The Gallery

BBC Radio Rebrand

My interpretation of what the radio logos could look like, for the BBC. (February 2021)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LG
Looking Glass
I think they look simple and clean, which is a positive but as others have mentioned, anything with more than the numeric feels a bit awkwardly crammed in - this isn’t exclusive to you as I feel many fall foul of this. My only criticism would be the personality, I feel that 1 and 2 are always quite simple with their branding - maybe because they’re the more mainstream stations? But the others all have a USP or a niche that I don’t think you’ve captured here, when to compare them to the existing logos, it does feel like I can get a sense of that station from the logo that I can’t get from these. I’d challenge you to look for the personality.

Also BBC radio does not work with blocks like the BBC television, it feels like people always try to make it happen and that’s what limits the space or creativity. I think you’ve got a good ground to start from but you’ve limited yourself with what you can do with the shapes.
JO
Joe
I think some of the comments here are a bit harsh. I don't love the designs here, but they're competently done and an interesting exercise in 'playing around' a little. Someone asked why bother when the current ones are fine – actually I've always had a little niggling feeling around them since 2007.

Yes, they're okay, but I always felt most of them were about two revisions away from being 'finished'. To my eyes there's actually *too* much variation in them, with seemingly every typeface going being thrown at them. Some here seem to love it when every channel/sub-brand has a different look, but I think it's the stuff of amateurs and looks messy.

And I don't think there's ever been a satisfactory way of adding in things above and beyond the numbers – all the 'Xtra', 'Dance', 'Live', 'Music', 'Live Music Sports Pop Up Xtra FM' stuff.

It's true that the 2007 logos were a big step up from the completely fragmented things that came before, but I think there's plenty of room to keep exploring a better system.

I remember reading a blog post or similar from someone who worked on the Radio 1 website, after a project to bring more consistency to the Radio 1 programme pages – e.g. 'Zane Lowe', 'Scott Mills', 'Edith Bowman'. Previously, each programme had had a different type family, colours and other elements and weren't really tied together other than by layout and, obviously, being on the same Radio 1 website. There solution was to stick to the same typeface (Futura, I think, at the time) and come up with small ways to customise each wordmark. I can't think of any concrete examples now, but certain angles of the letters would be adjusted to create other shapes. Most importantly, the 'branding' came from the surrounding imagery and colours, with key show moments illustrated alongside.

I've often thought it would be interesting to explore this approach a little more with the station logos themselves. They can have their own colour, and personality could be injected through customising the numerals. I love the old Radio 7 'smile' and the 4 'quote' and the 3 'clef' are great. I wonder how these things could be explored a little more with Reith as a base?

Anyway, just some ramblings – all to say that I think there's plenty of room in the idea of BBC Radio logos for someone to explore. 'The 2007 logos are fine' is an odd thing to criticise someone for. This is the mock designs forum, people should be able to waste a few hours trying something out even if you think there's no real need. There's no need to mock anything, most TV branding is okay – but until someone creates something better, we will always think they've peaked, surely?

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