February 14th, 2012 by Sandy

We have been very busy creating a whole new set of idents for CCTV9 Documentary channel following on from our successful rebrand of the channel earlier in 2011.

The latest idents, which went on-air on New Year’s Eve 2011, build upon our Cube property once again in equally surprising and engaging ways; all with the aim of representing the wonderfully diverse documentary content available on CCTV9.

The highlight has got to be seven ‘Beast’ Idents: superbly realised Cube-shaped animals that are currently bounding around Chinese TV screens right now. The idents were animated in London by a team of animators led by the hugely talented Phil Hurrell, Creative Director of Commercials at Prime Focus, and produced by Chris Chard. Music is by Joe Glasman at Hum, London.

Other idents include shoals of fish swarming together to make an enormous cube-shaped Fish Shoal, a spinning sandstone Cube whose sides fragment to uncover buried historical artefacts and an epic pull-out sequence from a waterfall through mountain terrain to reveal a NASA-esque Cube Earth – the latter being animated by Lola, London who collaborated with us on the initial set of IDs.

September 6th, 2011 by Sandy

Our latest work is featured in the September edition of ContentAsia（Content Asia对Brand Energies创意总监Sandy Macmillan就CCTV9进行改版一事进行的专访报导） 标题：中国CCTV9向国际纪录片频道进军 2011年9月5-18日 中国CCTV纪录片频道本周发布了它的新版本。ContentAsia本期对话了负责此次版本包装的公司Brand Energies. 由CCTV所有的中国CCTV9纪录片频道于本年初上线，提供全国覆盖的国内版本和一个提供给世界其他地区的英语版本。 这项创意使命的目标是远大的”创立中国本土的顶级电视品牌”并”在国际上树立高质量的中国电视台形象”, Brand Energies的创意总监Sandy Macmillan说。 CCTV的管理层认为，这次包装的关键在于“要避免国外的误读和没有新意的中国元素的堆砌”。频道领导层希望既树立频道的高端国际形象，同时又让频道创意为主流的国内观众所理解。 频道创立伊始的标志是一个国内设计的国内注册的蓝色标志。这个标志很像一个缺少了一个边的立方体，使用了装饰图案和中国古老的瓷器上的蓝色和白色所构成的色板。图案完全是基于CG技术的。原来的标志是以那个类似于手提笔记本的Logo为基础，加之以蜂巢和花卉的图案。 Brand Energies的创意方案是和该频道的核心视觉资产类似的透明水晶立方体，同时通过引入实景的风景和新的屏幕显示系统赋予这个方块不同的意义。 “我们同时激活了原来的蓝白色板并彻底改变了原来的花哨的花卉和厚重的蜂巢，赋予它一个简洁而现代的全新面貌。”Macmillan补充说：创意的依据是我们的核心思想：“Keep looking”. Macmillan曾任职于Red Bee Media/BBC Broadcast, 他所，团队“对于如何树立一个原创的，有力的形象很敏感，可以将自己与已经被人们所熟悉的纪录片频道国家地理和Discovery频道以及他们的荧屏形象区别开来。” “为了完成这个目标,我们将注意力集中在自然界中的摄影作品,　期待着由它们带来一种惊奇感.　风景照片书籍像The Earth From Above给了我们灵感”Macmillan补充道。 这个简洁而有力的透明水晶立方体是通过世界几大奇迹的景象中自然融合一个立方体的方式展现的,　好像要把主要图像包裹起来好好研究,或者是把它保护起来一样. 为了实现这个, Brand Energies与伦敦的Lola后期制作公司，他们以特效而闻名，并为BBC纪录片制作了最新的影像增强的特效。 “除了风景的策划,我们还创作了图像的策划方案,　我们把标志用不同的材料展现出来,比如水和玻璃微粒” Macmillan说道。这需要用到基于物理的流体动画软件,　“又一次地,从动态影像视觉效果的技术和动画技巧需要被使用到.　这些技术和动画软件在中国目前还没有被用到. 所有的设计和概念都来自Brand Energies的北京工作室。动画和后期制作是在伦敦完成的，由Lola后期制作公司完成，由John Kennedy和Sandy Macmillan执导。 实景的背景是从CCTV9的提供的图库中选择的，或者是从Getty Images授权得到的。Brand Energies委托了Massive Music在上海的分公司进行了音频部分的包装。

September 2nd, 2011 by Sandy

We are very pleased to report that our rebrand for CCTV Documentary channel is complete and goes on-air September 19th, 2011.

Above is a sneak peak of  ’Iceberg’, one of our series of ‘Landscape Idents’ featuring enormous glass cubes beautifully set within stunning filmed landscapes from around the world.

These will be seen together with ‘Graphic Idents’ featuring photo-real Lagoa animations that form the channel’s cube logo in mesmerising ways, a complete OSP system (designed for both English and Chinese languages) and accompanying audio branding by Massive Music, Shanghai.

Big thank you’s to director John Kennedy, postproduction by the wonderfully dedicated Lola in London and Zhou Jun and his team at CCTV9 who led the rebrand! Keep Looking….

我们非常高兴可以向大家汇报一下，我们为CCTV纪录片频道做的改版包装已经完成，并于2011年9月19日正式启用了！

上图是“冰山”的鸟瞰图，是我们提供的“风景”系列图标中的一幅，该系列表现的是一座巨大的冰山坐落在从世界各地拍到的美丽风景.

这一系列将会与”图像”系列一起被看到,　该系列表现的是图像增强版的基于物理的流体动画效果,该效果可以以一种迷人的效果展示出频道的Logo，还有一个完整的OSP 系统（包括中英文两个版本）以及 由Massive Music上海分公司配套的音乐。

在此，大大感谢导演John Kennedy,感谢来自伦敦的Lola倾力打造的制作，感谢周俊和他在CCTV9的包装团队！敬请关注……

August 29th, 2011 by Sandy

We’ve been working again with The Happy Monk helping them to come up with new menus and various print collateral in collaboration with Kactus Design in Hong Kong. For those of you who can’t squeeze into Guangzhou’s coolest bar, here’s a sneak peak of their new look menus…

我们也与The Happy Monk合作，并和香港的Kactus设计公司一起为他们设计了新的菜单和各种印刷品。如果你挤不进去这家广州最酷的酒吧，那就在这里偷偷看一下他们的新菜单吧…

May 24th, 2011 by Sandy

We are delighted to be working with CCTV again, this time rebranding their newly launched Documentary channel. The channel launched in early 2011 and is broadcast in North America, France as well as Mainland China. Brand Energies will be producing new idents and onscreen presentation system to appeal to international as well as domestic audiences. We won the commission after a three-way pitch between international design companies.

和中央电视台进行合作总是令人激动的。这一次我们非常荣幸且幸运地获得了为中央电视台纪录频道提供改版服务的机会。这是在和几家国际创意公司进行比稿后获得的喜人鼓舞。从2011年初开播以来，目前纪录频道已经在北美和法国落地播出了。并且频道的收视率一路走高。为了吸引更过海外观众，同时稳固国内收拾群体，Brand Energies将以最新的影视后期制作技术和最独具匠心的创意为纪录频道提供优质的电视包装创意服务，包括频道品格片，屏幕导视系统，希望国内和海外的观众都能更加喜爱这个全新的频道。更多消息将会陆续为大家带来！敬请关注我们的博客！

May 24th, 2011 by Sandy

We have had a busy time assisting Apple Asia with their iPad Guided Tours for the China market. Several Lifestyle photo and video shoot assignments in South Korea and China throughout 2010 culminated in Sandy supervising the filming of Chinese talent putting the iPad through its paces in carefully art directed films that perfectly match Apple’s US Guided Tours in terms of overall tone and brand consistency. The sequences were directed by Roy Cox of Roy Cox Productions and Zach AuYeung of Bleuarc productions and produced by Apple’s Tanya Chou. Guided Tours can be seen online at apple.com.cn or try this link: Apple iPad Guided Tours

很荣幸我们一直和Apple Asia展开合作。Apple Asia在中国市场上投放iPad时，为广大用户和消费者量身定做的使用指导视频，就是由我们进行艺术指导。为了给大家展现非常生活化风格的照片及视频，取景地设在韩国的济州岛以及国内的几个城市。非常精心的前期策划和后期的实际拍摄都是为了和Apple美国市场中的使用指导视频达到风格和水平的统一。这就是品牌质量的基本原则。这一系列片子的导演是Roy Cox制作公司的Roy Cox和Bleuarc制作公司的Zach AuYeung。监制是Apple亚洲区的Tanya Chou小姐。大家可以去Apple.com.cn的网站上或者点击以下链接Apple iPad Guided Tours 观看到这一系列的视频。希望大家使用iPad愉快！

December 10th, 2010 by Sandy

CCTV8 Drama channel Idents  CCTV8  电视剧频道新频道ID

Beautiful concept & storyboard designs by Red Bee Media were directed and produced by Brand Energies to give a fresh new look to China’s national Drama channel CCTV8. Months of painstaking animation by a large team of animators and compositors were involved to bring the channel’s new red ribbon to life accompanied by a story book world of magical fish, dragons, flying kites and 3D clouds.

Brand Energies also commissioned original orchestral music by Massive Music in Shanghai.

Menu backgrounds, lower third ribbons and Coming Nexts complete a visually stunning total onscreen package.

英国知名广播电视创意机构Red Bee Media提供优秀的改版创意加上美轮美奂的分镜本设计，Brand Energies提供后期制作服务的中央电视台电视剧频道全新改版亮相荧屏。数月来，我们的动画师和合成师为最终呈现给观众精良的电视包装作品而付出了辛苦的劳动。频道核心的红丝带被赋予了真实的生命，加上可以以假乱真的金鱼，龙，风筝和三维制作的云朵，整套包装不但追求整体视觉上的唯美，更在细节处精心雕琢。

配套的音乐工作Brand Energies委托经验丰富的Massive Music负责，音乐原创，选用交响乐的大气风格。Massive Music在上海设有办事处。

收视菜单背景版，由红丝带幻化的字幕条，及接下来播出版式等无一不为整套换装改版的作品增光添彩。

CCTV 8 Drama Channel Relaunch Montage

CCTV 8 电视剧频道改版作品欣赏

September 8th, 2010 by Sandy

Brand Energies has just completed the on-screen relaunch of China’s No.2 channel CCTV2. We gave the nation’s Finance channel a new visual property consisting of an epic network of golden arrows. A total package of  three idents and a complete OSP system were designed – the existing CCTV2 logo has not been changed. Our studio was awarded this prestigious commission having been invited to take part in a three-way pitch against international design and branding companies selected by CCTV Kehua. The new look goes on-air from September 1st 2010.

在距离中国中央电视台第二套节目-财经频道上次改版一年之际，财经频道对其部分品牌资产进行了重新包装。Brand Energies作为设计方，荣幸地参与了此次改版工作。央视二套为国家级财经频道，Brand Energies启用了基于箭头元素和财富金色彩的整体形象设计，用不同风格、不同走向、不同大小的多组箭头，构建出空间感极强的视觉资产。整体设计包括三支频道LOGO演绎片和完整的OSP屏幕演示系统。并未对财经频道原有的红色LOGO进行任何改动。据了解此前有众多国际设计包装公司纷纷竞标这项意义重大，任务艰巨的设计任务，而我们非常荣幸能够在如此激烈的竞争中脱颖而出，最后被中视科华公司选中，作为设计公司。

目前，整套最新的改版包装已于2010年9月1日正式上线了！

August 29th, 2010 by Sandy

Many thanks to Guo Rui of TVTalk.cn for inviting us to be a Guest Speaker at BIRTV last week.

Sandy gave a presentation to an audience of 150+ delegates on the challenges facing designer/directors looking to make the leap from great storyboards to even greater finished sequences.

Big thanks also to Liz Dunning and her team at Dunning Penney Jones for providing examples of impressive finished idents and previzes from their recent rebrand for Cielo.

Other guest speakers at the TVTalk forum included Samson Wang of Digital Domain who talked about their work on District 9 and Twilight 3 .

第十九届北京国际广播电影电视设备展览会上周在北京隆重举办。
此次BIRTV组委会联合TVtalk.cn®网站共同策划了影视创作专题系列讲座，主题涉及电影特效、电视包装、3D立体展示、大型纪录片特效等，而我们在TVtalk.cn®网站创始人郭瑞先生的邀请下，荣幸地作为主讲嘉宾，参与了这个高端影视创作专题系列讲座。

作为外籍嘉宾之一，Sandy此次的主讲话题围绕着“好创意如何引领电视品牌的未来”而展开，并和现场超过150名听众进行了案例分享和互动。此次讲座更加详细地将关注焦点聚集在好创意到完美作品的跨越之旅，即，力争在有限的时间内，传达给现场听众电视包装领域的一次快速体验。

同时我们非常感谢英国的Liz Dunning女士和她的设计团队Dunning Penney Jones授权我们对他们近期优秀的电视包装设计作品-Cielo意大利频道的包装创意进行演示和分享。现场的观众都为这系列精湛的作品和成片效果感到震撼和钦佩！

在此系列讲座中，TVtalk.cn®网站还邀请到了目前供职于Digital Domain的电影后期特效师Samson Wong对他参与的好莱坞电影District 9 《第9区》和Twilight 3《暮光之城 3》的后期制作进行了经验分享。

July 9th, 2010 by Sandy

Last month Brand Energies was invited by the HR Centre of CCTV to give a Brand training seminar to 30 of their Program Control and Brand Management departments heads.

Sandy MacMillan presented case studies of successful projects he has led in Asia, such as the ATV rebrand and CCTV Olympics Title sequence and showed examples of trail-blazing international work too. Simultaneous translation was by our very own Tan Lei.

The half-day seminar also covered the evolution of the BBC logo and BBC One channel identities over the last 60 years. The training seminars at CCTV are all part of the national’s broadcasters push for 2010 to be “Year of the Brand”. CCTV currently has 15 nationwide TV channels and around a further 8 digital specialist channels including an HD channel.

The seminar was followed by a lively and lengthy Q & A session – and a very nice lunch!

上个月受到中央电视台人事部的邀请，Brand Energies荣幸地参与了一次央视内部学习讲座。参加讲座的是来自中央电视台总编室、节目播出部以及节目包装部等部门的专业电视人。

Sany MacMillan围绕着他在亚洲地区成功运作的案例，如为香港亚洲卫视设计的全新台标，以及奥运期间为央视量身定做的节目总片头等展开了演讲。同时也利用这次宝贵的机会和大家分享了一些有开拓性意义的国际性创意项目案例。
讲座全程由Brand Energies团队的谭蕾女士进行了详实和生动的翻译。

虽然此次业务讲座仅为半天，内容还是尽可能包含了在过去60年中BBC (英国广播公司)logo的演变过程，以及BBC第一频道标识的演变历史。据说此次为央视专业人员进行的讲座是国内多家电视台正积极努力推进的2010“品牌年”的活动之一。目前中央电视台拥有15套开路频道，包含高清频道在内的8套数字电视频道。

在气氛活跃的问与答中，此次讲座圆满结束了!

趣闻分享：Sandy非常喜欢工作结束后的美味午餐，好吃极了!