Context

44 states, six weeks and a £20,000 lifetime budget

“Window on the Weather” called for natural photography that made the forecast feel like a view outside. I led its translation into 44 accurate, readable weather states for the app.

The £20,000 had to cover the imagery for life, so the BBC needed outright ownership and the freedom to adapt it without further licensing.

I owned the imagery system, production brief and art direction, working with a photographer and agency, with meteorologists involved throughout.

Four reference photographs of weather seen through glass: rain running down a window, condensation at dusk, frost with bare branches beyond, and rain over a swimming pool.
Reference imagery for “Window on the Weather”. Natural light, shallow focus and the glass itself carrying the condition.

The scope

A complete range of weather, by day and by night

Every state needed imagery that matched the brand, passed meteorological review and kept the forecast readable.

The full set of BBC Weather symbols: sun and moon, light and thick cloud, rain, drizzle, sleet, hail, snow and thunder, each by day and by night, plus sandstorm, mist, fog, hazy and tropical storm.

Approach

Choosing what to commission, and what to rule out

My art-direction experience helped me assess each route against the brief: natural imagery, accurate weather, outright ownership and a six-week delivery.

I chose a system of reusable photographic layers: original imagery that we could compose into approved weather states and keep adapting after launch.

The option

Shoot every weather state

Original photography of each complete scene.

Why I ruled it out

Capturing all the conditions separately would exceed the time and budget available.

The decision

Photograph shared components once, then combine them into multiple weather states.

The option

License stock photography

Source existing photographs for the range.

Why I ruled it out

I could not rely on finding a consistent set that met the brand and meteorological requirements. Licensing also left future use tied to rights management.

The decision

Commission imagery and source layers the BBC would own outright, including future use and adaptation.

The option

Matte-paint each scene

Create the weather through painted compositions.

Why I ruled it out

It offered control, but I felt it would lose the natural photographic quality that “Window on the Weather” needed.

The decision

Use real skies and photograph rain, frost and condensation on glass as separate effects.

A method carried over

My theatre background changed how we built the images

In scenic painting, the same flats can read differently when the lighting changes. I applied that principle to weather: separate skies, clouds and effects, then vary their grading and combinations.

Two photographs of the same theatre set: on the left, the painted flats and windows under working light with haze; on the right, the same set lit for performance, with a chandelier and actors at a dining table.
The same painted set, lit two ways.

Creating the imagery

Four decisions that shaped production

With the layered approach agreed, the work turned on four decisions: what we could safely reuse, how to keep expert approval moving, when to put the forecast first and how to leave room for change.

Meteorology

Securing expert agreement before committing to the shoot

The system depended on knowing what we could safely reuse. I brought meteorologists into a card sort to agree the minimum layers needed for all 44 states and identify the distinctions we had to preserve.

For example, light cloud could be graded darker for a heavier cloud condition. Agreeing this upfront gave me an approved basis for the shot list and detailed production brief.

The day cards sorted on a table into columns: sandstorm and hazy; light cloud, mist and fog; drizzle, light snow and light rain; thick cloud, heavy rain, heavy snow, hail and sleet; and the showers. Sticky notes read: fog is darker than mist; broken cloud with some sun coming through; and, beside a print of frost on glass, cloud type, light and sun visibility, sky visibility, effect on window, and opacity of image.
The sticky notes start to name the layers: cloud type, light, sky visibility and the effect on the window.
The 41-layer specification became the production brief. Shared clouds and effects could be combined across weather states.

Production

Keeping expert approval inside the six-week schedule

I set up daily reviews so accuracy decisions happened as the imagery came in. I categorised the photographs, reviewed them with meteorologists and translated their feedback into production instructions.

The review below shows the level of judgement involved: broken cloud was not enough; it had to look rain-bearing too. Final sign-off sat with the meteorologists, my Creative Director and me.

Production review for broken cloud with precipitation: the first image is judged insufficiently rain-bearing; an alternative is marked with a proposed crop and a question about deriving different colour grades.
Shared production feedback: choosing a meteorologically appropriate source image and checking its potential for reuse.
Studio production of rain on glass: the lighting rig, captured imagery and the team reviewing photographs at a laptop.
Real effects on glass, reviewed during production and retained as reusable layers.

Legibility

Putting forecast legibility ahead of dramatic imagery

A strong photograph could still fail behind the forecast. I manually checked every image across all breakpoints, with additional spot testing, and compared day and night variants behind the app screens.

The reviews established clear rules for the imagery:

  1. Keep the horizon below the forecast text.
  2. Soften contrast behind the numbers.
  3. Blur the imagery back to a gradient when people need to read detail.
Four printed reviews of the Aberfoyle app screens, marked in red pen. Top left, rain on glass over autumn trees, marked too much contrast. Top right, a bright blue sky with an arrow to the horizon, marked too high and crossed out. Bottom left, a red line where the horizon cuts through the forecast text. Bottom right, softer grey skies with the lower forecast bracketed.
Printed and marked in red pen: “too much contrast” on rain on glass, and a horizon “too high”, cutting through the forecast text.
In the app, opening the hourly panel blurs the imagery back to a gradient. The photograph carries the condition at a glance, then steps back so the numbers stay readable over any sky.
Day and night stress-test comparisons
Rejected stress-test examples for light snow, heavy snow and fog or mist: bright day backgrounds compete with white forecast text, alongside night alternatives.
Challenging examples: bright snow and mist backgrounds leave little separation from white forecast text.
Preferred stress-test examples for light snow, heavy snow and fog or mist, with more controlled backgrounds behind the next-hour and hourly forecast layouts.
Preferred examples: more controlled tones and detail behind the forecast. These boards document visual review during development.

Flexibility

Giving the BBC room to change the product

I kept skies, clouds and window effects separate so the imagery could evolve. If animated rain were introduced later, for example, the static window effect could be switched off.

That flexibility has already supported new device crops. The BBC could reuse its source assets without another shoot or additional licensing.

One rainy city image at dusk, rain on glass with blurred lights, cropped three ways for Bristol: responsive web G4 with the image at 100%, responsive web G1 with the image at 75%, and the native app with the image at 100%.
One image adapted for responsive web and the native app. The source assets have since supported changing device crops.

The finished set

All 44 states, by day and by night

Every weather state has a day and a night version, shown here side by side.

  • Sunny, dayClear sky, night
    Sunny / Clear sky
  • Sunny intervals, dayPartly cloudy, night
    Sunny intervals / Partly cloudy
  • White cloud, dayWhite cloud, night
    White cloud
  • Thick cloud, dayThick cloud, night
    Thick cloud
  • Hazy, dayHazy, night
    Hazy
  • Mist, dayMist, night
    Mist
  • Fog, dayFog, night
    Fog
  • Drizzle, dayDrizzle, night
    Drizzle
  • Light rain, dayLight rain, night
    Light rain
  • Light rain shower, dayLight rain shower, night
    Light rain shower
  • Heavy rain, dayHeavy rain, night
    Heavy rain
  • Heavy rain shower, dayHeavy rain shower, night
    Heavy rain shower
  • Sleet, daySleet, night
    Sleet
  • Sleet shower, daySleet shower, night
    Sleet shower
  • Hail, dayHail, night
    Hail
  • Hail shower, dayHail shower, night
    Hail shower
  • Light snow, dayLight snow, night
    Light snow
  • Light snow shower, dayLight snow shower, night
    Light snow shower
  • Heavy snow, dayHeavy snow, night
    Heavy snow
  • Heavy snow shower, dayHeavy snow shower, night
    Heavy snow shower
  • Thunderstorm, dayThunderstorm, night
    Thunderstorm
  • Sandstorm, daySandstorm, night
    Sandstorm
The finished imagery on iPad: day on the left, night on the right. The same 44 images are cropped to portrait for iPhone.

Results

44 states delivered, with ownership for the future

All 44 finished weather states were delivered in six weeks, within the £20,000 lifetime budget, and launched with the app redesign. The same imagery is still behind the BBC Weather forecast today.

The BBC retained outright ownership of the imagery and layers, including future use and adaptation, with no ongoing licensing costs or rights management. The source layers have since been reused beyond the launch set, including for changing device crops. Separating the layers also left room for future effects without committing the product to them at launch.

44

Weather states at launch

6

Weeks from plan to delivery

£20k

Total lifetime budget

41

Reusable photographic layers

Audience response

Unprompted response after launch

Weather is part of people’s day, so they notice when it changes. People posted about the new imagery, and about symbols that now moved.

Tweet: “The new BBC Weather App interface and graphics are gorgeous”, with a screenshot of a snowy Chicago forecast.Tweet: the writer’s wife got excited seeing the symbols in the BBC Weather app move.
Two tweets posted at launch. One calls the new BBC Weather app interface and graphics gorgeous, with a screenshot of a snowy Chicago forecast. The other describes the writer's wife getting excited that the symbols in the app now move.

Reflection

What I learned

A lifetime budget changes the design brief

Ownership and future adaptation shaped the production approach from the outset. Thinking beyond launch led me to reusable source layers that the BBC could keep using as the product changed.

Make expert review part of production

The card sort brought meteorologists into the approach early. Daily reviews then turned questions about accuracy into specific decisions about cloud, grading and composition while the work was still being made.

Thanks to

Yael Levey Creative Director.