New BBC corporate font: BBC Reith

Re: Beyond 100 Days. It's my 4th news programme to see it (partially) in Reith.

My first three to see Reith were The Seven, The Nine & The Edge on BBC Scotland.

It has quite a bit of teal added to the blue to make it a sea coloured blue. It's quite a big transformation to the look & tone of the programme. I noticed that change instantly when I began to watch it on the NC. It used to be a dark coloured blue before. The relaunched titles look nice and bright for the intro. Reith looks really big on these titles even without the BBC News box located beside them from before at the start. I was looking at the logo's graphic on the big screen in C. The look of it completely transforms the look of the screen. The lighting effects in C though do appear to look to be the same with the same backdrop as before.

The lower thirds has some subtle changes applied to it but no Reith added to them yet which is a little odd. Programmes like VD & Impact have made the changes to the lower thirds without any issue & they look quite well. But Beyond 100 Days doesn't get the same treatment yet. The name tag has a darker shade of teal blue. The revised logo on the right hand side of the lower thirds looks very noticeable because it had no bits of red applied to it before. Just think about that a sec about the logo itself. It used to be coloured in blue, green & white. Now it is coloured in teal blue, white with bits of red.

It is not a bad change to the programme. It looks good. The new titles launched yesterday look real impressive.

But the teal makes a nice but subtle change to it.

I had a go a while back:

Yours is better than mine because you stretched the C and boldened the letters.

I think that logo when used in branding with other Reith text is going to look much less awkward.

As Reith has been designed to be a drop in replacement for Gill, it's just too similar and looks off. I think that if you're going to mix fonts you need some sort of contrast.

Of course, as timeless as the BBC logo is, it is also rather bland and so to make it exciting does need a bit of imagination - for as long as I can remember it has only ever really been used as a solid colour with no animation - the glass blocks were about a close to something imaginative as they got.

I really think the branding at the BBC really does need an almighty rethink...

The glass blocks, and their forerunner ('This is what we do'/BBC Productions' targa sequence) and the old TOTP titles are the only examples of animation I can think of.

Personally I don't want to see Reith '*******' the perfectly formed blocks from 1997. I think the best use of Reith could be below the BBC logo going forward, as opposed to the immediate left of it. The Midlands Today slug proves Reith doesn't work alongside the current logotype and any variation of the logo with Reith in it looks like a poor redraw... Let's not give the corporation ideas.

Personally I'd like to see Reith just gotten rid of, obviously not saying Gill for everything because it isn't fit for purpose anymore and has been overused. Reith is essentially a cost cutting measure (and perhaps the reason the blocks are being left is because it's not actually a Gill weight within the blocks, though based off it?)

Well that’s not going to happen is it. They’ve invested so much in it, they won’t go back on that now.

Is it having a single typeface for a whole organisation that you don’t like, or just this particular typeface?

I think they have confirmed there are no plans to alter the BBC logo itself - just to move the sub brands over to BBC Reith fonts

The BBC blocks logo is staying Gill.

Although it's a pretty safe bet that at some point, someone in the corporation will end up using one of the TV Forum Reith mocks after finding it on a Google image search.

Can I briefly ask an off topic question?

How long do members who've been recently warned stay Recently Warned?

Seems like an awfully long time!

Isn’t it like a month? Then again time goes fast like this year has

Since yesterday