In fact, the Dainik Jagran Group hired the Australian company Bruce Dunlop Associates to create the identity for its channel in terms of logos, tickers and "nearly 200 other design components that go into making a channel," says Gillian Samuels, BDA's business director.
BDA has developed the positioning for the Channel 7 brand and has designed its vibrant blue, orange and red logo. "The market in India is very competitive," says Samuels, who was in Delhi recently to give finishing touches to the channel.
Before creating the Channel 7 brand identity, BDA scrutinised JTV's competitors and identified grey areas.
"We found that most channels were very cluttered with heavy graphics. Some have distracting ticker sizes, while others tend to bombard viewers with visuals. For Channel 7 we're concentrating on simplifying the visuals," maintains Samuels.
The company also did its homework on Indian culture, tastes and dislikes. "For instance, we realised that some colours like green and black are a taboo with most clients in India," she says.
That explains the choice of colours in the Channel 7 logo: blue is a serious colour and considered the traditional news colour, saffron is close to all Indians while red is liked by most people, says Samuels.
Jagran TV's news channel may be Bruce Dunlop Associates first major project in India, but it is already a established name in the west with offices in London, Sydney, Singapore and Munich.
It has worked with the promotions department of BskyB, launched the Sky multi-channels and overseen the branding of ITV1 and ITV2. Samuels admits that India is emerging as a huge market for television design solution companies.
In the last few years, design companies such as the BBC Broadcast Design, the Los Angeles-based TAG Creative Brands Solutions and other international consultancies such as JUMP and GOSU have worked with Indian channels.
