Design of the Week : Shaun de Waal
SABC2 deserves some kind of pat on the back for the logo that provides its station- identification on either end of the ads – the “bumper” as it is called. Indeed, it has already received a prize from Apple Mac, and got a special mention at the Loeries.
The logo is especially impressive compared to those of SABC1 and SABC3, which scream Eighties kitsch in the same way as Ster- Kinekor’s seasick-making trademark (or, for that matter, M-Net’s garish emblem). One tires quickly of these illusions of giant metallic ciphers whooshing through space, with or without flying mirrored shards.
SABC2’s “bumpers” are restrained and elegant, a triumph of moving graphic imaging. A white background blurs, on the left of the screen, into a bar of gently moving colour, and a window at top right shows a clip from the programme that is about to start (or has been interrupted).
Small pieces of floating text add decoration, while the revolving quarters of a circle draw attention, below, to the four key letters and a number – SABC2. And that, thankfully, is in a typeface designed within the last few years, again unlike the logos of SABC1 and SABC3.
Commissioned by Aletta Alberts at SABC2, and designed by Johan van Wyk at design studio Delapse, the imaging and production was the product of Delapse teamwork.
The logo will be tweaked as time passes, but it shouldn’t need much reworking – it’s excellent.