[Brekkie]

So the chameleon look comes to BBC News. I’ve held off giving my opinion as I’ve kept saying the myself I need to give it time to settle and to get used to it but this morning kind of cemented my feelings. P

I like the idea behind, there being a common look across all channels and services. I think the BBC one idents are a clever idea. I sometimes think the lens could move a little slower but I like it. BBC Two are great and I like Three too. I do think CBBC and CBeebies have the best set. I was sad to see the CBeebies blobs go but I think making them the BBC block was great.

I’m really really not a fan of the icons. It’s a case of lovely idea but it’s just not worked. IPlayer and bite size are the only ones which are which are ok.

Whilst I like reith font overall, it feels like it lacks any presence when it’s being used for the channel logos. Its been design to be an easy but I read font which it is and in the context for reading articles or text on the screen it’s perfect but I feel it lacks character to be used in the channel logos. The should have used one of its variants for the channel names or had a second bbc font, even if it was along the lines of the old BBC one font.

I’m still not a fan of the new BBC blocks. They just look like such a bad mock up. I feel that they brings back some of the problems that the 1997 logo was designed to overcome in relations to the B’s.

Overall, it leaves me really underwhelmed. I know people never like change but I think that in a lot of cases it feels a step back. The BBC always looked high quality. Everything was sharp, bright high finish. I don’t know if it’s the colour  they’ve picked for the channels but it looks so dull and lifeless. The splitting up of the BBC blocks and the channel/dept just doesn’t look right with them both being so small. If they’d been bigger and different don’t it could have worked.

In one sense it does summaries an bit how the BBC feels. It’s lost it’s spark at the moment. It feels a bit like it’s in survival mode at the moment and instead of coming out fighting it feels a bit like it’s hiding hoping not to be noticed.

Hate being so negative. I’ve really tried to like it but it’s kind of come now to the point I accept it is there but not as great as it could be.

I agree with much of this but I think we’re looking back with rose-tinted glasses. Pre-Chameleon we had years of mish-mashed logos, some boxed, others not, some in Gill, others bespoke. Not to mention oneness and the mess that was BBC Two pre-curves. 

BBC News aside, Chameleon has led to a coherent group of logos and styles across the corporation.

Surely though the entire point of the rebrand was to get rid of the mish-mash logos.   Yes, it may never have been a one-day change thing (but it could have been) but it should never have taken this long - over 18 months and still not finished.   The frustrating thing is most of the instances of the old logo hanging on are things which were relatively simple to change and could have been day one instructions.    It's ridiculous that many programmes being produced in 2023 carry the logo that was officially replaced in 2021 - a few have updated but they're still in the minority.    The weather logo was also such a simple change compared to news and sport but took the longest.   

Presentation wise we seem to be there now, though radio seemed to sort itself out before TV and online content is still going up with the old logo - again that should just be a simple template rollout.     Only channel I'm unsure about is BBC Parliament - out of sight out of mind to an extent, but not possible to check at the moment due to them just simulcasting BBC World News.