Sick and tired of BBC's Branding

Here is Version 2 of everything, taking into account some of the feedback...


People do not like the gradients, so for these logo images, I have switched to flat colours, however gradients could still be used for on-screen graphics etc.



Slightly tweaked colours. Updated CBBC and CBeebies logos, and made the BBC logo slightly larger on all of the logos.



BBC News logos tweaked with colour and position of the BBC Logo. Changed the colour of Newsnight to bring it closer to the orange. Also darkened the orange colour slightly



Radio Logos...



The Web Logos, I have formalised the logo placement, tweaked the iPlayer logo, and moved to flat colours.



Subtle tweaks to the international logos and colours.

EDIT: This is a comment on version one.

Right, since you have posted a heck of a lot of designs, I'll go through it image by image.

I think the white-on-colour version works fine, but the colour-filled blocks look too busy. I think that harking back to the previous logo with the phosphor colours would have to be a tad more subtle.

The alteration of the block spacing seems to be largely unnoticeable, especially at the size you've used the logo at in the designs below.


I think the font choice here is poor. It only really fits in BBC Three's image - probably because of its history with heavy-weighted fonts. Bold still generally means brash, and it really doesn't fit in with BBC News, BBC Four, or even BBC One.

The colours also (on the most part) don't work. Brown for the awfully-named BBC Politics is a cack choice. To be honest, it looks like you ran out of colours (by not being able to duplicate any), meaning BBC News had to settle with a putrid orange, and BBC Three gets a totally unsuitable teal. BBC Sport is the only one that really works, but it does mean scrapping the distinctive black and yellow colour scheme - which would be a real shame.

The CBBC and CBeebies look terrible - it's best to keep them completely in the corporate style, or create a completely different brand for them. CBBC and CBeebies are some of the most distinctive BBC channel brands, and to throw them away for these tacky adaptations of the corporate brand would be silly.


These do look a bit better than the previous logos, but the font issue still is prevalent (the kerning does seem too tight, especially on London). The BBC and BBC News logos look silly underneath the names of Breakfast and Newsnight - the reading order needs to be considered for those two. I'm glad to see the core colours of Breakfast and Newsnight left alone


As you say, these are largely unchanged, but the gradients do seem unnecessary.


Oh dear - those BBC blocks are flying everywhere! They need to be kept in one place. Otherwise, I think these web brands are largely redundant.

The BBC iPlayer logo is poor. The i-with-arrow device is really important for iPlayer, and if you extracted it from your logo, it would look terrible. The "i" and the play symbol are disconnected, and it's all the worse for it. Under this system, I'd have got rid of the play symbol altogether.


The better logos here break away from the house style, and I think aptly demonstrate the fundamental problems with this mock.

Overall, I'd score this mock as 2/5. The technical execution and the work involved moves this up from a 1/5 to be brutally honest.

I'd just like to point out that the Asian Network logo you are using is outdated - there have been two revisions since that logo was introduced: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/BBC_Asian_Network

Martin you're rushing out an update and the design is getting worse. Sorry, but it is. The new update is 1/5 because of the CBBC logo. I've saw better from some of the new designers on this forum.

Edit: Seriously look at those logos - f**king vile. Surprised you'd put your name to them...

iOS 7 was certainly not something I was going for, not a fan of those gaudy gradients, but I was trying to be more subtle with them, but for logo mocks, flat is probably better.




I'll try not to take that in an insulting way I am more than BBC News recreations (At least I think I am!)


I am quite fond of the Cbbc Logo as it happens, but I was trying to leave nothing behind. But as you say there are some distinctive colour schemes that perhaps should remain in "the cull"


The font choices I am happy with, even if they are not to everyone's tastes here. They work with the logo type, have character, stand out, and are bold. These are some of the qualities the BBC lack at this time.



It is subtle but I felt I should (normally I would not touch the BBC logotype itself as experts made it!)



The image for channels like BBC One and BBC Two is dull, dry, and boring. So much has changed since 2006 and 2007, and the BBC is no longer seen as authoritative and frankly as trustworthy as it once was. It needs to get its confidence back, shout out about successful shows like Sherlock, Doctor Who etc. Be playful and grab attention.


European and American politics has as much schedule time as live coverage of the Houses of Parliament. So Politics is shorter and still accurate to what is shown. Neither name is the most amazing, but thems the breaks!


I chose Orange deliberately to move BBC News away from the red it has adopted for over 10 years now. But not into the boring Blue or Purple territory. The Orange in Version 1 was perhaps too bright, so in Version 2 I changed it.

I don't see that Teal is unsuitable for young people. BBC Three as a channel is a huge mess, and so it needs to find who it is, and the teal need not be the only colour used for the channel itself, its just a primary colour.

Sport is back to Yellow and Black, but feels not so different to what they have now, but it seems thats what people want. Being black, it could have had more flexibility with colour combinations for the various sports.


I agree for the most part, so in Version 2 I pull them out a bit more from the other channels.



Finding one placement for the BBC Logo with those web brands, does mean some of them come off as looking unbalanced, but its a point people have picked up on so its changed for Version 2

BBC iPlayer's logo is odd, it doesnt follow anything else at the moment, so I tried to bring in some subtle version of it. I have tweaked it in Version 2, but not sure if its as distinct as the current. Then again, does it have to be, now it is so established?


The International channels have the benefit of not appearing alongside other channels, so do not need to co-exist or match together.

Also I respect your honesty. I always prefer constructive criticism, rather than praise or insults. Thank you for breaking your comments down as well so I could address them here.


Again, I will not take your comments in an insulting way. I happen to disagree, but each to their own.

I for one like the updated CBBC and CBeebies logo. I think its great!

Some of the updates are better, but I've just noticed that even though the placing of the BBC logo above the 'ONE' is centred, the rounding of the 'O' really distorts this and makes it look more to the left. Also maybe a lowercase 'c' for the CBBC and CBeebies logos?

Moving the BBC to the right of the online logos looks much better, still don't like the iPlayer logo though.

I did consider all lowercase for Cbbc and CBeebies, but perhaps having correct grammar is better than aesthetics with a young audience

Futura is actually a sound choice, just in itself. One of those types that with its history could look right at home - at the very least as much as Swiss and Avenir.

The problem? The way it is being used. The weight alone for channel logos is hefty, the fairly tight kerning doing no real favours.

Consider how the 1997 BBC rebrand did not respectively use Bold for its logos. And Gill is, IMO, more forgiving in plain Bold than Futura is. Which may help to illustrate why these look overly bulky, even unwieldy. They don't look particularly pretty because of it.

Also, re: the 'BBC' type placed within these logos generally, probably best to choose just one alignment, then stick to your guns. When stacked, the horizontally centre-aligned examples look nicest to my eyes, the others less so.

The colours for all these logos are mixed bag. Some make sense... But I don't quite understand where teal for BBC Three came from... And the current yellow and black of BBC Sport is strong enough to stay, I feel. Outside of TV and Radio channels, it almost seems like too much to be assigning unique colours to brands such as Weather and Travel when the type could suffice on its own.

It's clear you've spent a bit of time on these iterations, recognising the need for greater consistency than there currently is. But seems like you made a few poor decisions down the line. There is potential in a move to Futura - just not like this. Flawed, but there are decent ideas scattered in there.

They are all early works in progress. Back in 1997 there was a single consistent logo format that everything adhered to. All uppercase for Channels, Title case for other departments.

I appreciate that Futura Bold, and all caps can be very strong, and perhaps my aspiration to find something bold and strong led me toward where we are. Over the past 20 or so hours I have been working on these, there are many other attempts that tried all sorts of ideas. I found myself gravitating to where we are now, and the font choice and styling was one of the aspects I was very confident in.

The colours were partly to distinguish between the various channels, but also there was some thought about the content of the channel. BBC Three is one people are bringing up, but that may just be because the current colours are so strong.

Those web brands are what make up the current website, and so where able, I used the existing colour. These are smaller brands, which also seem to feature on Magazines or possibly in the future, apps for smartphones etc.

There are consequences to changing the way the channel logos use the typography. The move to lowercase would remove some of the impact, and neatness of the logo's lettershapes. Using sentence case will take away some power, and will/could cause issues with the position of the BBC Logo, and how balanced or unbalanced that will make the logo.

The Kerning/Tracking of the words is something that could be explored. At the moment I have tried to keep the kerning tight, and spent a lot of time ensuring the space between letters is the same with each logo using guides. If we loosen that, the amount of space the logo takes up can become problematic.

Finally, your point about the placement of the BBC Logo. With all the channel logos, I have tried to find the most "comfortable" placement for the BBC logo. Most of the time this is centred, except when there are ascenders and descenders to consider. I do not believe the position of the logo should be so prescribed when it will lead to logos which look uncomfortable. I have tried to make them as consistent as possible, and the major channels (bar the childrens' channels) all follow the same placement and position. But going back to 1997 with identical logos in the exact same format is not ideal to me. There needs to be some flexibility. But bold use of typography is something I am envisioning with this set of branding, and so that is why I took the approach to find a group of fonts which work well with both the BBC Logo, and allow for some character and playful feel.

I will let these settle for the next day or so, and then will take a look with the feedback in mind.

Well I liked the gradients. Not 100% sold on the channel logos (either version), but I think a return to a consistent font is probably what they need now - everythings gone a little bit too far in it's own direction.

Only thing I really don't like is the iPlayer logo (either version), but other than that your work is still amongst the best offered to this forum.

Thank you for the kind words. I hope that V3 of these designs addressed your negative points...