Operator. Get me Whitehall 1212

The Met have begun a press campaign to publicise their new London-wide non-emergency number 0300 123 1212.

The continuity branding geek in me is rather pleased they've picked a number like this: the original Scotland Yard number from the beginnings of the London telephone network was famously "Whitehall 1212".

I suppose we should be grateful too, that it's not 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3.

BBC Ood

Here's something new that I have made. It's a variation on a theme of other stuff I have made, but after watching Planet of the Ood a couple of weeks back, this was a sequence which leapt out as needing this treatment:




UPDATE
If you can't see the embeded video above, then try this direct link to YouTube.

As an aside - YouTube really make it difficult to add widescreen content. Sort it out YouTube!

The News is Dead, Long Live the News

BBC News have decided to update their branding again (see previous post too). While I can see there is a degree of continuity of design in the titles, I think this version looks a bit too busy and confused. I prefered the previous one.
On a more positive note, and long overdue is the rename of "BBC News 24" to just "BBC News" or, if you insist, the "BBC News Channel". It was always an unwealdy name and struck me as trying a bit too hard to ram its rolling-ness down your throat.
What's nice for branding titles geeks like me is they have posted a veritable wealth of variations:
Here, here, here, here, here and here.

Changing Change

When the competition was first announced for redesigning our coins I fully expected to hate the result. The brief was to come up with something which better reflected a "modern Britain" so I was anticipating something trite and trying far too hard.

I have to say that I like them. The split design is innovative without trying too hard and means we can retain a degree of consistent heritage with the heraldic imagery we've had on our coins for the last ever.

It's also kind of fun that the press and others are already having fun with the images whether that's referring to the new Pound Coin design as the "Jigsaw Box" or nicknaming a Twenty Pence piece as a "Lion's Arse". The nicknames are something which has been lacking since decimalisation in 1971 so I hope that some stick, however crass.

As ever change is not without some controversy. It's a shame that there's no specific design for Wales as while we lose the old Two Pence Prince of Wales feathers. Britannia's loss is something else which some papers have been wailing about. However - the existing coins are not being withdrawn. They can last for decades so Britannia Fifty-pences will be around for a long while yet. I'd also be surprised if we don't end up with Britannia appearing again. Perhaps on a redesigned Two Pound coin using the brilliant new Britannia design currently appearing on the Mint's collector's coin for an ounce of silver. One thing which does puzzle (rather than bother) me is the fact that words have been chosen for the value in each case rather than figures. It will rely on everyone using them knowing English, at least for those few words.

Bong!

ITV1 did one the only sensible things they have done in a long time and resurrected News At Ten. It's the first time since 1999 that the bongs have been heard. Of course I'm approaching it from my geeky title-sequence and branding way so I have to say I'm impressed. The whooshing from space is back, the iconic music is back and in full.

Compare and contrast this from 1988:



with this from 2008:



Update:
To see a short clip on how ITN and MPC put the new title sequence together click here

All very much deja vu, but in a good way. It brings home just how much the London skyline has changes in just 20 years too.

It's just a shame that ITN still seems to be a shadow of its former self. The bulletin had an obvious effort put into it but ITN has dumbed down so much in the last 5 years or so that they have a large hill to re-climb.

Fame part two, on TWO

In the continuing story of the spread of my spoof BBC ONE ident, one of my You Tube watchers has just pointed out that the BBC TWO website are linking to it now.

It's here - at the bottom of the page under 2-turn.
At least for now.

Yay!

Brand Watch

Today BBC News updated their title graphics and music. It's all very similar to what they had before, and I'm sure that the only people to notice or care will be title branding geeks like me.

I like it. The new title sequence, across all the news bulletins, does seem to start with a rather disturbing nuclear accident in Turkey, but it does keep the theme of the last few years. So they keep their wooshing stream of "BBC NEWS" - an image with a sort of continuity going back to the rather more sedate graphic revolving around the top of the Alexandra Palace transmitter in the 1950s.

Finally, they have seen sense and dropped the ridiculous two-word headline from the on-the-hour title sequence for News 24. It was tortuous seeng them try and reduce the headline to ten or 12 characters - invariably IRAQ BOMBS. Worse even than the old extremes of CEEFAX editors needing to fill the entire headline-row in teletext news stories.

News 24 have also decided, at long last, that they are actually offering a widescreen service. They have positioned their on-screen clock in a discrete position tucked right into the bottom-left corner. Before now they insisted in having it in the form of a large box set annoyingly far over from the bottom left corner. There, it always looked incredibly odd unless you happened to be watching a feed cropped to fit a 4:3 near-square style television where it actually would be in the corner. As it was it looked like someone had stuck a red post-it to the screen. That's all well and good until you realise that News 24 was a digital-only channel offered only in widescreen format. So why bother?