Bayerischer Rundfunk
Creating a unified design and motion system that brings clarity and coherence to Germany’s leading public broadcaster — from broadcast to digital.
Client
Bayerischer Rundfunk
(via Stan Hema)
Scope
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) is Bavaria’s public broadcasting organization and one of Germany’s largest media networks. As part of ARD — the national alliance of regional public broadcasters — BR plays a defining role in shaping Germany’s cultural and journalistic landscape across TV, radio, and digital platforms.
In 2022, BR commissioned Stan Hema to develop an overarching design system that would make its diversity instantly recognizable and position the Bayerischer Rundfunk umbrella brand as a contemporary, cross-media, and sustainable media provider for everyone in the state.
The rebranding marked a strategic shift: for the first time, all BR services and activities were consistently associated with the umbrella brand. This not only made BR more visible but also strengthened its long-term positioning.
With dozens of services and formats, BR’s ecosystem spanned multiple audiences and platforms — from traditional broadcasting to digital news and social media. The key challenge was to create a flexible, connected system that could unify this diversity without erasing each brand’s distinct voice.
Sub-brands like Bayern 2 and BR24 needed to evolve visually and functionally while maintaining their familiar tone and heritage. The goal was to simplify brand management, modernize the experience, and ensure the new design could live dynamically across screens, formats, and devices.
The motion system translated BR’s principle of Connectedness into clear, functional movement. It was guided by three key principles — Push, Scale, and Staggered — defining how elements enter, interact, and transition across digital and broadcast environments.
These principles were applied to a wide range of brand components, including typography, logos, lower thirds, transitions, and corner bugs.
The result was a dynamic yet consistent motion system that was designed to adapt seamlessly across diverse formats, from traditional TV broadcasts to fast-paced social media platforms.
By defining parameters for timing, hierarchy, and behavior, the motion guidelines provided a shared logic for all teams involved.
They made it possible to design animations that were not only visually aligned, but also efficient to produce, scalable across tools, and easy to maintain.
Motion became a tool of clarity — helping the brand communicate information smoothly, unify its diverse platforms, and strengthen its digital presence through consistent behavior and interaction.
Stan Hema worked on the development and implementation of the overarching brand design in an interdisciplinary co-creation process with BR’s internal design and editorial teams, as well as external specialists. Workshops, coaching, and process consulting supported internal adoption and long-term sustainability.
The shared goal: build a system that could live beyond the agency — one that internal teams could evolve, adapt, and scale independently.
The reduction to the essentials gave the umbrella brand the power to focus all attention on the content. Design consistently followed function — clear-cut, puristic, and free from distraction or gimmicks.
The result is a living design ecosystem that unites all of BR’s brands under one logic — consistent, adaptable, and unmistakably BR.
The umbrella brand gained clarity, coherence, and long-term sustainability.
Sub-brands like Bayern 2 and BR24 were modernized while preserving their identity.
Internal teams adopted a system that’s scalable, efficient, and simple to manage.
The new visual and motion language is strong, confident, and clear — turning design into a tool for connection rather than decoration.
It embodies BR’s mission as a trusted, contemporary media organization, where form follows function and motion reinforces meaning.
Learnings Turning Co-Creation into Culture
This project reaffirmed that strong design systems are built on shared understanding, not just visual consistency.
It showed how collaboration across disciplines — strategy, design, and technology — transforms structure into connection.
It reminded me that clarity emerges through co-creation, when teams align behind a common logic and language.
Meaningful systems aren’t static — they evolve with the people who use them.
When everyone feels part of the process, connectedness becomes more than a design principle; it becomes culture.