I don't see a problem with Gill. It's readable and clear. Also yes, they are pretty mocks, eye, but I'm a sucker for minimalism and that means no gradients, rounded corners and bevels and in that respect the current graphics are great. I would go as far as saying they could be stripped back even more.
Hopefully this font will be consistent with the website, I think its Helvetica, almost identical to Swiss. This will also bring it back into line with the Weather presentation.
The BBC News website renders in Arial, an inferior copy of Helvetica.
Remember, the rather basic look we have at the moment is because they want consistency between Network and the regions - and many of the regions can't really do much complicated with their Astons, compared with the VizRT used in London. Was there not a plan to upgrade everyone to VizRT, or did that get canned?
Hopefully this font will be consistent with the website, I think its Helvetica, almost identical to Swiss. This will also bring it back into line with the Weather presentation.
The BBC News website renders in Arial, an inferior copy of Helvetica.
Remember, the rather basic look we have at the moment is because they want consistency between Network and the regions - and many of the regions can't really do much complicated with their Astons, compared with the VizRT used in London. Was there not a plan to upgrade everyone to VizRT, or did that get canned?
Although they are basic and use Gills Sans, they are the best astons on TV.
Let's hope regions get their Viz kits updated, they're still not consistent with the network. Come on BBC! Even ITV can have consitency between network and regions.......
Well - ITV's match about as well as the BBC's do throughout the regions. They don't animate the same, and don't look quite right.
Problem you have is that places outside of London, especially those in the direction of Plymouth, start to tinker and add their own animations - obviously with the best intentions of looking like the national news but they end up looking even more different.
Well - ITV's match about as well as the BBC's do throughout the regions. They don't animate the same, and don't look quite right.
Problem you have is that places outside of London, especially those in the direction of Plymouth, start to tinker and add their own animations - obviously with the best intentions of looking like the national news but they end up looking even more different.
How many regions have updated their BBC Sport graphics to match those used across network bulletins? BBC Look East don't match but the graphics used on their edition of Late Kick Off are significantly closer - though the tiny BBC Sport logo on the fixture list graphic list looks awful.
You've also got to bear in mind that not all regions have Viz. The roll out of Viz across all regions was stopped some years ago as an efficiency saving. Many regions rely on Astons (some of them ancient) and various Quantel products for their graphics (a few also use Clarity, Collage and one or two other products). With the best intention in the world, programming for one piece of kit is utterly different to programming another and so you end up with graphics that look different from place to place. If the BBC wants entirely consistent graphics across the board it has to provide standard kit to everyone. Which probably isn't going to happen.
Also unlike BBC News, which has a centralised design team meaning house style is generally consistent and artwork can be shared across the IT network, BBC Sport is much more of a disperate affair. Each production team designs their own graphics and although they are generally within an umbrella style, there are differences between programmes. It makes a designer's job in a region much harder to know what is right when it comes to designing a graphic within the Sport style. The regions weren't even let in on the recent style refresh (moving from DIN Condensed and Univers to Gotham) and it was only when a regional designer noticed it on the News Channel and asked for the guidelines that things got changed. It took a very long time for the current sport look to be rolled out across all output!
Finally it's worth bearing in mind that Regions often are required to make graphics in many different house styles within one programme. News graphics have to be made within the BBC News style, Sport graphics within the Sport style, Local Radio has it's own style on top of that and presentation slides for things like Sunday Politics or Late Kick Off would be made in the BBC One style.
You can imagine the problems a designer is faced with when they're asked to design a Sport Fixture which also promotes coverage on Local Radio. Or cross-media coverage of Reading Half Marathon on South Today, Radio Berkshire and the website ...
Hopefully this font will be consistent with the website, I think its Helvetica, almost identical to Swiss. This will also bring it back into line with the Weather presentation.
The BBC News website renders in Arial, an inferior copy of Helvetica.
Remember, the rather basic look we have at the moment is because they want consistency between Network and the regions - and many of the regions can't really do much complicated with their Astons, compared with the VizRT used in London. Was there not a plan to upgrade everyone to VizRT, or did that get canned?
I think they must have to upgrade everyone to VizRT surely? I don't think you can buy Astons anymore. Each region has one, and there is a spare (I think it's currently in Leeds). If any breakdown, there's a dwindling number of people that could fix one. Aston output would also have to be up-converted to HD, should it be needed on any HD output.
VizRT is expensive and complex though, as systems go. Chyron has it's own idiosyncrasies but is cheaper. RedBee make the BBC set for whatever system they can, so there are options.
Hopefully this font will be consistent with the website, I think its Helvetica, almost identical to Swiss. This will also bring it back into line with the Weather presentation.
The BBC News website renders in Arial, an inferior copy of Helvetica.
Remember, the rather basic look we have at the moment is because they want consistency between Network and the regions - and many of the regions can't really do much complicated with their Astons, compared with the VizRT used in London. Was there not a plan to upgrade everyone to VizRT, or did that get canned?
I think they must have to upgrade everyone to VizRT surely? I don't think you can buy Astons anymore. Each region has one, and there is a spare (I think it's currently in Leeds). If any breakdown, there's a dwindling number of people that could fix one. Aston output would also have to be up-converted to HD, should it be needed on any HD output.
VizRT is expensive and complex though, as systems go. Chyron has it's own idiosyncrasies but is cheaper. RedBee make the BBC set for whatever system they can, so there are options.
Aston does still exist AFAIK but the latest incarnations run on Windows PCs and are not terribly well regarded I hear. Older Astons are pretty bomb proof though and do what they do very well. When they breakdown Aston can usually repair them though I agree that the older they get they harder they'll be to fix. HD isn't a problem because graphics for regional programmes that need to be HD (Inside Out is the only one currently I think) are generated within the edit anyway and not from the regional graphics kit.
As far as what RedBee provide, while they are excellent at designing the House Styles and produce wonderful colour documents detailling what can and can't be done, in my experience they're less good at providing the kit of parts a region might need. You get a DVD-ROM with examples of the style, but sometimes not the clean kit of parts you need to design your own stuff: backgrounds, cel animations, ttf files etc.
I asked for the bespoke font (a variant of Avenir ISTR) for BBC Two presentation one afternoon for use on that night's programme and the person on the end of the phone at RedBee towers couldn't understand why I needed it and didn't know how to send it anyway (they suggested I needed a line feed or a tape to be posted out!)
Hopefully this font will be consistent with the website, I think its Helvetica, almost identical to Swiss. This will also bring it back into line with the Weather presentation.
The BBC News website renders in Arial, an inferior copy of Helvetica.
Remember, the rather basic look we have at the moment is because they want consistency between Network and the regions - and many of the regions can't really do much complicated with their Astons, compared with the VizRT used in London. Was there not a plan to upgrade everyone to VizRT, or did that get canned?
I think they must have to upgrade everyone to VizRT surely? I don't think you can buy Astons anymore. Each region has one, and there is a spare (I think it's currently in Leeds). If any breakdown, there's a dwindling number of people that could fix one. Aston output would also have to be up-converted to HD, should it be needed on any HD output.
VizRT is expensive and complex though, as systems go. Chyron has it's own idiosyncrasies but is cheaper. RedBee make the BBC set for whatever system they can, so there are options.
Aston does still exist AFAIK but the latest incarnations run on Windows PCs and are not terribly well regarded I hear. Older Astons are pretty bomb proof though and do what they do very well. When they breakdown Aston can usually repair them though I agree that the older they get they harder they'll be to fix. HD isn't a problem because graphics for regional programmes that need to be HD (Inside Out is the only one currently I think) are generated within the edit anyway and not from the regional graphics kit.
As far as what RedBee provide, while they are excellent at designing the House Styles and produce wonderful colour documents detailling what can and can't be done, in my experience they're less good at providing the kit of parts a region might need. You get a DVD-ROM with examples of the style, but sometimes not the clean kit of parts you need to design your own stuff: backgrounds, cel animations, ttf files etc.
I asked for the bespoke font (a variant of Avenir ISTR) for BBC Two presentation one afternoon for use on that night's programme and the person on the end of the phone at RedBee towers couldn't understand why I needed it and didn't know how to send it anyway (they suggested I needed a line feed or a tape to be posted out!)
Ha ha! I have experience of that working with clients who tend to be sport governing bodies or something and have no idea about how graphics work. Once had someone turn up to a job with an Aston on, who wanted us to upload After Effects files. Felt sorry for the guy who spent ages designing them.
RedBee in my experience have been alright, but where I work we're lucky enough to have a Viz so they just had to export an archive of the Viz 'show'. You're right, it's just the house style, and that's where I have to take it from!
Also unlike BBC News, which has a centralised design team meaning house style is generally consistent and artwork can be shared across the IT network
If I was in a troublemaking mood I'd ask why they're seemingly incapable of generating a consistent BBC News logo or indeed using the correct one for BBC1.
Was it ultra bold used in those horrible graphics inbetween the original purple astons and the 2003 relauch?
*SCREAMS*
Yes.
(Before anyone complains, I should point out that that's not a screencap, by the way - just a mock-up of the graphics set in use around that time, which I put together for an earlier discussion.)
Was it ultra bold used in those horrible graphics inbetween the original purple astons and the 2003 relauch?
*SCREAMS*
Yes.
(Before anyone complains, I should point out that that's not a screencap, by the way - just a mock-up of the graphics set in use around that time, which I put together for an earlier discussion.)
The text would never look the crisp if it were a screenshot!
