[logo_design] The Turn of Channel 4's

1178. And now, the next chapter in our cavalcade of TV Station Logos, in order; Channel 4.

Another cable channel with some slick artistry about it: the San Diego Channel, 4SD ... Check out the Zardoz-like 4 and the Coca-Colaish stripe:


KPSD KAID 4, Boise, is the flagship station of Idaho's public television fleet:

KARK, Channel 4, Little Rock, with the NBC peacock once again providing coverage you can count on:



KCNC, Channel 4, Denver, eyes you with this CBS mandated logo:


KFOR, Channel 4, Oklahoma City, channeling news with an origami 4:

Judging by some of the news lately, with all this news channeling going on, we wish someone would channel Ed Murrow. Anyhow, moving on...KGBT Channel 4 is taking action for me in Harlingen TX, which is good for me, because I'm not going to be there any time soon, which is bad for them, because they need some design help here:


KITV Channel 4 Honolulu scores points here for making it abstract and interesting without making it unintelligible:


A little design goes a long way.

KMOV TV 4, Saint Louis, shows the influence of the CBS mandate while keeping a classic "4-Square" treatment:



KNBC, NBC's West Coast flagship in glorious Los Angeles, would like to introduce its life partner, the NBC Peacock, here seen departing a limo at the Oscars™ last year:


KOB Channel 4, Albuquerque, keeps the classic "4-Square" simple by letting a negative-space 4 knock out of the purple background:

The bevelled end of the cross-stroke on the four is a deft touch that adds a filip of interest to what would otherwise be a flat, expected shape.

Seattle's KOMO 4, back in the day, had a classic "4-in-Square" but latterly has gone to a more "bannery" presentation which is an evolution from a certain Fisher Broadcasting standard corporate look that held sway over most Fisher stations in the Pacific Northwest (and some still have on thier websites – we've already written extensively about that look here so we won't belabor the point further. The biggest changes are the changing of the call-sign from minuscules to majuscules, and an addition of a red stripe across the bottom there.


KRNV, Channel 4, Reno. The News Comes First here, too:


KRON Channel 4 is the SF area affiliate for the MyNetwork TV Network, but unlike PDX49, it has a full service news bureau, and only brands itself as MyKRON during network transmssions. It's interesting in that the MyNetwork logo gets a significant makeover it the service of KRON. Also notable is the stylization of the 4 and its placement in a circle rather than a square:


KRON's non-My identity is The Bay Area's News Station and is a more traditional view:


Sioux City's KTIV Channel 4 comes up with a logo that would look quite at home at Talladega and, yes, the news is getting channeled here too.


Salt Lake City's KTVX has a 4 with a rather inspired double-beveled cut on the 4's crossbar, all against a rectilinear background that reminds us of a downtown city skyline. The dominance of the ABC logo reminds us, quizzically, of the CBS mandate. But it's not really close to our home. Yours, maybe. If you're, like, in SLC.


KVOA, Channel 4, Tucson, gives the 4 over to a circle and obliques it a little. The diagonal stripe knocked out of the 4 reminds us that a little design creates more than a little interest; it's the kind of detail the back of your mind files and recognizes. And there's the peacock, again with coverage we can count on.


KXLY, ABC Channel 4 Spokane WA, ("kicksley?") gives us the heretofore-unseen "4-in-parallelogram", which succeeds with the plain yet obliqued type and the ABC logo clevely providing a link between the two visual tokens:



WBZ, CBS station in Boston broadcasts on channel 4 – but that part's a SEKRIT!:



The Mandated design for WCCO channel 4, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, is sober, businesslike–and a little sinister with that glossy black and marbled red background "4-In-Square":


Though if your local go-player loses a black stone in the middle of a game, they could get a spare out of the center of that eye.

WCIV channel 4, Charleston SC, gives a classic feel to the circle-4, with the ABC logo about to occultate:


I get the feeling that the 4 has the ABC in its orbit somehow.

It was almost impossible to find the WCMH Columbus OH 4 logo; the branding completely deprecates the station callsign and the website is known as nbc4i.com...


This had to be clipped from a screenshot I got by drilling down. Just visible is the "4-In-Square".

WDIV Detroit lets the shoulder of the 4 touch the edge of the obliqued square, lining up with the negative space to the left, creating a clever connection:


WFOR, Miami, has a hot, "salsa"-ish take on the CBS Mandate:


WHBF, channel 4, Quad Cities Illinion/Iowa, also has it's network logo in orbit about the station logo: the CBS Mandate as interpreted by E.E. "Doc" Smith.



WIVB Channel 4 Buffalo NY's Circle-4 seems a little dated, with the rounded corners seeming kind of 70s-ish, but it's honest and straightforward:


But it really comes alive when the news comes on:


New York–if you can make it there you can make it anywhere. But WNBC 4's logo only has to make it in NY, and shows it:


The obliquing of the HD to meet up with the bevelling of the end of the 4's crossbar is a clever touch, still. And yes, less is more, but I can't help but think something a little more could have happened here.

WOAI Channel 4, San Antonio, understands the value of heave obliquing–this station's on the way to cover the story, and fast. Overall the treatment works. One may think that the straight-up-and-down NBC peacock is a little awkward in a slanted logo, but I've seen people deal with this by obliquing the net logo as well–and that looks even stranger.


WRC, Washington DC, is also branded as NBC 4, and has a straight-up typographic treatment with absolutely no frills at all. Works. Not memorable, but works. The 4 looks similar (and was presumably borrowed) from the WNBC logo (they're probably both NBC O&O's).


WSKY channel 4, Hampton Roads (Norfolk, Newport News, and about) has a 4-in-Square that is a cousing to the KOB edition. With a callsign like WSKY, I'm thinking they could have a whole lot more fun with it.


WSMV, Channel 4, Nashville–Coverage You can Count On, in the logo as well as the tag line. But the stylization of the 4 is kind of cool, and the way the top and the bottom bleed off the blue square is actually a little different. Sometimes it doesn't take too much to be remarkable–just enough of the right detail.



WTAE Channel 4 Pittsbugh seems a spiritual sibling of the KTIV logo, and puts the four against a circle, leaving out part of the stem stroke that results in a distinctive look:


WTMJ is the NBC affiliate in Milwaukee Wisconsin. TMJ stand for The Milwaukee Journal. But when I look at this typographic treament, leaving off the W for brandings' sake, I think TMJ–the syndrome, not any TV station. Still, the typographic solution works–the congruence with painful jaw condition not withstanding.


Indianapolis' Channel 4, WTTV, is a CW station, with its standard, uninspiring treatment:


WTVY, Dothan, AL (serving SE Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, has a burly if sunny 4:


WWL TV 4, New Orleans, understands the value of rhythm and similar shapes. Dig the cool way they overlapped the call letters to create almost a single glyphic shape:


And, finally, WYFF in Greenville SC (famous as the current haunt of a certain currently expat ORBlogger we enjoy reading) displays a Circle-4 that could be cut out of a single sheet of expensive logo-design material:


That's all for nowl, logo lovers-gotta dash...but not before closeing out with a song...



Tags: TV Logo Design, Logo design, Channel 4