Mother Design creates “youthful” rebrand for Radio 1

The London-based design studio of advertising agency Mother has created the new branding for the BBC radio station, in a bid to help it appeal to its target audience of 15-29-year-olds.

Mother Design studio has created a new brand system for BBC Radio 1 that aims to be “youthful” and “impactful”.

BBC Radio 1 has been around for more than 50 years, transmitting popular music and programmes over the airwaves and aiming to “entertain and engage” a target audience of 15-29-year-olds, according to the broadcaster.

It has also launched a series of sub-brands over the years such as Live Lounge, Biggest Weekend and Teen Awards.

A few years back it took steps to reemphasise its focus on a younger audience, such as switching its Breakfast show host from Chris Moyles to Nick Grimshaw, who has recently made way for Greg James.

Now the brand has called on Mother to create a clear brand that matches its “youthful” vibe, and makes an impact in a competitive market, according to the design studio.

The studio has created a new graphic language, (employed the BBC Reith font?) across communications and created a series of illustrations and animations.

It is designed to be flexible to Radio 1’s needs, while uniting all the elements of the brand and sub-brands, says Mother.

Mother has also created a set of brand guidelines for the BBC, which in-house teams can use internally.

Many of the animations centre around the monochrome Radio 1 logo – the number 1 in a circle – which Mother has not changed. They include multiple copies of the logo falling from the top of the screen and concentric circles radiating out from the logo in waves.

The graphic illustrations feature various overlapping geometric shapes such as circles and triangles in bright colours such as green, blue, pink and purple, along with black.

These will be used in various ways, such as becoming backgrounds on posters, online and on social media, as well as on print advertising billboards and branded buses.

All images courtesy of Mother Design. 

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