[Rolling News]

.... with the BBC News theme which is oh so African.

Please don’t tell me Focus on Africa is going to be using the generic BBC News theme.

[ViridianFan]

Just loving this…

Such a clever representation of Africa.

 I’m now starting to worry what on earth the network bulletins and regional news will end up looking like. I know some people are fed up on the current branding but I’d far rather keep that then have random shapes. I would not look at any of these graphics and think national broadcaster.

Could you imagine if this happened before September last year and the static image which came on the screen was not the globe in grey, it was one of these? Could you imagine as countries around the world showed how the news was broken here in the UK (as they did) or people looking at it in years to come, would you want that being the image which represents the national broadcaster and the UK? There are people on YouTube who have far superior graphics without a fraction of the BBCs resources. 

You look at the BBC Nordic idents, visually stunning. It’s starting to feel anything UK it’s that will do when it comes to branding.

[Moz]

 I’m now starting to worry what on earth the network bulletins and regional news will end up looking like. I know some people are fed up on the current branding but I’d far rather keep that then have random shapes. I would not look at any of these graphics and think national broadcaster.

Could you imagine if this happened before September last year and the static image which came on the screen was not the globe in grey, it was one of these? Could you imagine as countries around the world showed how the news was broken here in the UK (as they did) or people looking at it in years to come, would you want that being the image which represents the national broadcaster and the UK? There are people on YouTube who have far superior graphics without a fraction of the BBCs resources. 

You look at the BBC Nordic idents, visually stunning. It’s starting to feel anything UK it’s that will do when it comes to branding.

You’re making that silly assumption that simple=bad and complicated=good.

This is a clever, simple, memorable device. I much prefer it to all those swirls and cats cradles.

[ViridianFan]

You’re making that silly assumption that simple=bad and complicated=good.

This is a clever, simple, memorable device. I much prefer it to all those swirls and cats cradles.

Ah. You see you’ve fallen into the trap of making the assumption that I don’t like it because it’s simple. One should never assume as it makes…well we all know the rest. 

I’ve no issue with simple. I think back to the early days of the news multi-screen and simple intro they had on there and i though it was great. You can have simple but it can still look good quality. I know minimal is what the branding world likes at the moment but i think you can go too far. 

When I did a topic with my year 5 class on evolution of the media, part of their IT lessons were making animations for a school news program. Some where awful, some where of a similar standard to these and some were much better. 

As I said before, some great news channels on YouTube I’ve come across and they’ve used a very simple design but it’s looks a much higher quality, whereas these titles don’t look high quality.

For the record, I’ve never been a huge fan of the 2008 rebrand. I though the addition of the white always looked too stark. I’ve also thought that the titles were too busy, especially with the cats cradles and the pulses. I always felt the 2007 look was changed far too quickly.

[LDN]

You’re making that silly assumption that simple=bad and complicated=good.

This is a clever, simple, memorable device. I much prefer it to all those swirls and cats cradles.

You're making that silly assumption -- again (pres.cafe ) -- that anyone criticising a simple design believes that all simple design is bad. 

There's a big difference between saying "this simple design is bad" and "this design is bad because it's simple", as well you know -- so I really don't understand why you keep choosing to misrepresent what others are saying. 

As far as the new Focus on Africa design itself goes, in my opinion, it's just more of the same basic, bland design and animation, and weak branding, along with the new icon, which I've extrapolated to full-size below: 



Personally, it seems to me like one of those ideas that everyone thinks is very clever when they're brainstorming design concepts -- but which doesn't work particularly well in practice. 

It's obviously meant to be an iconographic -- and not a literal -- representation of Africa, and you can kind of see what they were going for. But when I look at those shapes, I wouldn't immediately think 'Africa'. And unlike the design of the previous opening titles, seeing this new icon swimming in nothing but shades of red, there's nothing else that evokes thoughts or images of Africa in the new branding either.

When I see this icon, I'm minded of maybe a bank or crypto company; perhaps something to do with sailing (!?); or just a logo for a generic global corporation from a movie (I was initially reminded of the iFruit logo from GTA...). I don't look at that icon and think "Africa", or even "BBC News", so I'm struggling to view this as a branding triumph. This isn't an improvement on the previous branding in any way that I can see. 

And aside from anything else, I personally don't think it's a particularly pleasant configuration of shapes. As a piece of design, it's just plain weird to look at; and as a representation of Africa, even an iconographic one, it takes considerable liberties with the actual geography to fit the graphical style. Aesthetically and graphically, I think it's a pretty weak solution in practice, that should have been discarded during the design process. 

Others may disagree (that's the thing with design -- its beauty, or not, is always in the eye of the beholder...), but in my opinion, like everything else in this new era of BBC News design, this latest example is basic, generic, and wholly inferior to what it replaced.

[harshy]

Dare I say it but the regional stuff is better then what’s going out nationally and internationally, I am guessing the regional graphics are still chameleon lite however.

[Clark]

Echoing previous comments here I really doubt there is any branding co-ordination.

A few months ago you saw BBC News moving towards a more square design, the horizontal wipes, straight lines (The Context, The Catch-up)

Now it’s about circles and Lambie-Nairn again but 2D. The Across the UK sting confuses me because they replaced a similar Breaking News wipe effect that used a circular design to straight lines. 

Everything here looks so interim — but if it really was interim, why do we see programs like Focus on Africa rebranding?

About FoA, I have to agree with someone earlier on in the thread who thinks the new symbol is unrecognisable. I only saw it as Africa after looking at it several times and while I get it’s supposed to be simple, it really lacks depth or any sort of functionalism. It really seems like something made on PowerPoint by an intern with not much thought put into it.

[Spencer]

It reminds me of the original Grampian ident in reverse…

rewind.thetvroom.com 

Grampian TV ident (1961) - Rewind
The original Grampian ident.
  Source: rewind.thetvroom.com

Seriously though, there’s a fine line between minimal, classy design, and something basic, unrefined and cheap, and this very much the latter.

[harshy]

Does anyone know where these new titles are coming from it has to be an inside job maybe that Chris Cook and his team?

[ViridianFan]

You're making that silly assumption -- again (pres.cafe ) -- that anyone criticising a simple design believes that all simple design is bad. 

There's a big difference between saying "this simple design is bad" and "this design is bad because it's simple", as well you know -- so I really don't understand why you keep choosing to misrepresent what others are saying. 

As far as the new Focus on Africa design itself goes, in my opinion, it's just more of the same basic, bland design and animation, and weak branding, along with the new icon, which I've extrapolated to full-size below: 



Personally, it seems to me like one of those ideas that everyone thinks is very clever when they're brainstorming design concepts -- but which doesn't work particularly well in practice. 

It's obviously meant to be an iconographic -- and not a literal -- representation of Africa, and you can kind of see what they were going for. But when I look at those shapes, I wouldn't immediately think 'Africa'. And unlike the design of the previous opening titles, seeing this new icon swimming in nothing but shades of red, there's nothing else that evokes thoughts or images of Africa in the new branding either.

When I see this icon, I'm minded of maybe a bank or crypto company; perhaps something to do with sailing (!?); or just a logo for a generic global corporation from a movie (I was initially reminded of the iFruit logo from GTA...). I don't look at that icon and think "Africa", or even "BBC News", so I'm struggling to view this as a branding triumph. This isn't an improvement on the previous branding in any way that I can see. 

And aside from anything else, I personally don't think it's a particularly pleasant configuration of shapes. As a piece of design, it's just plain weird to look at; and as a representation of Africa, even an iconographic one, it takes considerable liberties with the actual geography to fit the graphical style. Aesthetically and graphically, I think it's a pretty weak solution in practice, that should have been discarded during the design process. 

Others may disagree (that's the thing with design -- its beauty, or not, is always in the eye of the beholder...), but in my opinion, like everything else in this new era of BBC News design, this latest example is basic, generic, and wholly inferior to what it replaced.

It’s like you’ve read my mind and put it far more eloquently than I could! 

As you said it feels like someone has taken this idea of the three bbc blocks morphing into something and just run away with the idea. 

Personally I dislike the new icons for iplayer, sports etc. some of them feel very tenuous. 

When you watch the Lambie-Nairn speech on rebranding BBC News in 2008 and the brand architecture where you started with bbc news pure brand all the way to BBC News light where elements from the pure brand filters down Tony the lower levels.  

As others have said there seems to be no brand overview. It feels at the moment that what we are seeing is the first drafts of a concept not the finished product. I know it’s frequently been pondered if these are temporary but would they waste money on temporary looks when finances are so tight. 

Do we know if network news and the nations and regions are to undergo this treatment?