Pixels and PAL

Computer Design for Dutch Broadcast Television in the Early 1980s

  • Liselotte Doeswijk
  • René Koenders
Keywords: Animation, Computer-Aided Design, Corporate Identity, Motion Graphics, Television

Abstract

This research study reconstructs several design and production stories from Dutch television in which pixels and PAL first made contact in the early 1980s, in the context of a broadcasting system in transition. The paper is based on the analysis of station calls and title sequences that are preserved in audiovisual archives and by private collectors, on interviews with key figures and on the examination of articles featured in specialised magazines of that time. These design stories illustrate the different approaches of designers and broadcasting organisations to the computer and the role of the computer in audiovisual design. Early adopter Veronica chose to simply copy American examples. Designers like Willem van den Berg and Carlo Delbosq tried to find more meaningful uses and navigated between high-tech and low-tech, large and smaller budgets, explicit and subtle visual references to the computer. The peculiarities of the Dutch media landscape and the changes this landscape underwent strongly informed the various approaches to computer-aided design.

Author Biographies

Liselotte Doeswijk

Liselotte Doeswijk is an independent media historian with a special interest in design. She graduated in Film and television studies at the University of Amsterdam in 2006. She co-wrote Vorm van vermaak, a book about design for Dutch television (2010, with Roy van Vilsteren. Amsterdam: L.J. Veen) and she blogs about audiovisual design on the website Vormvanvermaak.nl.
Currently, she is writing a book on the history of set design for Dutch television. The research for this book is partially funded by the Mondriaan Foundation. In the future, Doeswijk plans to do more research into the history of computer-aided design in the broadcasting sector.

René Koenders

René Koenders is a video producer, author and personal coach. He studied Film and television at Utrecht University. He worked as researcher and editor at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, where he coordinated and co-authored a book on Dutch television announcers in 2011 (Goedenavond dames en heren. Baarn: Marmer). He also helped set up the Beeldengeluidwiki.nl website in 2007. He was chief editor of that platform from 2008 until 2014.

Published
2016-10-31
Issue
Vol 4 No 8 (2016): The Years They Made Contact: Graphic Design, New Technologies and New Media
Section
Research

Copyright (c) 2016 Liselotte Doeswijk, René Koenders

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons NonCommercial-NoDerivates 4.0 international License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).