New look BBC Parliament

Hmm interesting. I hope today's rebrand of Parliament and BBC UKTV (Australia) can be the beginning of rebranding the entire network.....

They've actually scheduled a 5 minute programme at 2.30 introducing the new look! When did a station last do that?

That's just convenience. They aren't allowed to show the prayers that take place in the chamber first thing, and there's usually about 5 minutes to fill before questions begin.

Someone's posted a cake on Twitter showing the new look.

The cogs return with a diverse range of colours, and the new logo uses Helvetica. Whether it uses the BBC THREE/CBBC logo style will be dictated by what happens on screen.

Update: It's got its own styled logo - nothing to suggest any similarities to THREE and CBBC rebrands.

We have invision CA.

That's common on BBC Parliament.

Never know that, Good to know.

I'm surprised they have not tweaked the on-screen graphics.

Not a fan sorry. The new logo isn't even used on the L3s.

Pardon my language but, WTF? The lower third graphics are completely unchanged. They still use the old Gill Sans logo and look as ugly as ever. Bit of a letdown as they're the most important presentation on the channel.

The ident's nice though.

Now I don't mind the new graphics or music, but it really frustrates me that there seems to be yet another new logo style. It reminds me of the situation Lambie-Nairn (I think) discussed pre-1997, where each department seemed to require it's own logo. We've now got different logos for the nations, various departments, services and all kinds of things - and by different logos, I mean logos where the department takes prominence and the 'BBC' part is just tacked on. See this:

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/e/ef/BBC_Northern_Ireland.png/revision/latest?cb=20130320095427



http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/166F8/production/_87469819_bbcthreelogo.jpg



That's just a selection, as I seem to have forgotten all BBC departments.

Now, I understand how it happens; each department feels they are an important part of the organisation, want to stamp their own mark on things, and we see bigger and bolder variations on the logo. The problem is that there comes a point when it just harms the brand of the organisation because there is no consistent brand image.

Now, you could point to Channel 4, and argue that they do perfectly well with different logos for each channel. I would agree - it works really well, but I think that's for two reasons. (1) They are all *radically* different - they're not trying to be from the same family as such. (2) There is just a small number of them. Everything else falls under the main 4 brand - e.g. News. It works.

But the BBC is huge with many different areas all giving across (to me) a slightly different message. Compare that to ITV. I'm a huge fan of their brand - each different channel and section has its own look, but all feel strongly that they're part of ITV, and I honestly don't feel that any more with the BBC.

Why am I saying all this?

Well it looks like there's yet another logo style for this new look Parliament. Helvetica (admittedly, I think Arial is used by CBBC (?) and Three - but not the logo style) - with full height letters.

I don't think it matter hugely what the house style is. I like the Three/CBBC style, for what it's worth, but I know others don't. But I think the most important thing is consistency. It just looks so messy, and it ends up relegating the BBC part of the brand, the key, most important bit, to a tacked on (often messed up, like when the letters appear filled-in rather than cut-out!) after-thought.

I apologise for being so long-winded, and probably haven't explained this very well, but the BBC's brand seems worlds away from ITV, Sky and the like, and that's a real shame. I'm all for a little variation and fun, and wouldn't necessarily like us to go back to 1997 stripped logos - but just a bit of 'one brand'-ness would be lovely.