Platinum Jubilee gets plenty of purple, Trajan treatment — but with some twists mixed in

NBC News used a mix of violet and white with the titles spelled out in Trajan, a common font used with royal-themed designs (as well as, interestingly, horror movies), for its overall look.

Filagree-style animations inspired by a crown element were also used heavily, along with vertical sparkly bursts of light.

A special hosted by Joe Fryer called “Royal Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth 70 Years” aired on NBC News Now.

The special was taped in Studio 1A tand took advantage of the space’s plentiful LED to showcase fully branded graphics in purple and white. The space’s lightning was also shifted violet, while the “Today” sunrise sculptural logo installation was tinted white with a hint of violet and also shot off-axis so that it didn’t read as the icon as clearly.

In addition to the LED walls, panels, headers and columns, the special also used one of the wild vertical screen units to showcase imagery of Elizabeth as well as for an interview cross shot. 

“NBC Nightly News,” which also uses the space, typically shoots around the sculpture or only shows the far sides of it, taking advantage of the horizontal glass segments in its shots.

On June 2, NBC offered a network level special report that was available live across the country under the name “The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.” In the central time zone, this meant local stations could end their local news a few minutes early before the network aired a special open with matching graphics.

The network used a white box variation of its normally red special report lower third bars, which also used the Effra typeface used on “Nightly” and special reports. The type was switched to purple and a branded band ran along the bottom of the screen, as NBC often does with special event coverage.

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MSNBC used a similar look, including adding a purple tier to its lower thirds and recoloring them as it often does for specific events or topics.