Launch New BBC Sport Graphics

[Internationalman]

The channel names being in black just looks wrong.

They don't look that bad.

Besides, aren't the channel names white on picture promos? We shouldn't care at all if the letters are black, as it is part of the branding!

[W. Knight]

Obviously very late to the party, I think the new graphics look okay, but one question: Why are multiple rows of info arranged in this 'blinds-esque' style...

but not underlined like their promos:


[2nd picture courtesy to scottishtv]

TBH I think the latter is simpler and more modern than the inset shadows style. Why the difference?

[Michael]

Re: previous graphics.  When was it they had those really plain blue and transparent graphics?

Well, it's at this point we turn to this brilliant thread on TV Forum, which features illustrations of all the various incarnations of the snooker graphics...
https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1036730#post-1036730

1999-2001 was the really plain set I think you're referring to - Gill Sans (I think) and non-animated. As I say, that launched on Grand National day and it was also the time they dropped the spinning world logo in favour of the BBC Sport intro with quick cut shots of blurry sports stars and no tune. 1999 was probably BBC Sport's annus horribilis in terms of rights losses (and Des' departure, of course), which seemed to fit with this plain set, quite a contrast to the whizzy graphics on other channels.

*sigh* That was a fun thread.

[PATV Scunthorpe]

As may be expected the Women's Euros are using the new graphics with a Euro branding coloured gradient, though it's very obvious to me that the animations are slightly (I emphasise... slightly) different to Wimbledon...

The Wimbledon graphics have the gradient fade on when a graphic is animated, while the Euros on from the start and are stretched vertically to begin and contract, the blending of the layers is also off on the Euros...

https://up.metropol247.co.uk/072022/1657...380107.mp4
https://up.metropol247.co.uk/072022/1657...199757.mp4

[harshy]

That bbc sport logo is so small it needs to be chameleon sized like the trailers.

Oh my goodness there’s a bbc sport dog on the bottom right that’s insane.

[Brekkie]

So unnecessary. It's massive too.

[brioalex]

Wow that gradient animation for the Women's Euros is bad... Just makes it look a bit naff. The Wimbledon graphics are more elegant but I feel like this is probably a flaw of the design in general.

[Rdd]

Oh dear, I know they’ve been doing something similar on studio coverage for while (with the old logo) but this is the first time I’ve seen it used in match. Is it because there’s no space for a BBC DOG on the scorebar, I wonder.

[brioalex]

It's all a bit of a mess really. Don't like the mix of left aligned text in the top table, then middle aligned in the bottom table with right aligned channel logos! The gradient blending is completely off and there just doesn't seem to be any typographical hierarchy there at all. 

[Lyric W.]

i want to say glitch, but... i'm not really sure.

the speed of the BBC logo's been fixed in the Women's Euro graphics, but i have to agree on the gradient, it's a little off compared to the Wimbledon version

[PATV Scunthorpe]

Based off the generic graphics used for the Athletics last week, the Wimbledon style does seem to be the "proper" style, which is the better one to me. Maybe the Euro animations are an earlier style they were going to use?

[Transmission]

It's all a bit of a mess really. Don't like the mix of left aligned text in the top table, then middle aligned in the bottom table with right aligned channel logos! The gradient blending is completely off and there just doesn't seem to be any typographical hierarchy there at all. 

Can't see much of a problem with it, nothing out of the ordinary about a group table and fixture list being presented like that.

[Andrew]

It looks awfully unbalanced at the bottom, probably doesn’t help that 3 of the teams have short names and Northern Ireland is much longer

I’m also not sure in general about the channel names just saying ONE, TWO etc in black. I think I’d prefer a coloured box!

[DE88]

I remember them changing from the italic font they used throughout the nineties into the non-italic font on Grand National Day in April 1999, which again was applied across BBC Sport, though MOTD still used the old graphics until the end of the season.

To be pedantic, BBC Sport used Univers Condensed Bold Italic from '88 until '96, then Helvetica Bold Italic from '96 until '99.

The start of the Seoul Olympics in September '88 marked the introduction of both Univers Condensed Bold Italic and the atom globe. When the Barcelona Games came round four years later, the globe was changed, but the font stayed the same.

Euro 96 was when Helvetica Bold Italic came in, along with the so-called "Fisher-Price" version of the globe. Then, when Lambie-Nairn's BBC logo arrived in October '97, again the globe was changed but the font wasn't.

April '99 was indeed when BBC Sport adopted Gill Sans Bold (except on MOTD until August), and the globe was retired.

Continuing the story, the 2001 graphics package - sneak preview in that Greece v England game in June and official introduction in August, as you say - featured Gill Sans Bold Italic and Gill Sans Condensed Bold, before the overhaul in February 2003 brought with it the non-italic version of Univers Condensed Bold. And as the italic version had survived the tweaks to the surrounding presentation in '92, so the non-italic version survived the tweaks made when the 2006 World Cup came round.

Then, of course, with the next WC in 2010 came Gotham - although Univers Condensed Bold lived on on the darts coverage, when the player named on the bottom row of the graphic was on a bogey number when throwing...

[mvjr4]

The score bar graphic used in half-time/full time, featuring slightly unequal gaps between the boxes and the scores separated by an almost invisible yellow line [EDIT: Replaced by a black line at full time]




The stats graphic: