Sports Graphics Forum: Clean Look, White Space Reign Supreme as Modern Trend

Clean, light, simple. Not adjectives you'd typically tie to today's media world that seems to thrive off sensory overload. However, in the world of sports television and video graphics, that's exactly the trend that many of the biggest broadcasters have found themselves.

At SVG's Sports Graphics Forum last month, experts from major sports networks shared their thoughts on the current state of the industry and the feeling was unanimous: this is an era of less is more.'

HBO Sports' Camille Maratchi (center) speaks with CBS Sports' JP LoMonaco (left) and NBC Sports' John Schleef

The design trend is very clean, flat. said John Schleef, Art Director for NBC Sports Group and Olympics, whose had a busy year designing for the Rio Olympics and launching a new package for Thursday Night Football. Everything still moves and it moves faster and something always turns into something else. It's always moving. White space, also, seems to be taking over a lot of sports graphics.

Higher resolution television screens and the rise of video viewing on smaller devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, have also played a key role in allowing for graphics designers to paint a lighter canvas.

We are definitely seeing a lot more cleaner graphics, smaller graphics, agreed Camille Maratchi, Associate Creative Director at HBO Sports. I think we came from a time where everyone wanted to be big, loud, and bold. Now we're stripping it back a bit. Streamlining. Clean lines. Thin lines. I think that's just part of the progress of where we are seeing TV technology going. With everything being in 4K or HD, we have the ability to go smaller, cleaner, and sleeker.

MSG Network's Jason Joly (left) with CBS Sports' JP LoMonaco

In addition, the desire of producers to fill the screen with loads of information - from lower thirds to score tickers, score bugs, and advanced analytics and telestration - there's an inherent need to make sure traditional graphics don't interfere.

With technology and advancements, there's a lot more on the screen, says JP LoMonaco, Senior Art Director for CBS Sports. It's become Bloomberg Television for sports. You are covering your screen with a lot of information so you want a design to allow for that and not let it get too cluttered. At the same time, its still sports. It's visceral and you want to have your moments where its big, exciting, and entertaining. It's that balance that everyone has to walk: keep it clean but don't make it boring.

MSG Networks in New York launches a brand new graphics package this NHL season for its partners the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils, and Buffalo Sabres. Their package followed this trend of clean lines and big colorful logos and player faces. The goal was to better promote players on the team and for the package to be more flexible for game producers and directors.

The cleanliness comes down to storytelling, says Jason Joly, Director of Graphics for MSG Networks. The graphics can, somewhat, get out of the way. They can have a purpose but its about letting the producers and directors tell the stories of the game. That was the big focus of our rebrand: let the package tell a couple of minimal stories, but on a daily basis with 82 games a year, the producers and directors need to be able to capture the story of that game. So we want to stay back and frame it just a little bit.

LINK:	http://www.sportsvideo.org/2017/03/07/sports-graphics-forum-clean-look...
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