I only hope the next rebrand goes to Lambie-Nairn. Unfortunately, I think a new '2' will have to be created but I'm sure we would get another L-N masterpiece even if it means starting from scratch.
They could always rebrand in-house. And save a heck of a lot of money.
To the suggestion that Red Bee haven't had an outright success with one of its own rebranding schemes, couldn't the BBC1 revamp be on track to becoming just that? Especially bearing in mind that what it replaced was a Lambie-Nairn venture.
Personality idents are a terrible idea. What happens if the Beeb lose Heroes or any of their talent? They will become redundant. Channel 4 have an ident that seems to be inspired by Lost (the '4' island), but they can still use it as it doesn't have Lost actors in it. Not sure about this new phase of 'window on the world idents' to be honest.
At the moment Channel 4 and BBC1 have the best and most interesting idents.
I truly don't see why someone would have to create a new 2 to fix the brand - it's fine as it is, and while the
Heroes
idents are mediocre, the 2 is still an incredibly strong brand. It's so strong that it can be used on some idents, such as the Electric Proms and the previous
Heroes
ident, without any BBC logo at all.
I still think BBC2 has the next best branding to Channel 4's at the moment, with BBC1 in third.
To the suggestion that Red Bee haven't had an outright success with one of its own rebranding schemes, couldn't the BBC1 revamp be on track to becoming just that? Especially bearing in mind that what it replaced was a Lambie-Nairn venture.
In the grand scheme of things currently, I'd say it's behind C4, and almost tied with BBC2 - Channel 4's current campaign is clearly more of a success - therefore, while you can't fault the production and the eye candy of recent, present BBC1 is absolutely not an outright success, mainly as a result of, like BBC2, failing to fit the channel in the way C4 manages - especially if you look at the past of the two main Beeb channels and why the branding worked better.
I could explain more fully regarding the aspects of some BBC1 Circles which I cannot bring myself to truly like or understand - lord knows I've tried! - including direction for example (a viewpoint that would be in agreement with your very good 'zero edits' idea of recent), but I reckon that would take things off-topic for what is a BBC2 thread, so I'll leave that for over there!
But, in relation to BBC2: do we have the same level of ident creativity as is seen on its sister channel?
Do we even have any abundance of the surprising, witty qualities that should be reflected in the identity, and have been so popular in the past for the '2'? I'd say, I don't see it - 3 similar symbols of someone opening a tent is not very punchy.
And I think that's wrong; the wrong way round - BBC2
was
from 1991 always the channel suited to the more adventurous, artsy and slightly cheeky identity ('anything goes' as was said here recently) to be aligned with its output, while BBC1 should be more grounded in its approach and, being the flagship television service, more reflective of BBC values.
This is not how it's turned out today, although before then, as far back as 1991, it
was
rightly like that. In 2001, BBC2 was moving toward a younger audience and so it became reflected in the warm and friendly identity, our '2' remaining the sole focus - while later BBC1 stayed firmly in live action with almost every ident (bar just one ISTR) shot in the UK and had more than a few suitable symbols for the news bulletins included. It made sense - but I can't honestly say that about the modern BBC2 or BBC1, unfortunately.
Personality idents are a terrible idea. What happens if the Beeb lose Heroes or any of their talent? They will become redundant. Channel 4 have an ident that seems to be inspired by Lost (the '4' island), but they can still use it as it doesn't have Lost actors in it. Not sure about this new phase of 'window on the world idents' to be honest.
At the moment Channel 4 and BBC1 have the best and most interesting idents.
I think the BBC have picked up the "for life" rights to Heroes IIRC. Re: that C4 ident - I think it came along after they lost Lost - it's Shipwrecked I've always associated it with more.
Anyhow, that's going OT - but the BBC2 idents are leagues behind C4's, and IMO rank lower than BBC1's at the moment - and perhaps even some of ITV1's.
It's not just the idents though - it's mainly the cheap and tacky endboards to the promos which are a disaster - basically the same concept as C4's, but executed in such a way they look like they were done by a media studies student back in the 1980's - when media studies probably never exists. If someone had come up with that in the mock forum they'd probably have been banned from here for trolling.
I usually agree with most, but I actually like them, don't ask me why but I think that they are a lot stronger than the main brand of idents created, especially in execution.
Yes they aren't channel 4, but I don't know if anyone will create something as strong as channel 4's identity any time soon.
In my mind BBC Two should be able to achieve a similar status with the '2', the only problem that they have is that they some how have to include the BBC Two box, even though they haven't been at the moment.
It's not just the idents though - it's mainly the cheap and tacky endboards to the promos which are a disaster - basically the same concept as C4's, but executed in such a way they look like they were done by a media studies student back in the 1980's - when media studies probably never exists. If someone had come up with that in the mock forum they'd probably have been banned from here for trolling.
I completely disagree regarding the promo endboards - okay, they're pretty similar to Channel 4's - that's a given, but I think they look classy, well done and they suit the tone of the channel. What is it about them that is really so objectionable?
It's not just the idents though - it's mainly the cheap and tacky endboards to the promos which are a disaster - basically the same concept as C4's, but executed in such a way they look like they were done by a media studies student back in the 1980's - when media studies probably never exists. If someone had come up with that in the mock forum they'd probably have been banned from here for trolling.
That last comment is a bit of an exaggeration, but I get what you're saying and I would generally agree - it doesn't work half as well as the previous designs for the channel (BBC1 is almost as bad for the utter rigidity; guess I'm not a fan of practically filling the screen with one colour for an endboard!), and whether it was intended or not, Two's idea does slightly come across as a derivative of the Channel 4 style such as they use on their gazillion break bumpers!
Maybe that's the problem; if BBC2 was trying to be even a bit like Channel 4, when it should have been aiming for quintessential BBC2 traits, that's poor - they ultimately suffer for ignoring that. But it all comes back to the agency who thought up the idea; if someone is lacking relevant, unique ideas, take them off the roster and replace them with someone fit for the task, simple as that.
