Case Study

Blue House Productions

Christine Gernon directs the biggest sitcoms in Britain and America. Emma Strain produces them. They started a Manchester comedy indie in the pandemic — and almost forgot they had a website. Then Small Prophets arrived on BBC Two — the biggest new scripted launch of the year — and the spotlight arrived with it. It was time to start shouting about who they were.

Media Brand Positioning Website Visual Identity

The Challenge

A track record that needed to shout for itself.

The team had been busy making television. The website had been waiting its turn — built quietly in the pandemic, when the company was smaller and no-one was looking. The credits were technically on the page, but a visitor had to know to tap a portrait, wait for a pop-up that didn't render on mobile, and squint at the result. A team with this CV had grown past the site that was holding it.

Surfacing the credit wasn't, by itself, the job. The deeper issue was that Blue House hadn't yet named what it was — publicly, in a single sentence a stranger could carry away. Without a position, even a polished site has nothing to organise itself around. The first work wasn't visual or structural. It was editorial.

The line had to do two things at once. It had to be specific enough that a commissioner with a comedy script — and a writer looking for a production partner — could place Blue House on sight. And it had to be honest to the team in the room — warm, unpretentious, properly Manchester.

The Approach

Comedy, made in Manchester.

Audience

Say it instantly

The visitor doesn't have ninety seconds; she has fifteen. She's on her phone, half-distracted, on her way somewhere. The site had to land what Blue House does in the first sentence she reads — no scrolling, no exploring, no waiting for the picture to do the talking.

Position

Find the line

Comedy, made in Manchester. Short enough for a stranger to carry away. Specific enough that a commissioner knows on sight whether to keep reading. From the headline down, every section on the page reads back to it.

Creative

Don't dress it up

Restraint, throughout. One typeface, italic on the words that needed weight. A paper-white ground, no decorative chrome. The brand colour held entirely to the wordmark. No reel grid, no tile system, no colour bar dividing the page into sections that didn't need dividing.

The credits were already there. The job was to find the line they could lead with.