TROIKA CREATES DESIGN LANGUAGE FOR SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

NBC Sports tapped Troika
Design Group to develop the overarching branding and design language for NBC’s coverage of the NFL on Sunday nights. The evening consists of two shows: Football Night in America, the studio show hosted by Bob Costas, and NBC Sunday Night Football game coverage featuring sports legends Al Michaels and John Madden. The line-up premiered on September 10th.

“We’re
thrilled to be part of this all-star team,” said Mark Bohman, Partner and Executive Creative Director at Troika. “This is a huge
initiative and collaboration with the internal creative department at NBC
Sports. It has been a great challenge quarterbacking the identity and visuals
for this important project. NBC Sunday Night Football reaches a massive audience every week across the nation, so having the opportunity to brand
this iconic slice of American culture was a fantastic experience.”

Troika’s assignment was to create
a unifying conceptual foundation and design approach that would allow both Football Night in America and NBC Sunday Night Football to share an identity and theme, while giving each its own unique personality and tone.

“Our
solution was the creation of an icon for NBC’s NFL programming. This mark is instantly recognizable as the cornerstone for the
property,” said Gilbert Haslam, project Creative Director/Designer at Troika.
“In addition to the logo identity, we developed an overall design concept of illumination.
This sets a tone emphasizing the drama and excitement of this primetime NFL
spectacle, played under stadium lights. The assignment provided us with the
opportunity to showcase our passion for design and sports.”

Troika delivered HD graphic animations by for NBC Sunday Night Football in 1080i using programs and software, such as Final Cut Pro HD 4.5, Cinema 4D 9.5, Maya 7.0, After Effects 6.5, In Design CS, San MP, Photoshop CS,
and Illustrator CS. It also requires Dual 2GB G5s with a 4GB memory.

The graphics in
1080i include logo animations, bumpers, team transitions, and scoreboards, as well as key graphic elements used throughout the game such as player line-ups and bios, a score bar system, team match-ups, replay wipes and a family of backgrounds. The software uses an X Server, and is stored
on X Raids, ATDX Raids, and a Q-Logic (Fiber Switch). It is displayed on Apple
23′ Cinema Displays.

For Football Night in America, Troika created a series of
computer-generated scenes featuring a signature skyline across America,
as well as the hero logo resolve, plus team and city transitions. NBC’s
Football Night in America
studio show airs Sundays at 7pm EST, followed by NBC Sunday Night Football at
8:15pm EST.