BBC Radio logos - an idea half thought through

Michael Johnson writes almost exactly the same thing I woke up this morning thinking about (I really must get out more):

Earlier this year, Fallon beat off several proper design companies to review BBC radio’s idents.

Here was a chance for advertising to flex those design muscles, and show ’em how it’s done. And yes, they are better than they were, but that’s damning with faint praise - look how awful they were before.

Taking their cue from the previous Radio 1 identity (a ‘1’ in a circle) they’ve taken the decision to, er, put all the numbers in circles. Coloured circles, mind you. Some of the numbers have little ‘gags’ - the ‘3’ contains a bass clef (for music, you see), the ‘4’ a quote mark (I guess that must be for talking), and so on.

Not being a Radio 7 listener I presumed it aired DIY shows until it was pointed out that the symbol was a smile, not a bent nail (shame - that’s an interesting idea for a logo).

What was probably quite a neat little system fell apart somewhere between soho and white city - rather than have any gags for radios 1, 2, 5 and 6, we just have coloured numbers. Oh, and some hair for the Asian network. All for 120,000 pounds.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Fallon’s work and think they have a better ‘design’ eye than most. But if we’re applying the ‘wish I’d done that’ test, well I don’t. Had this been a blind tasting I’d have guessed this came from a mid-table design company who had their first idea messed up by the client.

Mmm. Maybe this design thing isn’t as easy as it seems?

This is an adaptation of an article by Michael Johnson in this week’s Campaign magazine

(Via the johnson banks thought for the week.)