History Channel network rebrand and manifesto design

Branding + TV Promotion

The project goals

The History Channel was looking to do a full re-examination of their brand in order to identify the existing and future equity it held. They then wanted to turn that into a brand mission that would guide History’s future expansion and growth.

I lead the creative, design and strategy team at Known (formerly Stun Creative) to develop the brand strategy, manifesto, logo progression, international on air graphics packaging and style guide.

The History brand book

Through careful research, design exploration and focus group testing the unique space that The History Channel owned was defined, amplified and verbalized in the brand book. The brand rallying cry “Make Your Mark” personified the programming while also being an active call-to-action for viewers and the internal creative staff.

History’s custom fonts

 A custom chiseled typeface was developed from the ground up to match the History brand mark. No broadcast network can own gold chiseled type like History can. A modern sans-serif typeface was added to contrast the chiseled serif.

HISTORY CHISELED FONT

HISTORY SANS FONT

The History Channel genre brands

To define the different types of programing on The History Channel a series of genre’s where created. Each had its own unique name, color palette and associated on-air toolkit. 

LIVE ACTION BACKPLATES

Additionally a set of live action backgrounds where developed for each genre along with a cgi toolkit. This allowed for tremendous variety and gave each program a unique but yet branded look and feel.

American Originals

Gearheads

Mysteries

Epic Originals

Core History

Artifactual