Mumbai: DY Works, India?s oldest and largest brand strategy and brand design firm successfully collaborates with Film and Television Production company Sobo Films for the branding of their new show ? ?The Outsider?.

Sometime in early 2011, Sobo Films founders Vikas Gulati and Smruti Shinde met Tim Sebastian, one of television?s most awarded, revered and feared journalists who honed his craft with BBC?s Hard Talk and went on to create one of the most popular debate shows on TV, The Doha Debates. This meeting led to a realization that Indian television lacked any serious, unbiased, external viewpoint. The other opportunity that presented itself was the possibility of having India centric programming that would be relevant to a world audience.

Therefore the brief given to DY Works by Sobo Films was to craft an identity for the show that would use branding as a discipline of reaching out to viewers. The larger challenge was to create a brand that would not only cue the core content of the show for Indian viewers, but stand its ground while competing for a share of international viewership.

"DY Works has captured the real spirit of The Outsider - sharp, focussed and compelling. There?s a clarity and freshness about the interpretation that reflects perfectly the production values of the show," said Tim Sebastian, the host of the show.

As the project also evolved to include live voting by the studio audience (comprising of the Indian public, CEOs and graduates from premier institutes from all across the country), the footprint spread from Indian TV to global TV, the property also acquired a vibrant digital version (with online voting on the motion post the show). This wise audience base was also a layer that was added to the branding brief.

"Most indian news shows have been inward focussed. Most international media coverage about India is stereo-typed. Tim Sebastian?s "Outsider" presents, for the first time, a unique perspective into Indian minds and issues while making it relevant to both an Indian and an International audiences," said Alpana Parida, President, DY Works.

DY Works worked closely with the Sobo Films team and Tim Sebastian to capture the tone and attitude of the property, starting from a deep immersion which included hours of competition watching (both Indian and international), deconstructing the idea of format of the show i.e. a debate (from Plato to Chanakya to current college festivals), examining how Indians as a culture would take to the idea of a foreign journalist hosting an India centric news show and the subjects about India which were being shallow focused by media.

The name ?Outsider? came to be, from Tim?s unabashed personality and forth right questioning style and is designed to meet head on Tim?s external view of Indian affairs. The personality and tone of the brand is unbiased, non-judgmental and seeks to see the gut of the issues and ask razor sharp and incisive questions!

The DY Works design team went through several options before honing in to the eye with a glint design expression, set on a backdrop that is layered and dynamic. This visual language now drives the television set design and online engagement.