Our goal was to create a brand that would truly resonate with today’s young adults. Unlike the more typical approach of branding a broadcast network as an entertainment property, we envisioned The CW as a consumer brand, a brand that directly reflects the values and lifestyle of its audience.

We incorporated this thinking into our design process by applying our ideas to the world outside of the TV screen. When presenting our concepts to the client, we showed the design and campaign ideas applied to tee shirts, caps, billboards, wild-postings, cell phone screens and other real-world venues. This helped us evaluate the brand for its visceral consumer appeal. If our audience saw a CW tee shirt as being a cool thing and something they wanted to wear, then we did our job.

The initial creative phase of the project was an intensive 4-week schedule leading up to a series of focus groups. We created a “war room” at our studio dedicated to brainstorming, white-boarding and research with a team of creative directors, writers and designers. We actually didn’t start design for several weeks until we understood what the brand position needed to be.

The visual motifs of the identity, including the logo design, the color green, the font, the linear motif and photographic style support the network position in that they reflect today’s 18 to 34 culture.