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Going against all tradition and cliche, the BBC have created one hell of a Winter Olympics promo. No blue ice, no slow motion athletes, and no gold medals.

It’s the Persepolis of Winter Olympics promos and I love it.

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Glasgow based agency Design is Central recently created this series of sublime idents for the new Scottish Gaelic language channel BBC Alba.

The look of the idents are based around the Pole Star, and the idea of an attraction and movement towards it. A concept which is slightly reminiscent of that used by Welsh broadcaster S4/C, is still nonetheless beautifully executed.

Complimenting the idents are a series of menu boards after the jump.

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Here’s a challenge for you: condense a 400-year-old, 100 chapter Chinese novel into a two minute animated trailer for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

Actually, don’t worry, the BBC have already done it…

That’s right, they’ve abandoned the traditional “gold-infused slow-motion footage of athletes” Olympics imagery in favour of something a bit more creative.

Animated by Gorillaz creator Jamie Hewlett with music by Damon Albarn, this video of Monkey and his friends made its debut last night in the UK at 7:27pm with a simulcast across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four and BBC News, and will form the centrepiece of the BBC’s Olympic coverage branding.

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Foxtel officially launches its high definition service today, and although content wise there isn’t much on the new HD platform yet, with only five HD channels available at launch, BBC HD is one of them, and almost makes it worth it.

It would seem Australia is the first market outside of the UK to recieve the BBC HD brand, but won’t be the last, with plans for expansion into Poland, and the US later this year. The two videos are taken from the newly launched BBC HD Australia and show an ident for the network, and an extended promo.

For more from BBC HD check out this cimematic promo for the UK version.

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Fiona Bruce stars as the action hero, in this advert for the BBC HD service, available in the UK through Sky, Virgin, and Freesat, and now also available in Australia through Foxtel HD, with further international expansion expected.

The spot was developed by agency Fallon, and produced by Red Bee, and while the Antiques Roadshow inspired action sequences are fun and all, its the first few seconds with the BBC logo that most caught my attention.

- Thanks to Craig for the video.

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Jason Arber, a director at the London based motion graphics outfit Wyld Stallyons has created a rather spectacular, and surprisingly profound commentary on the state of telvision news, and all without saying a word. Jason explains that

“for a long time I’ve been obsessed by the look that news presenters have when the other person in a news presenting duo is talking”

And it was this unease that inspired him to create the video.

“I recorded a bunch of footage and then stripped out the talking news presenters and replaced them with non-talking ones. The effect was weird and unsettling, and so I paired it with some wonderful music from the composer Ben Frost that really seemed to suit the mood”.

While its recently been brought to Jason’s attention that a fairly similar video was created by the comedy show Time Trumpet, I think the success of Jason’s video is that its more effective in capturing the vulnerability of the newscasters, and is more subtle and poignant in its approach. Mitchell and Webb also recently did a very funny piece of news parody, exploring the concept that really, everything was just fine.

Jason’s video is beautifully executed on both technical and creative fronts, and its about as close to art I’ve seen television news get.

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More of the white space infused refresh of the BBC’s news output, including the new BBC News Channel, BBC News at 10, and regional BBC News service Points West.

The BBC have actually blogged about the changes themselves here and here, and have also compiled a video montage of the look of BBC News over the years here.

Among other things they explain the dropping of the 24 from their news channel:

BBC News 24 becomes simply “BBC News”… The channel is not just at the heart of BBC News. Now it is BBC News.

For videos from the newly renamed BBC World News channel click here.

- Thanks for the videos Craig.

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BBC World is now BBC World News, and BBC News 24 is now just BBC News. The renamed networks got a not particularly dramatic brand refresh as you can see.

UPDATE: Check out the rest of the new look BBC News here.

For a look at the before videos check out my previous post here.

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In a branding move where apparently “more is more” the BBC’s international news channel, BBC World will change its name tomorrow to BBC World News.

Proving its ability at being truly impartial however, the Beeb is giving BBC News 24 a facelift as well, this time taking the “less is more” approach by dropping the 24 from its name and relaunching as simple BBC News.

Along with the new names will come a new look designed by Lambie-Nairn.

For now though, a look back at the old branding, with videos from BBC News 24 and BBC World, on the eve of their rebrand. And for more from BBC News have a look at their earlier looks from 2006 and 2007.

- Thanks for the BBC News 24 videos Craig.