BY Armin

A&E, Closer Together

Long gone are the days of A&E being a fly-over channel, with its snoozing biographies and re-runs of Murder, She Wrote. Now, perhaps at the other extreme, it broadcasts fare like Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Dog the Bounty Hunter. While neither incarnation of A&E has ever been my cup of tea, the transformation of the channel has been quite remarkable, and to punctuate the evolution, the channel has recently updated its 12-year-old logo. The old logo had an interesting execution to it, with the “E” being angled to match the “A” and knocking out the “&” from the übertight kerning that, even if not perfect, yielded a nice counterspace with the “E.” The new logo is much more purposeful in the integration of the “&” creating a unit out of the three letters. I like the all sans serif approach better — as the old serif “&” did make the logo feel more academic or historical — and the blending of the “&” and “E” is very well resolved. I am not convinced by the “bridge” extended between the “A” and “E”, but I’m willing to be convinced that that was the best option to resolve the white space left between the two letters. On screen, the new logo looks great, and the few broadcast graphics and animations that I have seen are smooth and fresh — I also spent some time watching the Gene Simmons show and, unfortunately, it convinced me to keep flying over A&E. A refreshingly simple press release can be read here.

\n\nLong gone are the days of A&E being a fly-over channel, with its snoozing biographies and re-runs of Murder, She Wrote. Now, perhaps at the other extreme, it broadcasts fare like Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Dog the Bounty Hunter. While neither incarnation of A&E has ever been my cup of tea, the transformation of the channel has been quite remarkable, and to punctuate the evolution, the channel has recently updated its 12-year-old logo. The old logo had an interesting execution to it, with the \"E\" being angled to match the \"A\" and knocking out the \"&\" from the übertight kerning that, even if not perfect, yielded a nice counterspace with the \"E.\" The new logo is much more purposeful in the integration of the \"&\" creating a unit out of the three letters. I like the all sans serif approach better — as the old serif \"&\" did make the logo feel more academic or historical — and the blending of the \"&\" and \"E\" is very well resolved. I am not convinced by the \"bridge\" extended between the \"A\" and \"E\", but I'm willing to be convinced that that was the best option to resolve the white space left between the two letters. On screen, the new logo looks great, and the few broadcast graphics and animations that I have seen are smooth and fresh — I also spent some time watching the Gene Simmons show and, unfortunately, it convinced me to keep flying over A&E. A refreshingly simple press release can be read here.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners