Superunion’s “irreverent” idents lend a hand to BBC Three’s relaunch
Superunion has designed a trio of characters and idents to mark the return of the return of the “unconventional” channel.
BBC Three has marked its return as a broadcast channel with a new series of idents and characters, designed by in-house team BBC Creative and brand consultancy Superunion.
The idents and characters have also been developed in collaboration with Ghost and BlinkInk director Robert Strange.
After six years as a digital channel, BBC3 returned this week as a linear channel. The channel, which has a target audience of 16-34, is responsible for shows like Normal People and Fleabag.
It returns with reality shows including Eating with My Ex and a new iteration of hit RuPaul-fronted series, RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Versus The World.
“Unapologetically unique personalities”
The characters, named Captain, Spider and Pointer, are animated human hands, each with distinct personalities. Superunion executive creative director Stuart Radford says that they are “unapologetically unique personalities”.
Captain is the swaggering leader, “never short of confidence”. Meanwhile, Spider is “friendly, cute and quick on their feet” while Pointer is the “strong, silent type”, according to the BBC. In various shades of bright pink and purple, the characters exist in a fluorescent green world.
As Radford adds, “for a brand like BBC Three, something irreverent and unconventional was required,” adding that it needed to engage a “young discerning audience”.
Two forms of idents have been crafted: two-second openers and closers which frame the programme trails. Together, the characters walk and dance around, and will also react to the pop culture events as well as issues affecting young people.
Longer-form continuity idents allow the audience to get to know the characters better, according to the BBC. “The audience will see them explore, misbehave and have a good time in their own green world,” the network adds.
BBC Creative creative director Susan Ayton calls the characters “as eclectic, funny and entertaining as the channel they represent”. “It’s a delight to hang out with all three of them and I can’t wait to see what they get up to in the future,” she adds.
What do you think of BBC Three’s new idents? Let us know in the comments below.
These resent BBC Three on-screen animated idents (shown), along with last years, more expansive, changes to BBC’s brand overhauled by Superunion is, to my mind, a soup of unimaginative blandness when compared to the body of work created by the greatly missed Martin Lambie-Nairn. It engendered charm, wit, intelligence, craft, consistency and brilliance. The BBC’s work that has followed in his footsteps has not come anywhere close to what Martin achieved. I relate it to the golden years of ‘Radio Times’ in the 70s when the talented designer David Driver became its art director. For over a decade he followed the essence of the BBC’s original mission, “to inform, educate and entertain. He did it with such intelligence and dedication that, like the work of Martin, picked up a mantelpiece full of awards. These days ‘Radio Times’ has no individuality and just merges in with the other TV guide magazines. I feel the same about the BBC brand changes.