Client BBC Worldwide

Project Manager Julia Rich

Art Direction and Design Duncan Youel

The Vintage Doctor Who Series Ident design is a charming testament to the enduring and cost-effective nature of our branding work. Commissioned by Julia Rich at BBC Worldwide way back in 1999, it is still in full use, still distinctive and still highly-visible onscreen and in the racks sixteen years’ later.

The new identity repackaging was to launch the Vintage Doctor Who episodes onto DVD and it re-organised what had become a muddled hotch-potch of VHS releases.

We stripped back all the elements and re-built the look based on three essential components: the Tardis interior; the iconic enemies of the Doctor; and the Doctor’s many regenerations—ensuring that each different Doctor was immediately visible both on the front and spine, together with a coupled tagline showing how many years that actor had played the Doctor. The bottom half of the sleeve’s front was left free to illustrate each story’s main enemy.

Sourcing typefaces used by the BBC in the the early Seventies, we played these off against a modern digital typography. We gave the BBC a very strong look, and one that has now built into a classic library, giving their inhouse designers a set cover space, and the latitude to play around with the illustrative possibilities of the storyline. The result is a classic, timeless design. How appropriate.