New look for BBC1

I remember that. I too was scared by the music...

I recently found an old Fawlty Towers video from 80s which has the electronic one - also quite scary!

I've also got an old Edd the Duck video (remember him?) which has the BBC COW version. Probably the best yet.

Both are here.

The font is different - look closely at the proportions of the C - and I'm not quite convinced the angle of the slant is the same.

Looks like the top one is slightly squashed to me. I remember there were quite a few dodgy versions of that logo doing the rounds, including the one on those BBC branded blank video and audio tapes where all the blocks and lines were too close together.

Ah yes, I have the COW Globe one on an old Lenny Henry video somewhere. That was just as scary! The present one is much more pleasant, but because I've heard it so much when I watch DVD, I now just want to fast forward to the actual menu!

I think you're right about the slant -- very similar, but the slant of the real logo seems a touch less. The main problem with that re-creation is the text seems too stretched, and not chunky enough. This is probably most noticeable on the "C".

Wallpaper of the logo, from the BBC's Cult site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/classic/bbc1988.shtml

It was introduced in 1986, not 1988 as that website tells us.

I seem to remember that logo had a very 'soft launch', and the previous logo with the rounded corners was still in use alongside it for a few years in many places. Whether that was intentional, or just that the new one was sloppily implemented I don't know. There certainly wasn't an overnight change like in 1997.

Well it wasn't used on the idents until 1991 and it was only shown clearly at the end of programmes in 1992. The news started using it at the start of the programme and on the backdrop by 1993, seven years after it was first introduced.

I couldn't say exactly when the corporate logo made its official debut - but I can tell you how it was rolled out on screen.

Its first regular use on-screen was in September 1988 on the BBC Sport ident, introduced at the same time as the Seoul Olympics. It also popped up sporadically on other programmes - for instance Daytime Live began with the words "BBC Pebble Mill Presents".

On January 1 1990 it appeared on the copyright line on end credits. Up til then, several programmes still used the older version of the rhombus boxes or simply wrote (C) BBC xxx in the same typeface as the end credits. Later that year new logos with the new corporate look were introduced for all the BBC's national radio stations.

Obviously the idents were changed in February 91 and the BBC News titles in April 93.

It's worth remembering that until the late 80s/early 90s the BBC didn't really use a corporate logo. The previous version of the rhombus boxes had been dying a slow death and by the late 70s, it was only really seen on copyright straps and the BBC2 testcard.

Going back to the other couple of posts... how the hell can anyone be scared of an ident? The music or the bleeding logo? People on here are truly freaky.

Errrm.. rubbish. If you were younger like 6 you would be scared, the Channel 4 ident (1982-1996) used to scare me. But now it doesn't, since I know what that thing is.

According to my mum, the same was true of me! God knows why though........