Concept and creative process
In 1967, when regular colour broadcasting began, the monochrome BBC2 logo animation was changed from the one that had been used on-air since the 1964 channel launch. The new animation, designed by Sid Sutton and Alan Jeapes, who re-designed the ‘2’, took the form of a numeral ‘2’ on the sides of a black rotating cube, each ‘2’ in a different colour in the sequence blue, red, green, and white. This represented the RGB colours that combine to make the full spectrum of colour on television plus white, the summation of all of the colours. In the original filmed version of the ident, the rotation was preceded by an animation of the three circles in the RGB colours which receded and merged to form a white dot in the centre of the black screen, around which the ‘2’ animated itself on in blue on a black cube, with the word ‘COLOUR’ appearing below in white sans serif capitals. The black cube on the black background was invisible to the eye and when it began to rotate and cycle through all of the colours it made the ‘2’ appear to be revolving in space. The effect was achieved by filming an actual revolving cube. This film had to be played live on air each time it was required until 1969 when the RGB colour concept was replaced by the same coloured ‘2’ on all facets of a black cube rotated by a NODDY device. This achieved the same result with more control and economy.