Logo and typography design for Jeem TV; the new branding for Al Jazeera Children Channel
After several month of hard work, the new branding for al-Jazeera’s Children Channel (JCC) saw the light, under the new name: Jeem Television – تلفزيون جيم. I have been privileged to be involved in this project right from the brainstorming phase for finding the channel’s new name- all the way to fully designing the logo of the new brand as well as the custom bilingual Latin and Arabic typefaces for print and on air usage. A logo design and a type family that I am very proud to add to our portfolio at Tarek Atrissi Design.
“Jeem” is an arabic letter that is the first letter of “Al Jazeera” word, the pan Arab news satellite channel behind the children channel. Working with simply one arabic letter was very challenging for creating the logo, yet it was an interesting challenge as it involved crafting a unique lettering for the “Jeem” (ج) arabic letter. Weeks of sketching explored various lettering approaches to present the isolated form of Jeem in a graphic rendering that makes it “owned” as a brand logo mark.
The final adopted logo design was based on a hand sketch I developed during the sketching phase. The typographic logo had a calligraphic quality and a particularly rounded diacritic dot that became an important part of the brand elements.
The logo took quickly a life as part of the larger visual identity- and was to be seen in various applications directly after the launch: on screen, in giant installations for kids, on interactive screens and of course broadcasting on air. The most exciting part about designing a logo for a TV channel is probably seeing the logo in motion as part of the various animations and indents that are constantly produced for the channel.
In addition to the logo, I have designed a custom exclusive typeface for the TV channel to be used as the brand typographic voice. The new font inspiration started on the basis of the skeletons of a previous unfinished arabic typeface project I worked on in the past; which was further developed as a start for creating the signature / wordmark underneath the logo icon. This arabic lettering, adjusted to be more rounded and complementary to the circular elements in the jeem letter, was the basis to create a matching Latin logo signature. This defined the starting point of the style for the bilingual typeface designed and developed further: characterized by short ascenders and descenders and considered for arabic screen legibility.
Designing for the children industry is actually often very challenging and requires a delicate study for this specific complex target group. This project has been a wonderful opportunity to gain experience further in this industry, particularly because of the larger project group that provided valuable expertise on designing for children: JCC team with their substantial experience to produce content; Jump Design and Direction with their creative motion graphics that brought the logo to life; as well as kids industries and their specialized research and marketing strength. We added to our credentials at Tarek Atrissi Design a new design project in the Middle East / GCC area targeted at the needs of modern Arab children, through a television channel that aims to be loved by children and trusted by parents.
Further images from the logo and type used as part of the new visual identity can be seen in the images included below.
