Welcome

Ok, you know I have to weigh in on anything British, and where transatlantic branding is concerned, I’d like to think I have an informed opinion.

I remember when I had BBC America all those years ago when I lived in Philly. Fancy cable was great! I used to watch the first seasons of Changing Rooms (with Carol Smiley), and AbFab and Coupling and of course The Office before it became so damn commercial and Americanised. BBC America rocks, and it’s doing well over here. Our tastes, it seems, turning toward the salty and British.

The new BBC America “roundel” logo and the old “three squares” logo

As you can see, BBC America is sporting a new look. Very bold, especially for the beeb who are seen as very conservative, family-friendly, televisual programming – even on this side of the pond. But with the new mark, they suddenly ebrace a multitude of subcultures including the Mods and the Punks.

Now, I haven’t actually watched BBC America in some time, so I can’t accurately say if the new look is afforded, appropriate and representative of the current state of things. I hope it is.

From a design perspective, I’m not sure about this. Two reasons: first, Americans don’t use the lower case A for anything! Its weak, passive, too curvy, not strong enough. We are Americans with a capital A, bitch! You wouldn’t abbreviate out country USa, now would you? Second, the targety nature of the logo is too strong in and of itself, and the lower case a gets lost. It looks British, which is good, but then you realise something is wrong. It takes too long, and its not clever enough. I think they could have done better, even if it were making use of the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes, or Red Mailboxes.

Brand New has a much better write-up including more supporting images. And if you wanna see some real British-cum-American icon action, check out my M&S NYC project.

// a tale of Britain, brands & branding, national identities
// Comments Off