Thanks for the constructive comments everyone. A few mixed opinions regarding the animating bars and the “2 slogans” but I think I'm getting the overall gist of what works and what doesn't. From my point of view, the two things that need most attention are the BBC2 trail tag and the overall flow of the junction both of which, echoing what others have said, don't seem to work.
In response to a few specific comments:
I don't like the 'Escape 2', 'Do this with 2', '2 does that to you' animations that appear at the beginning of promos, I think they don't really add to the promo and distract you from the theme of the promo.
With the 'Come home 2' slogan, I think that should only be a few second thing, instead of remaining on screen through the promo. The 'Come Home' part could animate out and just leave the '2' behind as the channel ID.
Also nice to see the '2' featuring as a proper logo in the technical sense, on the trail slogans. The new idea to have it read as part of a phrase works effectively.
The “2 slogans” thing was a subtle attempt at reintroducing a bit of character and humour into the theme, as such I knew it would either be liked or disliked. Perhaps they are given too much prominence and I fully understand when you say they can distract from the actual trail. I have an idea of how to integrate them more subtly and with less screen time, an idea which may go some way to solving the following issue regarding the displaying of programme/channel info...
My only thoughts on what could change - maybe drop the two stripes on the lower left and replace that with a 2. Then you wouldn't have the smaller 2 next to the BBC logo that doesn't match.
The small (Avenir?) '2' next to the BBC logo at the end of trails: this seems incongruous - all use of '2' on screen to refer to BBC2 should use the AMV '2' in line with the idents...
The biggest problem here is where to place the BBC logo. Having decided I wanted a sole BBC logo to the left on the idents, I thought keeping the blocks in the same position on trails would be a good plan being the consistency freak I am. But how then to reference the channel? The large “2” on the right is too far away for a BBC-only logo to work, especially when you add plugs for HD and iPlayer into the mix. Ultimately, it all leads back to that age-old problem: what is the channel's logo, is it the (AMV) “2” or the “BBC Two” legend/box? Personally, I'm inclined to go along with the L-N policy of “BBC Two” as the logo and the “2” as the channel's property/personality. That was the main thinking behind the “BBC
[Avenir numeral]
2” tag on the trails, along with the impracticality of displaying the AMV 2 at such a small size, of course.
However, I think in my eagerness to revert back to the “BBC2” moniker and return the 2 to centre-stage I may not have put enough thought into the logo design. Since uploading, I've come to the conclusion “BBC2” as a logotype doesn't work. For a kick-off, it would be a nightmare cross-channel promotionally although perhaps the biggest flaw is it not being able to appear directly alongside the 2 without appearing to suggest “BBC22.” Initially, I tried taking inspiration from the channel logo I created for the
October 2008 mock; the great thing about that was it allowed for a sole BBC logo on the idents to remain in-keeping with the wider package. But I just couldn't get the BBC to sit nicely on the left of the 2.
The trail design I've come up with is quite restricted in terms of what I can move around to solve this issue, ie getting the 2 over to the immediate right of the BBC logo. Then the question becomes what to do with the large 2 on the far right that seems to have been well received? Is it going to be a case of (apologies) too many 2s?
These are the
big
questions.
Suddenly, bringing back a 1997 style “BBC Two” tag looks an attractive option. I'll see what I can come up with, perhaps shifting the bars to the opposite side of the screen in front/in place of of the big 2 with channel info on the left...
I'm not keen on the manner in which the two bars animate. I expected the right and one to fly away and come back to the left with the text animating as it swiped over.
Yeh, I'll look at tidying up the two bars' animation with a view to giving them more to do.
The transition from the next slide to the promo just doesn't work for me. It adds unnecessary time and I'd prefer it if it just cut to the promo like now. Also, it would work in an ideal world, but I don't think it would work well in practice.
I see no other problems with the actual design and layout, but I do question the overall flow - transitions from pointer to trailer are handled very nicely, but I'm not sure how much they really bring to the look - whether it is an effect for the sake of it, where a traditional cut would serve just as well or even be less 'clunky', perhaps so?
There seems to be some doubt over the viability of the transition from next slide to trail. In the real world it probably would require more effort than justifiable and I'll admit it was more to see if I could replicate the 07-09 style accurately. I'm torn as I do think it works well but at the same time can see where you're coming from, ie a realistic perspective.
Possibly my biggest doubt is the effectiveness of the short ident cuts between trails...
I had the original stings in mind when interspersing the idents and probably would have used them had I had them available. With their scarcity in mind, I may go back to removing the idents' soundtracks and overlaying sfx
as demo'd here unless someone has the stings on tap and wouldn't mind loaning them. *Pretty please.*
Yep, I decided to go back to a complementary pastel palette, Paul and will utilise more colours in the follow-up.
Pete, I attached these nation-specific examples at the end of my first post if you'd like to take a gander. Nowt too exciting:
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/bbc211/14.jpg
http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/bbc211/15.jpg
Thanks again. Will take your ideas on board and look to develop this further.