look equally important.

Patterns

To quickly give layouts a consistent feel – even when no image is used – there are only a few patterns to work with based on the three lines from the logo. These patterns can then be used in different color combinations.

The layouts for various expressions are characterized by large areas of color or image. The ampersand or the patterns are used for visual interest. Heads can be made big and become a real part of the style.

Graphics &
set design

The screens in the set have a prominent role and display graphic and motion design the moment they are not used for items.

Again, the ampersand brings unity and its design is carried over to the set pieces and the rest of the studio.