A New Visual language for the BBC

Ratings

4 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Starting last autumn, BBC Creative Director Ben Gammon led a global rebranding of the Beeb’s digital products, enlisting the help of Neville Brody’s Research Studios along the way. The effort was ambitious and the results are quite handsome; this post goes into quite a bit of detail about what they produced and give some insight into the challenges of undertaking such a massive exercise in digital branding. Truly worth a look. (Also, you can download the manual to peruse in greater detail.) Thanks to Nedward.org for the link.

Jump to this link

+
  1. Matt Coyne

    It’s a comprehensive body of work that I’m looking forward to seeing rolled out across the BBC’s sites.

    I’m glad you picked up on the ‘led by Ben Gammon’. Some other publications have been writing it up with the emphasis on Research Studios. Whilst they were certainly a large part of the process, Ben and the internal team are integral to the final piece and have done a fantastic job.

    The UX&D team at the BBC sometimes don’t get the recognition they deserve, and I for one am glad to see it coming from yourself Khoi, especially as your posts about grids et al (back in the day) form part of the original inspiration at the BBC in 2007.

    FYI, it’s not obvious from the post, but the link you gave is for the GVL 2 (2008). The latest reincarnation is GVL 3, but it’s not available to download. Yet.

  2. Khoi Vinh

    Matt: I try to pay special attention to that sort of detail when it comes to in-house design groups, a sympathy that’s obviously rooted in the fact that I run an in-house design group myself.

    For those not familiar with the dynamics of working in-house, I can imagine how seeing the name of Neville Brody (and his face too! where was Ben’s portrait?!) colors the entire effort. But having seen how it works from the inside, I was betting my money on the fact that Ben and his team were doing the heavy lifting. That’s the way it works in reality.

    Well, I shouldn’t be so glib; hiring big name stars like Brody is a great way for organizations to get valuable design input. But when you have an organization that’s already as strong in design as the Beeb, the balance is much different.

Thank you! Your remarks have been sent to Khoi.