Saffron Brand Consultants co-founder & CEO Jacob Benbunan, and creative director Matt Atchison share the executive and creative insights behind redesigning ABP network's brand logo

 ABP Network channels have launched their innovative avatars through their newly conceptualized logo today. Saffron Brand Consultants envisioned and developed the new logo for the network. The consultancy’s CEO & co-founder Jacob Benbunan and Creative Director Matt Atchison helmed the entire process of the logo redesign. In its new avatar, the iconic arrow from all the channel logos of ABP Network has been revamped to reflect the bold news channels and the diversity in the nation. These new logos also perfectly imbibe and stands for ABP Networks’ offerings of being a team that has multilingual visual storytellers enlightening and engaging audiences throughout the country. Creative Vision and Insight Jacob Benbunan, Co-founder & CEO, Saffron Brand Consultants sharing the initial ideation process said, “Fifteen months ago, we started working with ABP Network on the new logo. On the one hand, this was a design that was developed when the digital interface was not part of the mainstream. From a practical standpoint, it was a very simple need - to have our visual identity around interactions we have with our viewers – which should also work in digital. More profoundly there was a need to visualize what ABP Network stands for their purpose and reflect it in the visual expression, not just through the logo but any touchpoint that the network would want to focus on.” Sharing about the early stages of the creative process Matt Atchison, Creative Director, Saffron Brand Consultants said, “When ideating, the logo is almost the last thing we look at. It is the whole visual system that can reflect what the organization is about. Now, this is an organization which has now grown and has left the days of Star behind and built something new. The way we consume news is changing not so much on TV but more on our mobile devices. The initial thought process was based on the principle that the performance of the identity had to work well in this new news market environment.” The key takeaway from the new brand logo Benbunan said that at Saffron Brand Consultants, the creative team does not work without a strategy. “At the very beginning, we found out through our research that ABP Network uniquely stood for standing for the truth, being bold and they are always creating this sense of storytelling. It was the combination of expressing visually what ABP Network stands for. At the end of the day, it was about being of service to the information society and serving the people who are watching the network’s channels. But doing it boldly. We wanted the logo to be bold, unbiased and the visual expression of the logo reflects that”, remarked Benbunan. Atchison mentioned that essentially it is not just about creating a new logo but trying to keep in mind the heritage and the public recognition of ABP Network. He shared, “The logo needed to reflect the brand strategy and brand identity. This idea of a bold and proactive organization that is not scared of telling the truth. Journalistic excellence is imparted in ABP Network. Essentially, in the logo, the arrow will now fly free. The arrow is now is no longer caged in a box but has a dynamic behaviour that expresses movements, direction and is like a compass that can steer into diverse things and travel across the country. It is not just a logo, it reflects what the organisation is about. As we learnt, ABP Network is a pan India news broadcaster and has this unique ability to have content for all of the regions and connect with the audiences in a meaningful way. This couldn’t be an identity that has a plain-vanilla approach. It had to connect to India. One part of it is the logo but the other is also the visual language designed to express and connect with the Indian aesthetic, cultures and style. We had this Indian fabric ideology where all of the threads are all woven together and people’s lives and cultures in India reflect the same principle. The logo has a functional approach that ebbs and flows reflecting the daily lives of the people in India.” Benbunan commented that the new logo stands as a compass that reflects breaking news but is also a compass that searches for what’s true and unbiased. He says, “It reflects what ABP Network stands for and stands as a tool that will get you the truth and in a bold way. This was combined with the fact that India itself is so diverse. ABP Network has news channels in different languages and different states (ABP News – national Hindi news channel, ABP Ananda – Bengali news channel, ABP Majha – Marathi news channel, ABP Asmita – Gujarati news channel, ABP Ganga – UP/Uttarakhand Hindi news channel, ABP Sanjha(Punjabi news channel available on digital platforms in India, ABP Live- the digital arm of ABP Network).” “They use different images, languages, scripts and ways of expressing themselves. The challenge that the creative team had was creating something that cuts through everything from a national standpoint. The beauty of having diverse news channels is that they all belong to the same identity no matter which state you are in. We had to find a common denominator for ABP Network’s visual asset. We moved from an arrow that is three dimensional to an arrow that works as a compass. That's why we used this idea of fabric and through typographical we embraced the difference that exists in different states.” Trials of working in a pandemic Benbunan said that they weren’t affected much. He shared, “One of the blessings we at Saffron had was that for many years we have been using video conferencing as a tool to work, even before we were hit by the pandemic. We have worked with clients from Tokyo to San Francisco from London to Madrid. Saffron does not work as a collection of offices but as a single team. “We were constantly connected with the ABP Network team through video conferencing. We would have loved to interact with them face to face more but I believe that this challenge did not hinder the quality of work, efficiency or even the fluency in the way we dealt with problems.” Atchison said, “All credit goes to the team at ABP Network that was incredibly open to ideas and fortunately we managed to kick off the project before the pandemic. So we already had a certain amount of interactions physically. When we were in the procreative process is when the pandemic started but at that time it was more on checking in on the team here. The ABP Network team was incredibly opened minded and receptive to the thinking and the ideas we were forming which made the whole process dynamic and worked well.” Benbunan pointed out that all credit goes to Avinash Pandey, the CEO of ABP Network who was constantly connected on Zoom calls to improvise the work. This helped them to stay connected and share the process. Learnings from working with the ABP Network team Atchison remarked that it was fantastic working with ABP. “The team was incredibly open-minded, bold and determined to see this project through. They were not scared about change. They were very driven to make it happen and weren’t scared about the design process. So for us, it has been a great relationship.” The potency of the new brand vision in the conceptualization process Atchison shared, “The visual identity about the future of the brand has to reflect what the strategic vision is for the organization. Once we had clarified the strategy, a lot of it was not about creating something new but understanding what this organization is, their personality and where they are heading in the future. Based on these principles we started the design process. If you see the new logo, you will notice that it doesn’t have the arrow trapped in a box anymore. This reflects the new strategy of the network.” Marketing strategy applied for ABP Network’s new channel logos Benbunan signed off by saying, “The strategy was very much about expressing the power in terms of being bold storytellers, telling the truth as bold broadcasters and online publishers. At the end of the day, it has to grasp what’s to come and any new business they might consider branching out to.” On a parting note, Atchison concluded by saying, “There was this moral obligation, to be honest, truthful and part of their strategy talks about being a part of creating an informed society. It’s a great moral responsibility and ABP Network wants to share impartial information with everybody. This strategy language also came in handy while curating the logo.”