The BBC is re-launching the logo for its interactive television brand, adding a red dot to represent the services available through the red button on the remote control.
The BBC is re-launching the logo for its interactive television brand, adding a red dot to represent the services available through the red button on the remote control.
The BBCi brand was first created as an attempt to bring online and interactive television services under a single identity. At the time, this introduced an “i” for interactive as a fourth block after the BBC logo, designed to work equally well in black and white or colour.
This brand was subsequently dropped for online services and is now used exclusively for interactive television. The new look logo now incorporates the “i” within a red dot and was designed in-house by BBC New Media rather than an external agency.
There has been a mixed response to the new look, which some have criticised for lacking clarity. “It looks like a committee job,” Martin Lambie-Nairn, who was responsible for designing the original BBC blocks logo, told informitv. “We try to make things simple. If you want to have a red dot that’s fine, but don’t have a square and a circle.”
The new look first appeared on the Telewest cable platform, with a re-working of the interactive menu system. It is due to roll-out across satellite and terrestrial platforms in the next few weeks, following by a marketing campaign in May.