Broadcast Designers – Troika

Not only do I want to go work for Troika now, but I was incredibly impressed at the work they produce. I’m not a huge TV watcher but even so, this kind of work was something I had never really thought about before. Sure, you see the NFL Football logo make a dramatic entrance on the screen right before the game resumes after a commercial, or you see the ABC logo look like it’s splashing in (literally) with water, but I never really stopped to think about what goes into creating this kind of art.

“Chase a concept, not a design trend.” While design is subjective to the artist, there are trends in the art just as there is in fashion. If good design wants to stick around for years to come, it needs to be conceptual first and trendy second; I like that Troika thinks this way. Watching their demo reel was impressive. This company has become the face behind so many networks and shows we love. I liked how they explain their motive behind their Starz campaign, that encapsulating a “light” theme in each segment is supposed to touch the audience emotionally. Every show’s segment has light incorporated into it somehow to capture the theme as a whole. In addition, these people are smart. When TiVo came along, they had to return to the drawing board so to speak since TiVo’s navigation bar is hosted at the bottom of the screen. Troika got creative with Oxygen and created graphics that inhabited the lower third of the screen and traveled up, not down. I also think Troika’s work with the “So Fox” campaign is effective, using bold colors, graphics and really capturing the emotions of the characters’ faces. It makes it all seem more human, something the audience can relate to, which makes sense since they specifically say that branding to them means creating a connection between the network and the audience.

What I took most from this documentary was learning about Troika’s creative process and how they work together as teams. I liked how Dan Pappalrado, co-founder and executive creative director, described the creative process as “casting a net” – get the obvious ideas, see what’s on the fringe but also know when you’ve gone too far and are thinking about something you may not be able to achieve. “Make obstacles into small segments instead of giant problems,” he said, and don’t just focus on the end result. I think the fact that Troika has weekly creative forums and even hosts classes for their employees in After Effects make a huge difference. The company knows each employee is valuable and each one needs to know as much as they can.