The Importance of Animation Studio Idents

Animation has long played a prominent role in idents; you know, those little jingles that remind you which TV channel your watching, who produced the show/film you’ve watched or even what a block of programming is. There’s too many to list out there, but they form an incredibly important part of the animation jigsaw puzzle.

Ident Exhibit A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QPS6As0tqY

You could probably tell exactly what was going to happen before you even clicked the play button, couldn’t you?

Yes, the Hanna-Barbera logo is ingrained on the minds of literally millions of people around the world even though the studio (as a practical production facility) hasn’t existed in over 10 years.

Why bring that point up? Well it’s to illustrate that a brand, and especially an animated one, doesn’t just vanish overnight. Additionally, it is also a studios strongest asset, and something they have to work hard at to bring to fruition.

Ident Exhibit B:

That’s the old one, but the sound remains in use. Frederator have built a particularly strong brand especially in light of two things: firstly, a lot of their productions are under the umbrella of a major network, and secondly, their online efforts have done much to increase awareness of the studio’s existence outside of industry circles.

The Verdict

Both idents provide an indication of who created what, and both are certainly memorable. They establish so in a clear and concise manner too. So why do some studios insist on doing things like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhB08lQoHrA

What does that do beyond signify the creator? Shouldn’t idents also be a creative exercise, one that challeneges studio’s to come up with something truly unique? I believe so, and I wish all studios felt the same way.