BBC (1997-2021) logo vector

BBC logo used from 1997 to 2021

On 4 October 1997, in honour of the corporation’s 75th anniversary, the BBC launched a new logo and corporate identity, designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn. All its channels and services introduced a new logo scheme on that day, consisting of the BBC logo and the service name in one line. At the same time, its terrestrial channels BBC1 and BBC2 were also renamed as BBC One and BBC Two.

The three lines of the 1987 logo were removed from the logo, and the boxes and letters were also straightened up, making the boxes look similar to the 1958 logo and the boxes are black again. The typeface used is Gill Sans, made by Eric Gill in 1926. By 2002, most services were using a different design with the logo and name on top of each other in a box. This logo is the longest-lived in the history of the BBC, having been used for 24 years until the 2021 rebrand.

Since 2017, the BBC has been slowly replacing Gill Sans with BBC Reith Sans and Serif, with the first being BBC Sport, followed by BBC Alba, BBC Studios after its merger with BBC Worldwide, then BBC Two, then BBC Scotland’s channel launch, then BBC News, the news channel, BBC World News, and most recently, BBC Radio and BBC Local Radio. Although BBC Four continued to use Gill Sans in the logo until 2021.

Even after the BBC launched its new logo in October 2021 (link), this logo continues to be used on some other BBC properties.