"BBC TWO is changing"

Ok, who was expecting this? It's like when the 'Garden' ident re-appeared for the Chelsea Flower Show in 2001.

Certainly an interesting move. They could easily bring back all the 91-01 idents (including the ones retired during that time) and just slap a new logo on them. It seems that this is the first step to getting rid of the whole yellow theme...

We makes me wonder why they just didn't add the purple box to the earlier 2's and add to the set rather than ditching them entirely? Muppets!!

Yes! My thoughts exactly!

Now we have a piece of TWO's Xmas past back on our screens, it's worth noting it was in fact the last Xmas ident of the era, most likely reinstated because, aside from being very suitable for the events, it is one of a few 2's that is 3D and shown at an angle. Had the ident used a 2D symbol, for some reason I just don't think it would have been shown now.

I think the reality as to why they were ditched was to bring in greater consistency (that meant making all the idents samey and identical in colour) to compete in the digital multi-channel age...

But what could possibly be more recognizable than a huge bold '2' in the centre of the screen? That's what the vast majority of the previous idents were; just because the symbol and background changed in colour, doesn't make it any more difficult to recognize the '2' itself, which was distinctive.

Research showed how the 1991 idents turned viewers' perceptions of the channel around and made it more popular; arguably the most captivating and strong branding for over a decade, kept fresh with the continual addition of new ID's and withdrawl of others - and then it was consigned to the scrapheap in 2001. Unnecessary.

What I can confidently say, is that sooner rather than later, the yellow-background 'personality' 2's will be out of business. Whatever replaces it is anybody's guess; it could be better than this era, it could be worse...with any luck, the '2' itself will stay around whatever the look, as dropping it would be the absolute worst decision IMO.

Personally, I would like to see, Idents that use the 2's in more abstract ways than the clean 3D 2's we have now, but I would like to see the Yellow colour remain, with the purple, or change the purple to something that will be a complimentary colour to the Ident's colour.

The Teal and Blue of BBC Two 1993-2001 would be too cold now, and so I wouldn't recommend bringing that palette back. And I would like to see the box move to the same corner as BBC One, it would mean they could introduce a consistant ECP, and fix it all together.

I would also like to see the return of Short Ident Trails, perhaps have two trials per ident, so a junction could tie together, for example...


BBC TWO -

20:59:45 - Ident 'ATLANTIS' 16x9_15sec
21:00:00 - The Good Life
21:25:55 - Short 'ATLANTIS-A'_5sec
21:26:00 - Trail BBC1-EastEnders-Mrch12_SPX
21:27:00 - Trail BBC_Digital_Mrch-May_16x9
21:28:30 - Trail BBC2-MckTheWeek-1Mrch_19x9
21:29:45 - Ident 'MAGICK' 16x9_15sec
22:00:00 - This Week
22:25:55 - Short 'MAGICK-B'_5sec
22:26:00 - Trail BBC3-MonkeyDust-Tonight_16x9
22:27:30 - Trail BBC4-GoldsmthTrbut-Tomrow_16x9
22:28:00 - JnctnMenu 'MAGICK-Mnu'_TXdtls-Tomrow_STILL
22:29:45 - Ident 'GALLERY-NWS' 16x9_15sec
22:30:00 - Newsnight TX Live

And so on. Limit the amount of trails, alternate between digital channels and BBC One and Two. One trail per channel, these junctions can also be used for dynamic menus, still menus, and clip menus for Friday Night or Comedy Night etc.

And for a theme for the new look, its genres...

Documentary - World and Discovery Idents
Comedy - Comical 2's or Visual Punchlines
News - Gallery (serious views of the 2 in an art gallery)
Sport - Fast Moving 2's
Daytime - 2's in bright glass forms with bright backing scenes/sets
Film/Drama - 2's in classic dramatic movie parodies (the 2 under the street light as in the exorcist etc.)
Cooking - 2's shaped from food, cooking or on plates.

I think I was a little harsh when posting earlier as I do think this is a good idea to give a variety and is something different to what we have had for the past four and half years. The only problem with it though is that if it is used for every junction, it will lose its appeal and people will become sick and tired of seeing the Two skiiing off of a larger Two. I'd prefer that it was just used for Winter Olympic programming.

I do think that this is the beginning of the end of the yellow branding as first of all we have a Christmas ident which broke the yellow boundaries and now we have an ident for the Winter Olympics, again which does not have the signature tune. If the yellow Two is set to stay then I would have expected Snowman and maybe Ice Cube returning for junctions as well.

It's a good idea though IMO and I think that this should be done molre often for special series (like Doctor Who last year).

And here's the Ice Mountain 2 in the flesh:

http://www.alchemy3dc.co.uk/model-makers/stills/bbc22001.htm

Not that there will be that many junctions - the Winter Olympics is on for most of the day

BBC Two Christmas 2000 ident - well I didn't see that one coming!! Is this the first case of an ident from a previous 'era' being reused by any channel?

Bit of an odd decision - someone obviously must have sat down and looked or remembered about the previous idents and had the idea of using them. Still, great to see it again and it certainly sticks out like a (very good) sore thumb against the existing package. I appreciate why the yellow/white branding was introduced - to provide consistency but if a bunch of bold, creative 2's onscreen into whatever style and whatever soundtrack doesn't promote the brand, I don't know what will.

Maybe Roly's seen just how good the old idents were. Every junction may be a bit overkill but great to see it all the same...!

Asa

Why couldn't BBC ONE do ice skaters for their idents whilst the winter olympics are on?

Is ONE showing any Olympics coverage?

It's weird that BBC2 went for some sort of uniformity whereas Channel 4 just went with the logo in different settings. And the new 4 logos are far more striking because they aren't limited to one colour scheme or style. I think sometimes you need to look backwards to move forwards. The new Doctor Who titles are based on the classic 70's titles of Pertwee & Baker with a new twist, because it works so well. I hope BBC1 & 2 realise that the idents they had before were perfect, also that they are kept fresh by the designer's imagination. The ABC, NBC and CBS logos in America have been around for years but they haven't been ditched, just presented differently on screen; I really don't understand the BBC's need to change their main logos every few years. Okay so what I said doesn't strictly apply to the 2 because it's still the same logo from 1991, but when people saw those old 2's they knew which channel it was and gave the channel a cool factor which it lacks now.

Rather unusually no, it's all on BBC2. This is probably best because it won't rate that highly. Does anybody remember the Sydney Olympics when BBC1 had that special balloon ident? Can anybody explain why they used it in virtually every junction except before the Olympics itself!?!