BBC One 'Balloon' idents

The BBC One Balloon idents were a series of idents used on BBC One from 4 October 1997 to 29 March 2002. The balloon theme replaced the computer generated spinning globe which had been used as the main ident on the channel since 1991. It launched on the same day as a BBC-wide rebrand, and thus the new idents also carried the new BBC logo. The channel's name also changed, from BBC1 to BBC One.

The hot air balloon featured in the idents was filmed on location and also added to scenes by computer generation. It was built by Cameron Balloons in 1997, and made its first flight that year, flying from the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. It made its final flight in August 2002 before being placed into storage. The balloon's flight certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority expired on 17 July 2003.

As part of a large relaunch of the BBC's corporate logo and the ident packages of BBC's One and Two, these new idents were used to replace the old virtual globe. As a result of the rebrand, which saw the channel name lose all personality, it was proposed by the design agency Lambie-Nairn that the personality be added a different way, namely by making the globe interact in the country and the peoples lives.

The idea was designed and conceptualised by the Lambie-Nairn design agency in London, with the balloon itself made in Bristol by Cameron Balloons Ltd: its aircraft registration was "G-IBBC".

The look itself featured a predominantly red balloon, with the map of the world picked out in orange with white clouds on top, floating over various scenes of the British landscape. The colours were chosen because a blue balloon with a green map would have been more difficult to see against the land and sea. The size of the balloon was originally proposed to be 100 ft, but was reduced to 60 ft when it was made. The idents featured a soundtrack of ambient music, with more lively versions being used for more industrial or recreational settings. This made them the first regular BBC One idents to actually use music. The new BBC logo, along with the channel name 'ONE' immediately to the right of it, was overlaid at the bottom of the screen. The new logo design was an attempt to unify all of the BBC's services and brands under a single logo design, with personality expressed through the idents themselves. The idents were, from October 1998, shown in Widescreen, and the bbc.co.uk URL was added above the logo soon after.

...
Wikipedia