The Open University 1971 – 2006 Branding

The idea for The OU can be traced back to 1965 and was the brainchild of the then Minister of Education Jennie Lee. Prime Minister Harold Wilson ran with the idea as he wanted to use The OU as part of his political party’s plan to modernise British society. The campus was founded in 1969 at Milton Keynes and accepted it’s first students in January 1971. The OU uses a smorgasbord of methods to teach, these include internet, audio and written materials, software and television programmes on DVD.

On 3rd January 1971, the BBC began broadcasting programmes to accompany the courses. Programmes were initially made at Alexandra Palace until 1981 when they moved to Milton Keynes. The final shows were broadcast on 15 December 2006. Nowadays The OU focus on semi-academic television programmes in partnership with the BBC.

The Open University 1971 – 1984

Around 1982 the main yellow ident was computerised.

The Open University 1984 – 1986

In early 1984 the Yellow background OU ident was replaced with two new channel idents which represent BBC1 & 2 better. BBC 1 version lasted until February 1985, while the BBC 2 version lasted until March 1986.

The Open University 1985 – 1991

In 1985 the OU branding was updated to complement the new look from BBC1, A year later the same happened to the BBC2 OU branding.

In 1990 new Slides appeared

The Open University 1991 – 1997

On 16th February 1991 OU was give a updated look to match the rebranding of BBC1 and BBC2.

The Open University 1997 – 2006