BBC Newsbeat’s ‘patronising’ identity redesigned to appeal to Snapchat generation
BBC Newsbeat has overhauled its “patronising and old fashioned” brand identity as it looks to keep pace with rapidly innovating content channels and appeal to what it calls the Snapchat generation" of 16-24 year olds.
To reach it’s intended demographic, Newsbeat worked with design agency Moving Brands to redesign its website including the logo, layout and colour scheme to better reflect its content offering.
The design reflects a fresh, paired back approach to make Newsbeat’s wordmark more recognisable on social media when retweeted outside of BBC context.
Speaking to The Drum, executive creative director at Moving Brands Darren Bowles said that BBC told the agency to steer clear of a redesign that would purvey a stuffy image.
“The existing brand identity was understandably perceived as too patronising, old fashioned, and out of date to the intended demographic,” he explained. “The team we worked with at the BBC hastened to add that what we replace it with cannot look like ’Dad dancing at a wedding’.
“The different perspective [Newsbeat] bring to the news and issues is what drove the rebrand and experience design. The identity is about being on and off the beat. Much of Newsbeat’s content is about what’s happening now in news and entertainment - it’s about being on the beat. But Newsbeat also provide an off-the-beaten path in-depth view on specific topics”.
Bowles added that he wanted to capture this “currentness” with a brand that responded more to the now; the wordmark itself refreshes and reacts to activity, and the images and layout online have a playful feel.
“Within the site and app’s behaviour there are also some smart nuances to the design capability such as colour scraping of images to affect the colours within the user interface and type as well as real physics underpinning the movement of the card segments, which tilt in precise corners when touched,” continued Bowles. “These small moments add up to a more considered and engaging Newsbeat that is created to digital first and not radio first, providing more longevity”.
The new look is now live across all Newsbeat's sites and social media presence.
