NEW YORK — The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced a new official branding and identity package across the entire organization including its 19 regional chapters across the country. Featuring at its focal point the silhouette of the coveted Emmy® Award statuette, the new design adopts a simpler, more contemporary approach to reflecting the 64-year-old professional organization’s core mission of recognizing excellence in the television industry. 
“The Emmy® Awards are stronger than ever, with new distribution platforms driving record-breaking entry levels in each of our competitions,” said Adam Sharp, NATAS President & CEO. “The new NATAS branding captures the long history of the iconic Emmy® Award, now right at home in the digital age. It is a polished yet approachable design that evokes key themes of excellence, community, and transformation.”
“This was a challenging project; it was an honor to be a part of it,” said Bill Dawson, the lead designer on the project and founder of Los Angeles-based brand agency XK9. “National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is a mouthful of a brand name. The design needed to balance this descriptive name with the Academy’s iconic symbol.”
“The Emmy® is a potent, timeless avatar for this vital organization. Our goal was to present the Emmy®—to amplify her beauty and energetic form. Here, the figure breaks from confinement and pushes beyond perceived limits. That’s an apt metaphor for the work of the Academy and the excellence it celebrates.”
Dawson’s previous work includes logos and motion graphics for Millennium Films, EA Games, Google, and Universal Animation Studios. Elements of the new design were previewed backstage at the 40th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and will be introduced fully over the coming months. The identity package will be implemented across each of NATAS’ competitions, programs, and properties, as well as the academy’s 19 regional chapters. It provides significantly greater flexibility over past iterations and includes variations to accommodate myriad platforms, screen sizes, and products.
To maintain consistency and scalability as various assets become available to chapters and partners, NATAS selected Frontify as its official brand management platform. Based in Switzerland with recently-opened offices in NYC, the venture-backed company provides a cloud-based platform for maintaining up-to-date style guides, shared media libraries, and in-depth collaboration for stakeholders across brand, design, marketing, and front-end developers. Other Frontify customers include Facebook, Lufthansa, and Allianz.
“The collaboration between The Emmys®, XK9, and MOO drives directly back to the founding vision of Frontify,” said Jaclyn Kalb, Frontify GM.
“We pride ourselves on being a central brand hub to help drive efficiency among various internal and external stakeholders. We were thrilled to be approached by the Emmys®, and now after careful consideration, it’s an honor to be the official brand management platform partner of such an iconic brand.”
NATAS also selected MOO as the organization’s preferred national provider of print materials, including business cards and letterheads. With low quantity minimums, on-call design support, and stylish, high-quality products, MOO is uniquely suited for the needs of NATAS and its chapters.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with NATAS on its rebrand and to give the Emmy’s® the chance to tell its brand story in print,” says Richard Moross, CEO and Founder at MOO. “To collaborate on the development of this timeless new identity was a great opportunity for the MOO team. We look forward to continuing this relationship as a print partner beyond this beautiful re-brand, supporting the organization and its chapters with beautifully designed printed materials.”
“Few marks of distinction are as globally recognized as the Emmy® Award,” added NATAS’ Sharp. “Protecting this prestigious mark is critical as we aim to achieve a broad yet consistent distribution across our academy, our chapters, and our external partners. Frontify and MOO are each sensitive to this important and delicate balance and have built best-in-their-class tools for rising to the challenge. Their innovations will help us scale our brand in a polished, professional way befitting the heritage of our organization and awards.”