Viewers complained of dizziness and nausea as a £550,000 rebrand of the BBC’s news operation, featuring a swirling red globe, was broadcast for the first time.

BBC presenters struggled to keep pace with a day of upheaval as the News 24 channel was rebranded BBC News in an attempt to bring “coherence” to the sprawling operation.

Declan Curry, a business news presenter, promised to “put a pound in the swearbox” after mistakenly telling viewers they were watching News 24, before correcting himself.

Viewers were most exercised by the design changes to the BBC newsroom and the flashy new graphics. Unhappy bloggers compared the changes to the 2012 London Olympic Games logo, which attracted widespread derision.

The branding agency Lambie-Nairn axed the previous dark BBC titles to create “brighter and clearer” red and white graphics, which would be “clearer about the BBC’s place in the world”.

Peter Horrocks, the head of the BBC’s multimedia news operation, invited viewers’ comments on his blog. He described the changes as “an evolution, to enable audiences to recognise BBC News whenever and wherever they receive it”.

The response echoed the outcry when the BBC overhauled its weather map three years ago. One viewer complained that the new swirling globe induced dizziness. Others found the motion “nauseating” and said that it could prompt epileptic fits.

BBC bulletins will now share a single studio, and one viewer complained that the presenters were consigned to a “super-drab news cupboard”.

Some praised the changes for giving BBC news a “clear, fresh, distinctive” identity, but many asked why the costly rebrand was necessary.

Mr Horrocks said that the changes had been agreed after viewer surveys. “We asked the audience what key things they associate with us,” he wrote on his blog. The characteristics that emerged were the phrase “BBC News”, the globe, the colour red and the “clarity and accuracy” of BBC news services.

The new design was intended to be “clear, unfussy, direct, straightforward and fresh”, Mr Horrocks wrote. The News 24 name had been killed after a decade “to emphasise the identity of BBC News”.

There is hope for those who find the changes too unsettling. The BBC tweaked its weather forecast and the redesign of its website last month after critical responses. Mr Horrocks promised to listen to feedback and changes to the new BBC News might follow.

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