BBC Two 1991-2001 idents

The BBC Two '1991–2001' idents were broadcast from 16 February 1991 until 19 November 2001, and again since 9 July 2014, on BBC Two in the United Kingdom. The idents, which consist of a sans-serif '2', accompanied by the colour viridian, were created by branding agency Lambie-Nairn (and later, BBC Animation & Design), who also created the Channel 4 logo.

The ident package was retained following the corporate rebrand of the BBC in 1997 with a new logo and new idents commissioned. They were taken out of service in November 2001, and were later revived in July 2014, to commemorate the 50th birthday of BBC Two.

The newly recruited BBC2 controller, Alan Yentob, noticed that the then-logo for the channel, which featured the word 'TWO' in red, green and blue within a white background and the 'O' being white, was affecting the reputation of BBC2. Surveys commissioned realised that most viewers thought the branding was "dull" and "worthy". He then decided to commission a worthy successor capable of displaying the personality of the channel, revealing his thoughts in the How Do They Do That? episode - about the idents.

I realised there was a problem almost as soon as I took over the channel [BBC2]. It was obvious that the logo [TWO] made absolutely no impact. In fact, it was something anyone could have told you. It was singularly unmemorable, and told you nothing about the personality of the channel. So we decided to commission a corporate design company to do some research.

The idents were designed by branding expert Martin Lambie-Nairn, and first aired on the same day as the BBC1 virtual globe ident, also designed by Lambie-Nairn as part of a corporate rebrand of both channels.

We took this '2', actually, and you think to yourself "Well, there's nothing special about this". But there is something special about this, actually. It's a very distinctive '2'. It has very sharp bits on it and it's rather nice and fat. The reason we wanted that particular '2' is because we wanted to do things with it. So, you need lots of '2', lots of body on the '2' in order to achieve that.

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