BBC Reith

Week 35.

Andy Orme
Andy Orme
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Back at the beginning of August the BBC started to subtly roll out a new typeface across the BBC Sport platform. The font is called ‘BBC Reith’ and aims to be adopted across the BBC brand over the following year.

BBC Reith will replace Arial, Helvetica and Gill Sans all of which have been used across the BBC’s websites and TV channels until now. The official lines has been that these typefaces were designed “100 years ago for the printed page” and that “Legibility-wise, they don’t perform well on today’s digital screens”.

The argument for Reith is it’s more modern and ‘fit for purpose’ being more versatile and legible across more mediums. The new typeface has five different styles, three sans-serifs and two serifs, which a range of weights available.

The typeface has been designed by an in-house team along with the type foundry Dalton Maag. One of the aims was to save the organisation money, because it will no longer need to pay the licence fee to use external typefaces.

It has been rolled out on BBC Sport first and will roll out across other BBC channels, websites and social media over the next year.


Some music from this week

  • Can’t Get It Out Brand New
  • In a Black Out (Cassius Remix) Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
  • Pitted Sløtface
  • Dim Bulbs David Barbe
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Andy Orme

Written by

Andy Orme

I'm a designer working in web and digital design. I like music, old and new and that’s pretty much it.

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