Lower thirds: the small graphic that does the most work

Nobody commissions a brand for its lower thirds, and nothing in a broadcast identity gets used more. A name strap appears dozens of times an hour, on screen for four or five seconds, and has to be read by someone glancing at a television in a pub with the sound off. Get it right and the brand feels present in every minute of the programme. Get it wrong and every interview starts with a squint. This is how we build them.

Read it from the back of the room

Our studio grew out of sports broadcast graphics, where the test is brutal: can you read the name from the far end of a bar? That sets the minimum size, the weight and the contrast before any styling happens. If the identity’s display face is too condensed to pass that test at broadcast size, the lower third uses a secondary face. The brand is the system, not one font.

Design the longest case first

The strap will be tested by a double-barrelled surname, a long job title and a Welsh place name, usually all at once. We build the template around the longest realistic case, then let short names have more air. A strap that looks elegant with two short words and breaks on the third guest is not finished.

Two languages, one strap

Bilingual programmes have a problem nobody plans for: the job title is different in each language and often a different length. Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Addysg is a lot longer than Education Secretary. We decide early whether the strap shows one language, both stacked, or switches per programme, and we design the motion so the in and out look identical whichever line is longer. That decision is written into the guidelines so it is never improvised at 6pm.

Motion that gets out of the way

A lower third should arrive, be read, and leave, with a move that feels like the rest of the identity. Half a second in, half a second out, and nothing that competes with the person talking. The energy belongs in the titles. The straps carry the same language at a whisper.

Test it on the worst screen you can find

Before anything goes to air we check the strap on a phone, on a compressed stream and on an old television. If it survives those, the studio monitor will look after itself.