ABOUT

Introduction
HelloYes teamed up with design and branding agency Kemistry to create an innovative and market leading concept for Al Jazeera Arabic’s flagship news and current affairs show Al Hassad.

Since 1996, Al Hassad has built a global reputation for offering an exceptionally high standard of journalism, taking the viewer to the heart of the story, showing all angles and giving the full picture.

The new Al Hassad
Our challenge was to create a unique concept that would make an impact while also effectively supporting all aspects of news presentation and enabling the content to exist front and centre.

We set out to develop a new way of presenting information and discussion, both on-air and on digital platforms, bridging the gap between traditional broadcast and social media.

In future-proofing Al Hassad through a new show identity, we also needed to align with Al Jazeera’s overarching position as an innovative, impartial and transparent news provider, with an engaging and challenging approach to world news and current affairs.

The concept - A grand perspective
Our concept was built around a key insight – Al Hassad provides viewers with the complete picture of the global news stories that matter, offering a helicopter view.

Delving deep into key topics and asking the most important questions, Al Hassad takes all of the information at hand and builds the true and complete narrative, enabling audiences to see and understand the big picture. Viewers can take in everything at a glance, before Al Hassad quickly drills down into the detail.

This is ‘a grand perspective’, and it’s what we brought to life.

Pace and scale
To bring to life our ‘a grand perspective’ concept we needed to demonstrate the shift in scale, pace and perspective across the news hour.

To help us achieve this we created a three tier system for the news:

01 The big picture - Looking at and understanding the big picture, enabling us to see everything at a glance before quickly moving to the heart of the story.

02 The heart of the story - Sharing the real context, the key insights and the human stories that lie behind the headlines.

03 Up close - Getting up close and zooming in on the detail of the stories, providing in-depth analysis, insight and opinion.

This new three tier structure allowed us to create a dynamic editorial delivery which is enhanced through an integrated graphics system.

On screen package
The OSP was designed to optimise the viewers' experience for how the on-screen information system is delivered and provide a more dynamic use of motion and information hierarchy.

We designed a bespoke grid system to provide greater use of the screen real estate and optimise the use of scale and motion. Borrowing UX paradigms from the digital space, our grid allows for innovative proportional / responsive scaling, with elements expanding and contracting within the grid, based on the adapting editorial requirements.

Motion
With motion a key component of the new brand we created a system of fluid motion, responsive scaling, expansion and contraction and scrolling movements that together create a compelling and unique viewing experience.

Studio wall
Key to the new Al Hassad is the creation of a more immersive viewer experience and more dynamic, digital first delivery of the news. The video wall design package provides Al Hassad with a system that allows it to achieve these aims, whilst making the studio central to the delivery of the editorial narrative.

Results
The new identity for Al Hassad has resulted in a more dynamic news hour, with greater flexibility and editorial control of how the news is delivered.

A clearer integration between the studio, presenters and editorial has enhanced the relationship between all, meaning a more immersive experience for the audience.

The video wall content in particular has helped to enhance the in-studio brand experience, providing a more intuitive use of the studio space and a more seamless relationship between the in-studio and on-screen presentation of the news.