By Elina Shatkin, September 13, 2003
Brand New School, a live action and design company with offices in Los Angeles and New York, created the network package for Fox Cable Networks' new 24/7 action sports channel FUEL, which launched July 1, 2003. Brand New School worked with FUEL in the creation of ten drastically different station identifiers, which were written and directed by ten individual directors. The result is an unpredictable series of techniques and attitudes, using live action, stop motion, cel animation, 3-D animation, slide shows and Quicktime VRs.
Inspired by the concept of signature skate decks, the team led by West Coast Creative Director Jens Gehlhaar came up with the idea to develop signature IDs and invited athletes and artists well known in the action sports community. Personalities BNS and FUEL tapped include Doug Aitken, a renowned video and installation artist and lifelong surfer; Andy Jenkins, the creative director at Girl and Chocolate, legendary LA-based skate labels; and Saiman Chow, BNS' own art director/designer
. Aitken wrote and directed a signature ID that was shot in 35 mm.
A fictional character featured in the station identifiers is the loveable character Pinto, a stuffed "action sports action figure" who finds himself in dangerously precarious situations while skateboarding, snowboarding, and riding his motocross bike. Among the inspired station identifiers was one designed by Jonathan Notaro, the founder and Creative Director of BNS. The viewer is drawn into a fantasy land inspired by Seventies airbrush art on surfboards, the sides of vans and album covers. Sprinkled with images of rainbows, unicorns and soaring eagles, this invitation into another realm is the perfect identifier for a station whose graphics will be tied together only by the end card, which features a massive FUEL logo as well as a line of type used to title or tag the piece.
FUEL, the digital network dedicated to the world of extreme sports, launched on July 1, 2003, and will be available in approximately 5 million cable and satellite households.
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