Universal Kids / Network IDs

Case study

Universal Kids, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s network for kids 2-12, is one of the top channels on television for children. As a kid-focused ecosystem with great TV content at the center, Universal Kids’ features a fresh mix of animated content, unscripted entertainment, and proven international hits. 

At Adolescent, we were tasked with helping add personality to Universal Kids’ already exciting broadcast content via IDs. The logo was set and established within the brand, even though the channel was relatively new, however, its animation potential had yet been tapped. We worked closely with the new on-air team at the network and created a broad range of attitude, tone, and ideas that can translate across the brand. A focus was how the logo can be more expressive, fun, playful and overall create more personality.

Concept Design

The base concept came from the idea of a Playground, but in a spherical form inline with Universal Kids logo and branding.

We developed different hooks and themes to create a variety of animations that capture the creative, silly, loud energy but also the kids values that comprise the network’s DNA.

Once the looks were set in design, the tricky part was turning those into seamless 3D animations that resulted in the 2D mark. Our 3D needed to look high-end but also tactile, could not be overly glitzy/technical as needs to be catered and accessible to kids.

We also needed to make sure certain ID’s could be customizable to help feature the broad range of kids programming.

See early sketches below: