[pdx_TV] KOIN 6 Brands the Mothership

3140.

I've said it before: edifices matter. Especially when you're a media company that has an electronic side (The Oregonian has forgotten this, and will be consigned to the netherworld of has-beens for it).

KOIN TV has one of the best emblems that a media company can have: A remarkably beautiful building, the KOIN Center, which, at 509 feet in height and 35 floors, is the third-tallest building in Portland (and, thus, the state of Oregon). It stands on the block surrounded by SW Columbia and Jefferson streets and SW 2nd and 3rd Avenues; this was KOIN's home since before the construction of the KOIN Center, and the station thus became its signature tenant. Its tapering profile, topped with a blue pyramid, remind one of a rocket ship from classic SF movies, if nothing else.

The mothership, ready for takeoff.

During the KOIN Local 6 days, they didn't take advantage of this symbol, and that, I thought, was a missed opportunity. Identity efforts before that did, but the were kind of bland, I thought. But then, a few months back, KOIN rebranded. Now, I don't know who was responsible for putting together the new look of the opens, but someone finally got it right. These are opens I can't get tired of looking at.

The graphics open with dynamic layered chevron shapes in blue chasing each other from the left to the right. Glossy music strikes up, with a technological edge, arresting the viewer's attention. The chevrons part momentarily long enough to let a voice-over intone "Live, from the KOIN Center, in downtown Portland …" and we are treated to really-awesomely well-done aerial shots-in-motion, gliding over the south part of downtown, and given an atmospheric feel thanks to colored lens-flare effects. These are great shots. They really draw in and almost make love to the most photogenic major downtown in America.

This YouTube video, posted by a user monikering themselves Portland TV, compiles all the major opens. Just goes to show what happens when you pair the beating heart of a beautiful city with dynamic opening music and graphics … something memorable and successful.



I've taken the liberty of screencapping the four variations on the approach. The source is the original poster's video.

The first one seems to be used for the morning and noon newscasts. If you paid attention to the video, you also noticed the tone of the morning news theme is more chipper and upbeat; there is a grimmer, more minor-keyed approach on the other three.

The morning and noon 'casts use the above, as I mentioned. The view is from the south and the flying view point is approaching it going north. Other notable buildings include the Edith Green/Wendell Wyatt Federal building (the one with the 'doffed cap' just behind and right) the Portland Building (behind and to the left) and the Wells Fargo Tower (left edge of frame).

The next two are used for the flagship 5-6 PM broadcast hour:

Above, the viewpoint is looking north-northeast as it moves from west to east toward the Willamette river. The ramps to and a bit of the west end of the Morrison Bridge can be seen at the top of the frame; the red brick building on the right edge of the view is the Umpqua Bank Plaza, which started as the Benj. Franklin Plaza; the chevron shaped building at the extreme right is the Waterfront Marriott Hotel, and, of course, the Wells Fargo there on the left. The building with curved roofline is the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse.

This one pivots about the Wells Fargo Tower, on the right this time, as we travel again from east to west but this time north of the KOIN mothership. In the upper left, boats can be seen plying the RiverPlace marina; in the extreme upper corner of the shot the Marquam Bridge carries I-5 over the Willamette.

And this is the 11 PM shot. Same general area as just above, but an approach more straight on. Very TRON-esque.

Edifices matter. If you have one use it, but make sure you use it well. This is doing it right. 

[logo_design] Channel Surfing: 12 O'Clock High

1593.

Well, children and people everywhere, it's been a while. In honor of our acquisition of our two Federally-subsidized digital conversion boxes, I realized it was time to seal the deal and get through the last two spots on your obsolescent VHF dial.

Here we go ... with number 12.

I always appreciate it when a PBS affiliate includes its number in its branding. and 12 is just a cool looking number ... it goes with everything. KBDI, Denver:

Channel 12, Beaumont TX, has the requisite accessories for Texas broadcasting: Red, White, Blue, and Star. The More. Local. News. part of the design looks like three buttons you have to choose one of. I mean, I know what you get when you press "News" and maybe "Local", but what do you get if you hit the "More" button? Do I want to know? Or is like a command-key and you use it to modify one of the other two? So many choices!

KCCW, Walker MN, rebroadcasts WCCO-Minneapolis' signal, which explains why a small-market station has such a sophisticated look (we've found that usually the opposite is true)

KCOY CBS 12 isn't all that coy ... they'll take you, anytime and anywhere ... but presumably only if you're somewhere around Santa Barbara CA. But I do enjoy the letterforms here. Yes, I am a letterform slut. Now, it can be told. Take me, KCOY, take me!

Oregon's other channel 12 is located in Medford, KDRV. It's a nice look. Probably won't win any awards, but very appropriate. Nice color palette too.

KEYC, Mankato MN, is The One To Watch. I love slogans like that. Nobody ever calls a radio station that. Very steely look to the serious logo. Note a very clever point, and that point is between the words one and two in the tagline, and it's repeated between the 1 and 2 in the logo. One, two, 1, 2, One 2 Watch, 1 two watch ...

KFVS, Cape Girardeau, MO, has a solid looking design there:

KUAM is the PBS station for Guam. Before it adopted its curent look, it had this funky cool look going on, looks rather hand crafted and parochial, but in the charming way:

Silas Lyons, editor of the Redding Searchlight-Record, had it that one of my blog entries back on 1st April was a subtle dig at Redding. I differ, but reasonable people can do this (actually I envy Redding for having a Calatrava-designed bridge, but we're digressing here). My dig toward KHSL 12's logo isn't so subtle: Blah. And would someone please fix the kerning between the R and the E in the word "redding"? It's kind of like a hot poker in the eye. I cry a little and die a little inside whenever I see things like that.

Joplin MO's Channel 12 has Action 12 News, which is very serious. The logo is executed rather cleverly, with the bevelling giving it a bit of a sophisticated feel, and note the way the word NEWS is executed in four different weights in the red stripe. I enjoy that. It's kind of hokey, but I enjoy it.

I've heard of the following station somewhere, I just don't know ...

Seriously though, when KPTV went from being Oregon's 12 to FOX 12 Oregon, I was actually happy. Not because it had gone from being one of the most remarkable independents in the country to being a FOX station, but because it looked very much like they were going to strip it of every vestage of local flavor and color. The styling of the digits and the inclusion of the word Oregon in the logo is a very welcome nod to the history KPTV has with Portland, and most importantly, it's not the yawn-a-licious FOX empire style.

Now, KPNX makes what might have been a rather boring logo interesting by abstracting in the western border of the state of Arizona, a state whose outline has always been visually interesting to me.

KSAT in San Antonio TX deserves credit for having a logo that connotes action without having to use the word ACTION as a crutch somwhere. The little fast-forward double-arrow reinforces the notion with admirable cleverness.

KSLA TV doesn't have a particularly groundbreaking logo, but the treatment of the 12 is effective. Making the logo a solid object and skewing it from the POV of the viewer makes for dynamic interest.

KTRV, Boise's channel 12, also makes the uninteresting FOX empire style interesting. I enjoy the lighting effect and the gradient treatment on the notional surface of the logo.

And there's a nifty version that nods to the history of the station, which is also cool because everything is not centered and it still works.

I think we've visited this little network before. In collecting these logos, I've found that this is a common treatment across the intermountain west.

KVOS is a station in Bellingham WA that serves both that city and Vancouver BC as well. The interesting thing about this is that it's cool even though it doesn't include the numeral 12. The positive-negative space is a zoomed-in part of the K. Very nifty.

KWCH Wichita has that nifty bowshock that stands in for actual design work. I swear, by now I've seen it so much ... do they get that design at KMart or WalMart or 7-Eleven or what? What a yawner in branding.

KXII is one of two stations in the nation that uses the roman numeral to create its call-sign, which is cool. Serving the mythical land of Texoma, it has THE MOST, as the Star-treky font declares. And First News! So assertive!

KXMB, channel 12 in Bismarck/Mandan ND, is part of the KXnet, a handful of stations that serve the state of North Dakota in a "micronetwork", which we've found is a common approach where the distances are wide and the population low.

WBNG, Binghampton NY, has a effectively-done logo which adapts well to screen bugs and lower-third display. I enjoy the way the 12 is reversed-out space.

WBOY is located in central West Virginia, and keeps it simple and sophisticated, and is also lower-third optimized:

WCTI serves northeastern North Carolina, and even though the POV design is kind of uninspired, I like it. It does create dynamic energy in the logo, which is an important job in News logos ... always on the go, always ready to cover it, whatever it is.

WDEF in Chattanooga may be DEF, but the bowshock is strictly YAWN. The gradient does class it up a bit.

Wilmington DE's public station, WHYY has one of the coolest callsigns available, and no mistake. Even though they don't use the channel number in the logo, they do an incredibly cool thing with the last letter. I'll let the design speak for itself:

Erie PA's WICU doesn't have the most exciting logo in the world, but a little shadowed gradient does make it interesting. And I do enjoy it when the call sign and channel make it into the logo.

Let's get the joke about the tagline out of the way; WISN, Milwaukee, WI. One of America's leading ABC stations. Someday, it hopes to be two of them. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I really enjoy this logo. The abstracted 12 canted within the square is actually kind of daring, and it looks good. Cutting off parts of forms like that attracts your mind's interest; whether you know it or not, your brain works to complete the parts that were cut off. You can't help it. That's why designs like this are engaging. Tilting it creates tension and energy.

But they do have what they have the "straight" version.

Which is still pretty cool because that abstract version of the 12 rocks my world.

WJRT, Flint MI, keeps it simple and sophistcated?

WJTV Jackson MS: sew the shock, reap the bowshock ... but hey, it's a Media General company! That counts for something somwhere. Somehow.

I'm required by law to make this joke.

Baby, if you've ever wondered/Wondered, whatever became of me/I'm living on the air in Cincinnati/Cincinnati's WKRC.

Actually, I think I made that joke before. Nevermind.

But it is a well-working logo. and if you go to local12.com and mouse over that button, it will depress and light up. Niftycoolwebsitetime!

WPEC West Palm Beach: not a bad effort despite being kind of trope-y. The difference is angling the 12 up ever-so-slightly. This is what I mean by a little design going a long way. Sometimes it takes just one little move to make something ordinary into something interesting.

Channel 12, WPRI Providence RI, proudly serving Quahog, is a well-done logo. Why I can't stop seeing it as one of those little turtles in the Mario game? I don't know. But it is well done.

WRDW, Augusta GA, makes their logo interesting by extending the white stripe beyond the 12 on the right. The colors are chosen very well – the warm red contrasting with the cool every-where else.

The 12.2 subchannel – MyNetwork – isn't all that groundbreaking, but I like the way they executed it.

WSFA, Mongtomery Alabama:

WJTX TV is another provider in one of America's insular (that means island, folks) territories. The playful unself-consciousness of the design is a real winner, and reflects the easy island lifestyle of the US Virgin Islands. They even have a lizard as the station mascot ... very playful for a PBS station.

The difference in this logo is the subtle way in which the 1 is baseline shifted up a little, which makes it unexpectedly interesting. WTLV, Jacksonville FL:

WWBT, Richmond VA ... meh. Does its job. No design going on though.

WXII, channel 12 in central North Carolina does the same thing as WTLV does but backs it up with a red square.

And, last for this go around, WYES in New Orleans LA. This picture I really wanted to share; it's on the WYES Wikipedia page, and WYES doesn't really use this as a logo, but the dim lines you see across it? Those are high-water marks from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Never forget, people!

For the video to play us out, here's a reporter at WXII in North Carolina, having a close-encounter of the redneck kind. Hope she got paid hazard pay for that! So, until next time ...

Give Us some sugar!

[logo_design] Channel Surfing: It's Elevenses!

1380. Just about to come to the end of our VHF dial. We are on eleven, at the eleventh hour, the eleven o'clock report.

Our first stop is Columbia LA, KAQY. The 11 doesn't quite seem to go with the circle, but the gradient gives a warm feeling.

KARE Channel 11 is in the Twin Cities, and plays on the twinness as well as the falls (St. Anthony's):

Channel 11 Lubbock TX, KCBD, has a look that recalls the skyline of Dallas in the famous nighttime soap, and, refreshingly, no lone-star trope:

The last version of KCBY, Channel 11, Coos Bay Oregon's logo we have still was using the Fisher corporate look. The on-screen look has the new look that is being used by the other smaller-market Flag stations, as we've commented here before.

Channel 11 in Albuquerque NM is KCHF, but identifies as SBN, the "Son Broadcasting Network", a Christian broadcaster (you think?). The only complaint about this is that the light colors work very poorly on a the white background we found it on. They should have a version that provides for clear display on white backgrounds. Graphic designers usually will provide a version for use on light backgrounds, or will suggest that the logo never be used on a white background.

KELO, Channel 11, Sioux City IA, bills itself as KELO without the channel number. Usually I'd be disappointed by this, but the verve of the call-sign-based logo (and the naming of the broadcast area as "KELOLand") are all pretty charming indeed.

KELO's My Network TV DT2 subchannel is called "My U TV", an identity forwarded from the days when it was the local UPN station and identified simply as "U TV". The treatment of the U comes from the former U TV logo, and the circle holding the letters TV used to be the newer-look "upn" logo. This is a deft way of preserving public perception – the letter "U" could mean anything (and is friendly, sounding like the word "you") so it remains a good-enough fit, ID-wise. The direct insertion into the rectilinear My Network logo is kind of daring.

KFFX TV, Channel 11, FOX TV in the Tri-Cities market in Washington ... yep, FOX empire style:

KHOU, Houston – The spririt of Texas. By that we're guessing that the lone star is implied and need not be overly expressed. But the paralellogram respects the obliqued 11, so the design is actually quite solid.

KKCO Grand Junction Colorado: The boxes organize the content, but the elements dont really get along with each other:

KKTV, Colorado Springs, has a red parallelogram which also works with its numerals – but the "NEWS", while obliqued similarly, live in a right-rectangle, which distracts from the design unity.

The My Network DT subchannel adds the KK in cleverly, but the observant typographer will note that the "my" and "TV" are in Futura, whereas the "KK" might not be – might be Helvetica or something. However, the way they took advantage of the logo to work the call sign in gets bonus points:

KMSB, channel 11 Tucson – almost overcomes the FOX empire style with color, and well done there, but also has miniscules based on the majuscules ... and I've already moaned about how much I hate the O in the FOX. Kill them before they grow please, someone:

KMVT, Twin Falls ID, Channel 11. We picture Idaho to be the kind of place were NASCAR is big, and KMVT's logo would be right at home on the side of a stock car:

KNTV, San Francisco, is most likely an O&O:

KPLR, Channel 11, St Louis. The CW. Meh.

KRXI, FOX 11, Reno. Meh.

KSTW, Seattle, Channel 11. The CW. Meh.

They called him KTHV, but if you tallked to this Arkansawyer nicey like and became his friend, he let you call him what he lets his closed friends call him ... just THV.

He's today's THV. Which kinda sounds like a controlled substance, neh? Next time you're in Little Rock, maybe he'll sell you a little rock?

KTTV, FOX 11, Los Angeles. Meh, again (I expect a little more flash from Los Angeles, to be honest).

KTVA, Anchorage AK. Photoshop: Bevel and emboss, outer glow. See – graphic design isn't so hard ... (sigh)

KTVF Channel 11, Fairbanks, has structure and a bit of energy, a bit of northern lights action behind the 11, and unexpected interest in the way the "TVF" are smaller caps. Not a bad logo, really:

KTVL, channel 11, Medford. The completely-miniscule type that all the city names are in actually makes the meh-licious graphic presentation interesting.

KTVT, Fort Worth TX. The varying of the blue and white make for an intersting layered effect. The parallelogram containing all the obliqued type makes it a very strong design. And even though I've mocked the lone star before, it's used well here, aligning on one of the 1's and tying both of them together.

KTWU, Topeka KS, has a treatment I approve of on the number, at least because I'm fond of the way the old TV Guide represented the channel numbers in the listings, and this reminds my of it. I'd update that call-sign type though – it, in combination with the bevelled background, makes it look like part of a news set from 1975 or so.

If you have an interesting letter in your call sign it's a good thing to try to make it a centerpiece of the design – letters like Q and Z are good for this, as is the letter V in KVLY, Fargo, ND – a checkmark is a mark smart and organized people use to keep track of what's going on, so there's some positive baggage there too:

KYMA, Yuma's channel 11, has a solid though unexciting approach. What's interesting here is how the 11 lives comfortably in the right rectangle it's in. Notable is the stripe reading the common tagline "where news comes first"; it's exactly like the one KENV, Elko NV, uses.

WBAL, Baltimore, has broad-shouldered 1's – which kind of fit the impression of the city that I've gained over the years – strong, hardworking, impressive.

WBKB, Channel 11, is on the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. It's the third-smallest market in the nation (possibly the universe) and is the only broadcast station in its market. An old joke, according to Wikipedia, is that the station's call sign used to stand for We Barely Know Broadcasting, since the only talent they used to be able to attract are essentially entry-level people.

The design isn't terribly notable, except for the way they put the 11 in the middle of the eye, the only station we've seen so far that uses the network logo that way.

WHAS, Louisville, KY, doesn't have a real memorable logo, but it does make effective use of the strong shapes with a bright color.

WINK TV uses channel 11 in Fort Myers FL, and is also excused from having to use the channel number in their logo because they do such a good job of using type, and also the lettters WINK next to the CBS eye is just so cool

WJHL, channel 11, Johnson City TN, has a treatment we've seen before:

WLJT, channel 11, Jackson TN, is a PBS station. Some design is going on here; the designer used the strong vertical strokes and the way the L and the J reach out toward each other on their lower extremities to create structure. But since the glyphs were all kind of just slid up next to each other, the design feels half done:

FOX 11, WLUK, Green Bay, uses the FOX empire style, which is so tiresome we won't even make a joke about it any more, and what a missed opportunity too, with a call sign that could be read as "W-Luck":

WPIX is the New York City CW station. As seems typical for historically notable stations, the outlet keeps its call sign in. WPIX had a "circle 11" logo for a while which was rather famous, but past glory must be rolled over by current corporate uniformity. Sad, just sad.

WPXI, Pittsburgh, has a very interesting logo resulting from the combination of the 11 and the closing circle. it looks very sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

WTOC, Savannah GA, has a charming "small market" look about it:

WTOK, Meridian MS, does little tricks with the corner-ends on the 1's which give the design a sort of charming sophistication which belies its small-market location.

WTOL, Channel 11 Toledo, has a call sign which sounds like a bit of military hardware, and through little tricks (the 1 which sticks ever-so-slightly out of the red square, and the blue line that goes out only so far as the call-sign letters and matching their color) has good unity dispite the considerable air in there:

WTTW, Chicago, has a very very witty style to it; the symmetry of the letters is played on, the crossbars on the t's provide structure, the "tt" seems to recapitulate the 11, and the tops of the miniscules form the bottom of the line that the undersides of the tabs on the 11 for the top of. It has great internal structure and order.

WTVD, Durham NC, uses a strong though unremarkable presentation with burly, obliqued 11:

WVAH, Huntington WV, FOX Empire style, all together now, "Meh!"

And lastly this time, WXIA, Atlanta, uses "11 Alive", which is notable because it was pioneered by WPIX (CW 11 above). The blue colors separated while the overlapping 1 unifies, so there's energy in what would otherwise be a "locked down" design:

And that's it for this episode, peoples. 11 is a hard number to design to so, even though I snarked a bit, I must tip my hat to those designers who took these two stick-numbers and make a serious go of design on them. As usual curses to you, FOX and CW, for having one unintersting style.

And here's an artistic story about 11. Stockard Channing was hot as a nurse. Sadly, this was run on Sesame Street, so we're getting that "uh-oh" feeling. Ah, the way we were ...

Tags: channel surfing, TV Logos, logo design, TV Logo Library