Sky News (UPDATED)

Thanks for those taking the time to post comments, really appreciate it.

Here is an update. Firstly, don't know what happened re: safe areas, they were designed with them in mind but something obviously got misaligned along the way. Everything should now be 16:9 safe (except where I've deliberately left stuff out...the logo, the stocks, the #hashtag).

Made the clock and date slightly bigger, and sorted out any alignment issues.



RE: A big breaking news story, I think this is when the side bar comes into it's own. A ticker can only show one piece of information at a time, in WORDS only. A side bar can do much more. So using the recent death of Terry Wogan, I've illustrated what it could look like.



Finally, someone asked about a split screen view. Played around with a few designs, could have the two 'boxes' stacked one on each other, but the best way I thought would be to remove some of the 'filler' stuff in the lower third of the side bar and replace that with the studio view, using the main screen for the reporter etc.



Comments welcome.

I like the idea and the execution, but unless you are planning these to be on HD only like the original sidebar, I have a feeling it will be very hard to read on, say, a 19" TV and a badly compressed Freeview broadcast.

Forget the nonsense about safe areas (who cares?) - I think these are great. Genuinely thinking outside the box.

If anything, they're maybe on the plain side, but that's the direction everyone seems to be going for at the moment.

For those wondering about animations. Here's a VERY ROUGH version I've put together of how the sidebar would animate. The whole bar would slide in and out as required but heres how the new 'ticker' would work. I'm NO GOOD at animations and this is just would I've put together in Keynote to illustrate whats in my head, its not quite what I wanted but it makes the point:

https://vid.me/RE24

What! That is ridiculous you can't start having graphic mocks that ignore safe areas as it is one of the fundamental basics of broadcast design. If we are going to start ignoring safe areas on this forum then why not ignore broadcast safe colours, aspect ratios, readability issues, studio size limitations for studio mocks etc.

If mockers won't adhere to these sorts of basic guidelines then what's the point of any criticism? Why not give everyone 5 stars. "Hell, they maybe using bright yellow text on a bright cyan background with all graphics in the overscan, ignoring all branding restrictions and have a studio design coming from the world's largest warehouse but since we abolished guidelines this BBC Channel Islands mock is 5*"

Because I'm interested in the concept, not the boring technicalities. These are ideas, not things that will end up on screen.

Think its a very good idea, and design, but they would have to test and see how people "took" to it

Are safe areas, especially 16:9 safe areas , even relevant anymore? The rule is literally being broken by sports and local networks of all sorts nowadays. There's no need to degrade a mock simply because it doesn't fit these ridiculous margins.

This mock specifically, is just fine regardless if it does or doesn't follows the safe areas. The text is legible and there's room for the graphics. Good job.

Yes, there is a need as the sides of the broadcast image are cut off by varying degrees by most television sets - the two caps you have given are examples of 'as viewed' versions of the image, the actual broadcast image would have had more of the image around the edges. The broadcaster and the graphic designer still have to take into account safe areas even though on your screen it may not look so. Just look at BBC News on several different TV screens - on some the ticker is practically on the bottom of the screen and on some you could fit another ticker below the ticker.

Recently some gallery commenters have been accused of inconsistent criticism and I've seen many a sh*te and unpromising mock criticised for ignoring safe areas etc. so I think that all mocks should adhere to the same basics standards. Every set mock I do I have to adhere to studio size restrictions, which is far harder than making sure everything is inside the safezones. There exists guidelines and restrictions for a reason - in the real world for the purpose of making sure viewers actually can see all the image, and on the gallery as it is actually something to help in the marking of mocks. If we start ignoring basic broadcasting restrictions then hell I'm giving every mock 5 stars.

This is a very interesting concept. Would love to see this developed further.