BBC Studios have launched their latest linear channel, merging two channels beloved in Scandinavia – BBC Brit and BBC Earth – to create the new supercharged BBC Nordic. Enlisting the minds of London-based moving image specialists weareseventeen, the creative agency developed the brands strategy and creative direction for BBC Nordic and Nordic+.

Exec Producer at weareseventeen, Jade Annaw shares “When the brief for Nordic landed on our table, we felt like the stars aligned”. She continues, “weareseventeen’s ethos of ‘Creativity That Moves’ means that we strive to create work that inspires an emotional response. With BBC Nordic, BBC Studios wanted to create a brand that took its audience’s needs seriously and had storytelling at its core, but with a motion-first approach. We knew we were the right people for the job.”

With six months from brief to launch, a deep strategy sprint set the pace of the project, an intense period of immersion and collaboration with the BBC Studios EMEA creative team and local viewers. Strategy Director Craig Wood reflects: “BBC Nordic and BBC Nordic+ are both an appointment to unwind. Our Nordic audiences have active lifestyles, watching TV is an active choice and watching BBC Nordic is a choice within that. We aren’t just competing with the category, we’re competing for people’s valued time.”

Conceived to capture the multi-faceted nature of the channel, the brand idea ‘The Bright Side’ is a nod to the enlightening programming, the wit and warmth of the personalities, and the intelligence of the audiences across Denmark, Finland Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Also being neatly suggestive of the principle that where there is brightness, there is darkness too, the concept not only speaks to the seasonal extremes of the region but also the spectrum of programming – with this contrast further coming to life in the brand identity and activation. All of this plays into the visual identity, from the prismic, warm colour palette to the use of illuminating light play throughout.

The core asset at the heart of the identity, a diagonal stroke referencing the central line of the Nordic ‘N’, acts as an angular Prism Edge that both radiates and transforms light – embodying the essence of The Bright Side. Building on this further with Nordic+ (the channel’s VOD offering), the angled edge is satisfyingly expressed in the negative space within the crafted + marque.

The Prism Edge drives all the on-air action – across OSP, social and within a set of five stunningly realised CG idents. weareseventeen’s Creative Director Gary Roberts explains: ​​”Collaborating with the creative team at BBC Studios, We started by exploring the brand’s pillars and distilled those down into unique motion behaviours. These were then taken forward and inhabited by the prism edge, whether that’s through the speed or the way the edge presents itself to us, its movement or choreography (or lack of) in the space, or the more natural or man-made quality of the light. The prism edge takes on unique behaviours, allowing it to embody different brand attributes”.

He continues “It can become the curious documentarian hunting for the best shot in nature, or through its passionate and intense light emission it raises up and highlights contrasting opinions. It can also evoke the call and response between a performer and their crowd, creating that moment of elation – always maintaining that the edge is the singular point of focus, acting as our gateway to The Bright Side.”

The final brand feels at once both classically Nordic while being wholly BBC in its attitude and style; light and dark, understated, an eye on the future, but with a warmth and an optimism – and importantly something to say. This channel might be linear, but it’s here to stay.

Sarah Johnson, Lead Creative at BBC Studios Creative EMEA says, “BBC Studios have worked closely with the team at weareseventeen to bring BBC Nordic and BBC Nordic+ to life. Using our audience insight driven Creative approach, coupled with weareseventeen’s strong design expertise, together we’ve built a bright, warm and inviting brand identity across all platforms. We are delighted that it’s visually striking and reflects the full spectrum of content now available to our audience across the Nordics”.