Concept and creative process
The BBC clock was an integral component of the new BBC1 branding that was implemented in 1985. The Identity was still based on the globe that had been in use since the early 1960s, but modernised, using computer generated animation, rather than the mechanical NODDY, the acronym for the device previously used, the Nexus Orthicon Display Device. The ‘Computer Originated World’ (known by the acronym the 'COW') was the result. It was designed by Oliver Elmes and was in use from 1985-1991. Oliver Elmes worked with the BBC Computer Graphics Workshop and BBC Engineering Department to realise the new computer generated clock, which was played back on air from laser discs, cued from the Presentation Gallery.