BBC News

6pm & 10pm News Programme Design

Broadcast graphic & typographic templates for the BBC News Motion team to use for daily news outputs.

Broadcast
Design System
Branding

Project Info +

Project Info –

6pm & 10pm News Programme Design

Background

BBC's daily 6pm and 10pm news programmes reach millions of UK viewers, and millions more worldwide. The Motion design team creates graphics for the catwalk video wall and tower — often under tight deadlines.

Without shared rules or guidelines, designers were working in isolation, leading to inconsistent and inefficient output.

Approach

I created a set of typographic guidelines and visual layouts for key story formats for the Catwalk and Tower digital walls.

These rules were then applied to a custom-made After Effects widget (created in-house by another designer), enabling designers to set typography consistently based on story template type — establishing a shared foundation for the team.

Outcome

The typographic refresh has been well received by both the Motion team and News Editorial, and has been used across main news programming since early 2025.

By removing typographic guesswork, designers now have more time and freedom to focus on expressive graphical treatments to enhance news output.

Using an often over-looked weight in the 'BBC Reith Sans' font family, the X-bold typeface has slowly etched it's way into daily broadcast and long format digital storytelling.

Having studio tested several type treatments, this simple yet bold expression was the clear winner. Set above bold imagery on a solid block coloured background, sets a distinct and consistent style on camera.

I created a basic set of headings, sub headings, data sets, bullets and quotes, all type set by scale - allowing for consistency and freedom.

I then worked with a TV motion designer to set the animation transitions for the main article titles.

Below are some mock-ups. However, when you next watch the 6pm and 10pm news bulletins, you will see them in action.

BBC News

6pm & 10pm News Programme Design

6pm & 10pm News Programme Design

Background

Approach

Outcome

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