On the Origins of Syfy – Update
A follow-up to "RIP SCI FI" in which we explore the people behind the rebrand "Syfy"
Geniuses? Sci Fi Channel Pres Dave Howe, left, Exec VP of Original Programming Mark Stern and VP of Creative Michael Engleman at Sci Fi Channel upfront March 16 where "Syfy" rebrand was announced. (Brian McDermott)
The initial group identified by The New York Times as associated with "Syfy"— after the Sci Fi Channel announced its name change at March's upfronts— was Landor Associates, the giant branding agency which became the focus of initial scorn.
Self-proclaimed "best branding expert on the planet" Rob Frankel took Landor to task for coming up with what he termed "hopelessly stupid and - you should pardon the pun - incredibly alienating new moniker." Landor (whom he referred to as "hacks") got the brunt of his invective, but he saved some for Sci Fi's execs: "Much of the blame should be placed at the feet of SciFi's corporate managers, who obviously have no concept of what branding is or does."
Turns out that those corporate managers had already made the decision about the name change— and weren't really going to listen to the advice of anyone else. (Certainly not the opinions of a bunch of nerds.)
Shortly after the upfront presentation, Landor Associates distanced themselves from the rebrand, with the firm's executive director taking the unusual step of blogging about their employers, "Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement. Once Landor was involved, we explored new names as part of the process, but it was the Channel's call to go with Syfy."
London's Proud Creative was the actual agency responsible for the look-and-feel of the Syfy design, as they detailed on their site:
Proud Creative won a four-way creative pitch in October last year; being appointed lead agency for a full rebrand. The brief asked for an ownable and distinguishable brand identity; retaining the positive associations from the genre of science fiction, whilst appealing to a broader audience and embracing the benefits of imagination.
The channel approached Proud with the name change already a large part of their strategic thinking.
In a May interview with Tor.com Sci Fi VP Craig Engler discussed the origin of "Syfy" going back to last year, upon the arrival of a new hire- who just had to put his stamp onto his new network:
We specifically began considering Syfy about a year ago, when Michael Engleman joined the network as our new VP of Creative. It was a great time for us to get the perspective of someone new, and Michael happens to be a creative genius, which helps enormously.
A more direct account showed up in Fortune earlier this week, in which Michael Engleman claims to have come up with the name in "five minutes,"
"I'm sitting in my office, bleary-eyed, staring at hundreds of S-C-I-F-I logos created by some of the best talent in the country, lamenting the fact that no matter what we do, how sharp a design we create, we can never really own a category," says Michael Engleman, Syfy vice president of creative. "I knew how important our roots are, and knew where we wanted to go in the future, and I asked myself a simple question. What if we could change the name without ever changing the name? Five minutes later, with a ballpoint pen and a piece of scrap paper, Syfy was born."
So who is this "creative genius" Engleman, anyway? According to a December 2007 piece in Fast Company, he was a "staffer at MTV" who went over to CMT after its 2004 buyout by Viacom. As vice-president of creative, he was part of CMT's own (admittedly successful) repositioning. While Engleman may have been involved in a single cable channel's rebranding, he's apparently clueless about the nature of science fiction and its fandom. His "creative" efforts to launch Syfy as a "media destination for imagination-based entertainment" have swept away the modicum of goodwill that's been generated among Sci Fi's fans, who now ridicule the channel and see it further moving away from their interests.
To wit: the recently released brand film called "House of Imagination" for which Engleman is called "key architect." Designed to be "modular" it showcases Syfy series cast members— including, yes, wrestlers— in various themed rooms. During the two minutes of special effect glossiness, we see pretty young things at a rockin' party with balloon animals, origami unicorns, toy dinosaurs and ghosts– but not a single element that could be identified as "science fiction." There is a whirling carousel, however, which perhaps unintentionally references Logan's Run: death to 30+ year olds.
Just as with Proud Creative's Syfy idents which feature purple bubbles and glowing butterflies, the brand film seems to be aimed at tween girls—attempting to capture the Twilight audience. There's clearly been substantial thought, effort and expense put into it, but it's all surface, smoke and mirrors. Ultimately, Syfy's new image suggests that an audience of not-as-pretty and not-as-young scifi nerds just isn't welcome any longer.
UPDATE (July 10): The origin claims are expanded in a new Variety article:
The campaign itself is the brainchild of the network's inhouse creative Michael Engleman, whose team coined the much-maligned name in a bid to widen the net's reach.
"That came from me," sighs Engleman, who promises he's heard all the jokes. "We found the name through the design process, actually. We knew we wanted to lose the Saturn logo, we needed something that could be trademarked, and there was a warmth to the letter forms. The Y's feel like they're smiling at you."
Meanwhile, Michael Hinman— owner of Airlock Alpha, formerly named "SyFy Portal" until its buyout by NBCU— takes on Engleman's creation claim in a scathing editorial. He reveals the purchase price for his domain and intellectual property was $250,000, and declares,
[I]t has been proven over and over again that you didn't create the name. Not in the least. You may or may not have been aware of SyFy Portal when you came up with it, as I'm sure you know how to use Google like the rest of us. But the fact is, when it's all said and done, the name you either "created" or "coined" based on whatever legend you have mustered up, was in use for a long time.
