BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

While last week's Class episodes were both introduced with Exercise Class, this time they used the wheelchair and mountain rescue idents.

I wouldn't have thought that had been the case since 1997. From that time, the logo on the balloon idents and the 2 idents used to appear a few seconds in - I'm sure there wasn't someone sitting there pressing a button to make it appear otherwise you'd never see it appear at exactly the point each time!

They should have done something like this.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqv-ab9iH8w

It's like a pretty dire game of spot the difference.

Just watched the balloons on my TV. They don't look dated at all, apart from picture quality wise. If you had a new widescreen HD/4k version you have very good idents and no need to think of a new idea. Does the original balloon still exist? BBC do it.

These Oneness idents were an in house production, polite way of saying they did it cheap. Maybe they should have outsourced creation to Atos.

The balloon is dated in terms of concept. It's an odd one that only worked in the context of what came before it. 15 years after it was replaced and 20 years after the last globe it would be even odder.


In house doesn't necessarily mean cheap, but then it doesn't necessarily mean bad either.

Though one of the reasons it's been mentioned in publicity is because giving money to design companies doesn't really sit well... though they've not made much fuss about all the insourcing that's happened from Red Bee and Atos recently

To be honest, whatever the BBC produce for the rebrand, whenever it happens, won't be a concept that works (based on what they have produced elsewhere recently). BBC One now stands for nothing, it's flat. The damage is already done. Better to re-establish it using a globe.

I think the balloon is in a museum now. I think they were fantastic for their time but they have had their day. Time to move on.

BBC One's problem is that it just doesn't have the budget to beat its competitors. It's slowly losing good content. I was speaking to some family members and BBC One is hardly watched anymore. BBC One used to be on all the time at home as there was only a few channels and the Internet was only starting to grow.

I can't see things getting any better I'm afraid... it's a sinking ship... viewers are going elsewhere... mainly the Internet. The BBC knows this and they will want to invest more money into the iPlayer going forward.

Except... https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/21/bbc1-shows-dominate-2016-tv-ratings

And as that piece points out, BBC1's audience share was up 0.5% year on year.

BBC One still has some big shows, in my opinion they would not need to spend loads on a rebrand, they just need to get a good idea together, even if its computer generated, similar to BBC HD (not as big and bash). They just need something "solid". I know some people would hate a generated version, but it's better than a load of people standing around. If they want to do something like that, they have to spend money or it looks cheap.



Was this "rebrand" signed off by Tony Hall? oh dear....

I wouldn't have thought such decisions go as far up as that

I would doubt it - channel rebrands mainly go under the responsibility of channel controllers (correct me if I'm wrong).



I have to concur with you about the Balloon - great set of idents, but they would look pretty dated. If they were to come back, it would be as a stopgap, purely due to popularity or even as part of an anniversary, as the 90s BBC TWO idents have shown.

What the BBC should truly do, is instead of the dire 'Oneness' idents, look to the past as inspiration. The circles. The virtual globe. The COW. The Balloons. Then take that inspiration, cobble it up into a new idea for branding on ONE, and then you have a concept that can show quality and authority. It represents a symbol - simple but effective. And as a nod to previous pres packages.

Something that's been done to some extent with the BBC TWO Artsnight idents - simply an inspiration to the 90s '2's, but taking it to a modern era, and mixing in some new ideas and concepts, as well as having a balanced personality. Extend that to a completely new ident set and embody the BBC TWO of today.

And fix the inconsistency and make the channels align properly.

None of this is present in the current set of BBC ONE idents. There is no symbol that represents the channel. There is no mastery of the medium that it's based on. It's a technical disaster, visually and audibly. The creativity is entirely missing. It's dull, vapid and frankly it has stripped away the channel's branding personality.

Let's not regress completely back to previous ident sets - look to them as inspiration, and create something that is fresh and new, while being a nod to previous pres packages. The circles are a great example, representing unity - while taking inspiration from the legendary globe.