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New-look TSR
Morand Fachot, EBU media officer

On 9 January 2006 Télévision Suisse Romande unveiled its new graphic identity, aimed at reflecting its values, identity and development.

This is the fifth change to the Swiss broadcaster’s on-screen image since 1954, and it is accompanied by a complete makeover for some of its programmes, including the newscasts, and a broader schedule spectrum. It is “the result of a long development process and reflection on our core values,” stated Gilles Marchand, TSR director-general, in a press conference. 

To face up to increasing competition from a growing number of operators on various platforms – cable, satellite, Internet – and meet the expectations of its audience, TSR must evolve and invest in the public service values and schedule diversity.  

Values 

“Transforming the visual identity of a television corporation requires a lot of in-depth thought about its positioning and the values that go with it,” said Gilles Marchand. These values are as follows.

• Independence – TSR must be able to “inform the public independently of any government influence, applying precise and transparent professional and ethical rules”.
• Difference – which is of course based on the TSR’s close relationship with its audience, which is the “foundation of the difference between TSR and the other French-language channels”.
• Openness – as a general-interest channel, TSR is “open to the world, to all audiences … it must be in tune with the cultural melting-pot that characterizes French-speaking Switzerland”. Through TV5, TSR is also “present on the global French-speaking market, representing Swiss viewpoints and values”.
• Innovation – “TSR is constantly striving to adapt its schedule, its professional procedures, and its way of working, to meet the demands of its public service remit,” stated Gilles Marchand.  

Openness and innovation are to be found in various programmes that have appeared in TSR’s schedules over the past few months. “It was necessary to gather all that together under the channel’s graphic identity,” said the TSR director-general, explaining that a more specific effort was needed over and above the values. “TSR must be attractive and up to date in both its news reporting and its entertainment, in its content and the way it presents its own image”.

The new graphic identity has been designed to enable the “TSR label” to be used on various platforms to which it broadcasts its TV content (TV, Internet, mobile phones, giant screens, etc.).

Winning project  

The new graphic identity was selected in a competition among five design agencies in Switzerland and the TSR’s own graphic artists.

Twenty-six projects were sent in, five shortlisted, and Pierre-Richard Pretti, one of the TSR’s own graphic artists, won the day.

Replacing the blue and orange dice introduced in 1997 when TSR2 was launched along with a channel on two stations, the new graphic identity is based on fluidity of movement, a red shape that represents both the S of Switzerland, and a strong graphic structure, an eye-catcher. Framing this S, but in lower case type, are the T of television and R of “Suisse romande”, as TSR obviously wants to keep in touch with its roots.

This new TSR logo now appears on all the organization’s platforms: vehicles, signs, microphones, etc.

“The winning project not only needed to support the organization’s values but also to include an identification system for TSR’s various channels: TSR1, TSR2, and perhaps one day even TSR3, tsr.ch, tsr-info.ch, our news label for various platforms or even tsr-sport.ch,” explained Gilles Marchand, before wishing “a long life to this new banner that bears the colours of TSR, a public service television that is modern, efficient, rigorous, independent, and appealing.”

mf / nc