What does the BBC's new serif font means for the 2020s?

Lysander · 16 Oct 2020 at 14:33

I have noticed that the BBC News website have introduced a - shock horror - serif font for their headlines. I saw them trialling it out and thought it was my browser malfunctioning but no, it looks intentional.

Does this signify the start of a new design trend for the 2020s? The 2010s was all sans serif fonts and flat icon design. We cannot go any flatter, so what design trends will be see again in the 2020s? More serif fonts? Blockier design? More shadows? No glass, hopefully. Is this the first rung on the ladder of more traditional 2020s design which will crysallise and find its own identity around 2022?

If there was one defining movement of the 2010s it was hipsterism - music, food, architecture, art, yoga studios, veganism, woke culture - what will be the 2020s bring, a regression to more traditional styles and movements?

Or does this font change mean nothing at all?

vanpeebles · 16 Oct 2020 at 14:55

Had your fill of cat videos on a slow Friday afternoon?

touch · 16 Oct 2020 at 15:08

Facebook also recently dropped their flat logo in favour of a round logo with a gradient colour and introduced a lot more radiused corners to the layout.

Hades · 16 Oct 2020 at 16:03

Things are starting to go full circle in terms of design. Flat and monochrome was once seen as modern but we might be moving back to a more fussy design language. It's like flares coming back into fashion.

iamdjdz · 16 Oct 2020 at 16:11

Life will all be better once breaking news is announced with Comic Sans mark my words.

Em3bbs · 16 Oct 2020 at 16:44

Lysander said:
I have noticed that the BBC News website have introduced a - shock horror - serif font for their headlines. I saw them trialling it out and thought it was my browser malfunctioning but no, it looks intentional.

Does this signify the start of a new design trend for the 2020s? The 2010s was all sans serif fonts and flat icon design. We cannot go any flatter, so what design trends will be see again in the 2020s? More serif fonts? Blockier design? More shadows? No glass, hopefully. Is this the first rung on the ladder of more traditional 2020s design which will crysallise and find its own identity around 2022?

If there was one defining movement of the 2010s it was hipsterism - music, food, architecture, art, yoga studios, veganism, woke culture - what will be the 2020s bring, a regression to more traditional styles and movements?

Or does this font change mean nothing at all?

They changed it on the BBC Sport pages a few years ago, now rolled out to the whole site from the looks of it.

Nasher · 16 Oct 2020 at 16:59

It must be woke in some way

d_brennen · 16 Oct 2020 at 17:11

Sans serif is so institutionally racist it had to go. It's all about including and promoting the serifs now. BBC have a serif positive policy and anyone with a problem will be shown the door for wrong-think. Or something

adolf hamster · 16 Oct 2020 at 17:16

I feel like gd has hit a new low

englishpremier · 16 Oct 2020 at 18:56

Personally I'm hoping for websites with blinking scrolling text with drop shadows and gradients.

Believe it or not, I was asked to develop this for a client some years ago. I told him (the director of a holiday park company) that it would be terrible and wouldn't work. He disagreed and so it was. Shortly after I sent him the link to the site in staging, he send an email back "oh my eyes!"

Feek · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:04

Hades said:
It's like flares coming back into fashion.

*shudder*

mmj_uk · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:23

That we've reached a whole new level of degeneracy?

crazy8s · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:28

Already wrote an angry letter to my MP about it

Hades · 16 Oct 2020 at 20:06

#AllFontsMatter

Mr Oblong · 16 Oct 2020 at 20:32

englishpremier said:
Personally I'm hoping for websites with blinking scrolling text with drop shadows and gradients.

Believe it or not, I was asked to develop this for a client some years ago. I told him (the director of a holiday park company) that it would be terrible and wouldn't work. He disagreed and so it was. Shortly after I sent him the link to the site in staging, he send an email back "oh my eyes!"

Gradients I could understand, but... he requested blinking scroll text?

Pawnless Endgame · 16 Oct 2020 at 21:04

Being visually impaired, I preferred flat fonts like the current Google and eBay logos. I'm not keen on serif fonts e.g. Times New Roman for this reason. I usually try and force Arial for variable-width fonts and OCR A for fixed-width fonts.

iamdjdz said:
Life will all be better once breaking news is announced with Comic Sans mark my words.

BBC Breaking in Comic Sans would be apt

[FnG]magnolia · 16 Oct 2020 at 21:08

Just LOL if you don't transcribe each webpage onto a crisp sheet of A4 in a neat cursive hand before digesting the information contained within.

Noobs.

tom_nieto · 16 Oct 2020 at 22:19

[FnG]magnolia said:
Just LOL if you don't transcribe each webpage onto a crisp sheet of A4 in a neat cursive hand before digesting the information contained within.

Noobs.

You have to... eat the web content? I’ve been doing this wrong for so many years

BUDFORCE · 16 Oct 2020 at 22:46

Wow, yea, who cares.

gailjon · 16 Oct 2020 at 23:04

BUDFORCE said:
Wow, yea, who cares.

Obviously anyone who bothered to post on the thread...

What does the BBC's new serif font means for the 2020s?

Capodecina