Logo Presentation

I didn't really know where to put this as I'm new so if a mod wants to move it, its fine with me.

The current BBC logo to me is timeless and still looks as great as the day the BBC launched it in 1997. The logos are up there along side McDonalds, Nike or Apple.

My question is that do you think this logo will ever need changing in the future? I saw a few logo redesign pictures in The Gallery so I thought to post this.

UPDATE: Changed the title considering how off topic this got.

The guidelines on its use will most likely change dramatically and it will be used differently, but changing the block is some I don't think will happen.

I certainly hope not. It was one Lambie-Nairn's great triumphs.

The only problem now is that the guidelines provided by L-N are not really followed any more. Up to and including 2000, all BBC channels were consistent in their look. Then BBC2 broke ranks with the purple box in 2001 and it's gone steadily downhill ever since.

If we could ever go back to those days, I'd be very happy, but I don't see it happening any time soon.

As screen definition continues to improve, I suspect the temptation to revert to the historic italic style will be irresistible. It's poor rendering on digital devices at the time, being the lead in the change to the squared blocks.

I don't. Would look very dated in any definition. Anyway I thought it was more to do with the fact the italic shape didn't sit well on web pages.

The guidelines for use of the blocks have changed significantly since the original 2D logo was introduced by Lambie Nairn in the 90s. In those days the logo could only be treated as a single coherent entity, with no animation that broke the logo up.

Much more recently these rules were relaxed and changed to allow for the new branding techniques offered by project Trinity (I think it was called) that allowed the three blocks to exist as separate, animated, 3D elements.

The rules for use of the flat 2D logo remain I believe, though as others have noted, since so much of the BBC's branding is no outsourced, these rules are seldom enforced. The same is true of a number of other branding rules. For instance BBC websites should not appear on-screen with the www. prefix since the BBC revised their servers to accept requests without the www. pre-fix. However you often see the www. used (Masterchef, Only Connect etc.)

Personally I think the logo still satisfies the original purpose - and in the current financial environment of the BBC I don't see any apetite for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence-fee money on replacing signage, stationery, on-screen branding etc. in the UK and around the world.

I doubt it. One of the points they made about straightening the boxes was that the BBC had used italic boxes since the 60s, and using a then-30 year-old design wouldn't have matched with their view of going "into the future" with the digital age etc.

The italic boxes have an inherent tendency to never look properly centred, especially with the RGB bars underneath. That's the sort of thing that keeps people like me awake at night.

Wasn't the relaunch of TOTP in 2003 the straw that broke the camel's back? Animating onto the screen one box at a time (the centre B being the first box, IIRC) and also having a hideous Powerpoint gradient at the same time?




As for it getting changed, well like all things there will be some berk one day who will mention it looks "tired", or some other berk who steams in to an already established organisation and changes everything because he/she wants to put their "stamp" on it. See Charles Allen's obsession with hearts, for example.

I see nothing wrong with that, if that logo did that on Songs of praise then, it would be a different kettle of fish.

That was horrible.

There's nowt wrong with it, it suits the titles quite well, except that it broke all the then-current branding rules and guidelines.