21 April 2014

[design] Breaking News: The New Look of KOIN Channel 6

3064.
The KOIN Local 6 identity for The House That Mike Donahue Helped Build is no more. Welcome to the new KOIN 6:


Pretty spiff and shiny, no?

I'm glad they were finally able to pull it all together and give it a nice rollout. That said, I'm going to mourn the passing of the KOIN Local 6 approach. It was an admirable attempt and ought to be lauded. Boasting about being local, in a media environment that seems, in markets like Portland, driven from somewhere else, is a good thing and can work if brought off right. The obstacle there, of course, is figuring out how to sell it, which is a simple thing … well, not much more difficult than trying to solve Rubik's Cube with gloves on and a blindfold, I suppose.

In Portland, Local sells. Oddly, nobody was buying. No, I can't figure it out either.

The new logo is a modern treatment on what is actually an old approach … the classic callsign-channel number presentation. It recalls the classic look of the 6 … usually designed into a containing frame, for 6 this was a circle, until the Local 6 branding happened. The modern fashion is the quadrilateral, with the clipped corner an interesting filip. The other big substantive change is the introduction of a new tagling, Watching Out For You, which reflects the kind of advocacy investigative journalism that KOIN has latterly been working very hard to own locally.

Over the past few weeks, KOIN 6's morning report, which was called Right Now, was delivered by Chad Carter and Elishah Oesch in front of a rather cozy-looking brick backdrop while the old set was being remodeled. Today was the big reveal. KOIN has a video that gives some behind-the-scenes time-lapses which is most fun to watch, and you should go there to do this thing because the embed code just won't work here.

However, a video hosted at YouTube gives a clear idea of the new approach of the new look:



The opening (which is not yet available, so you'll have to tune in to see it) features an aerial view of the KOIN Tower, which is perfect. When your headquarters is housed in one of the most recognizable buildings (that just so happens to be named for you) in a widely-admired major American city, you're a stone fool if you don't hype that.

So, welcome KOIN 6. You're looking mighty fine. 

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