BY Armin

Creepy Eyes Be Gone

WGN America Logo, Before and After

One of the most infamous logos of 2008 — which not surprisingly made it to our worst section of 2008’s Best and Worst — is back for another round. WGN America, the only remaining “superstation” in the U.S. unveiled yesterday a new identity that attempts to put behind the weirdest eyes to pass as a logo in recent memory. Although, to be fair, they did drop the eye illustration at some point between its own unveiling and now. The new logo is equally baffling in its own right: Three rounded-edge squares, skewed to come together hold some poorly mishandled default slab serif on top of a clashing rounded geometric sans serif. Sigh. There is nothing pleasing about this logo with so many dissonant elements mixed together. Maybe, if they keep up this pace, third time is the charm a year from now? Further reading on this story can be found here.

Thanks to Jay Mann for first tip.

DATE: Apr.10.2009CATEGORY: Entertainment 77 COMMENTS

Comments › Jump to Most Recent

dg3’s comment is:

Well, it's better than the previous one.

On Apr.10.2009 at 07:11 AM

Lindsay’s comment is:

Wow, has the station changed completely from 'alternative sci-fi tv' to 'old time family movies station'?

Not sure if it is a improvement as I have only looked at it's website so the tv spots might be better.

On Apr.10.2009 at 07:21 AM

Scott’s comment is:

I like it. It's not a technical masterpiece ... but it's got character.

Unique colors
Unique type treatment(s)
Unique angling

It's disjointed, sure, but it has an old-school 50s feel to it. which may or may not be what they're looking for (I'm not about to read the press release to introduce this).

The colors are pleasing. The "america" should've been tiered/arched at an angle to go with the WGN, but whatever, it's a pleasant-looking mess that will totally stand out from the other stations.

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:14 AM

Lucas Human’s comment is:

What does the WGN stand for? I did a little searching and all I could seem to find was "World's Greatest Network". If this is the case, then the logo would be World's Greatest Network America"… which seems a bit odd to me. Anyone have clarification on this? Thanks.

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:25 AM

Mark Settle’s comment is:

Typography is way off, but I kind of like it, especially the boxes, which reminds me of an illustration for the Apple TV.

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:26 AM

Jacob’s comment is:

WGN: World's Greatest Newspaper (Chicago Tribune, the founder and owner)

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:43 AM

Fish’s comment is:

Hmmm... Looks like I will no longer be able to tune into Star Trek, but maybe they will air loads of I Love Lucy re-runs.

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:54 AM

Sacha’s comment is:

Is it me, or did they use a free Deviantart font ?

http://aajohan.deviantart.com/art/Comfortaa-font-105395949

Not that there's anything wrong with that font, I like it a lot actually.

On Apr.10.2009 at 08:55 AM

Christopher’s comment is:

Thank f*king god! Even though the new one it's that great, they could have just put the letters W G N in italicized fuschia Comic Sans and it would have been a million times better than that old disaster.

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:00 AM

thehappyhuskie’s comment is:

Damn,

To think that last logo was all a setup for us designers to embrace this new one with far more warmth that its worth.

The old logo was a perpetual whipping boy for my buddy who is a grad student in design school. He also teaches a few classes, and the old logo was constantly used to illustrate a...well lets just say...a point.

That said, being from Chicago, the new logo seems very WGN to me. Its typography (the slab serif at least), colors and form seem very inviting to me, bringing back memories of cartoons after school, Cubs and ChiSox baseball on Saturdays and late weekend nights watching second run movies with my ma and dad.

Sure the logo isn't perfect, but its a lot better than it was.

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:14 AM

Ryan Adair’s comment is:

There's no denying that it's better. But the new one still sucks.

I mean, come on.

The W and the N are distorted terribly, there is a very uncomfortable hierarchy between the WGN and the america. And, it's just boring. It doesn't tell me anything.

It's an overused look, plus, the worst part, that combination of typefaces used together is just disgusting. What's it saying?

Episodes of Bonanza and bad old Italian soaps on the same channel, yippee!

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:16 AM

Kyle’s comment is:

@Sacha
I lol'd

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:42 AM

Emily Brackett’s comment is:

It's a lot easier to ignore the new one. I mean, I couldn't ignore those eyes, but this one is poor in that it doesn't hang together and also poor because it hardly stands out or is particularly unique.

The two fonts just don't make sense to me. The heavy serif fits awkwardly in the boxes and the overly round all lowercase america doesn't match with anything.

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:48 AM

Julie’s comment is:

That G needs to be ticked over like 3 pixels to the right. It's driving me nuts! The W too! GAH

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:00 AM

Kevin Zwirble’s comment is:

I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned too many non-cohesive elements going on here. I don't think the pepsi-like "america" really melds with a bad use of Rosewood, although I'm glad they didn't use the regualar western-style cut of Rosewood...yeck.

So TVLand meets Nick @ Night meets Sci-Fi Channel. Eh, it could be worse, they could use the face of some Anime character...oh wait.

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:02 AM

T Chevalier’s comment is:

Reminds me of GSN's new logo.

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:02 AM

Michael’s comment is:

What are they doing, crowdsourcing their design work? I know newspapers/media conglomerates like Tribune are going bankrupt, but they should realize that they shouldn't cut corners on their image.

I think they were going for kitche and really missed the mark by being too structured with it.

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:04 AM

Andrew’s comment is:

I think it is a definite improvement, but that the shape surrounding the "N" could definitely be the same color as the W.

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:59 AM

Mike’s comment is:

It wasn't until I looked at the article and saw the b&w version that I thought the logo was bad. I think the colors help it a little bit. When I saw the b&w, the skewed boxes and letters irritated me more than the eyes did.

On Apr.10.2009 at 11:07 AM

emil’s comment is:

I blame Adobe Illustrator.

On Apr.10.2009 at 11:45 AM

Mark’s comment is:

Well at LEAST it looks like a logo now. Compared to thew previous one it is definately an improvement!

It so hard to see the logo on screen as a bug now it blends in with the background.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:04 PM

Serviceburo’s comment is:

While I'm not particularly excited about this one, it is without a doubt a drastic improvement over the previous mark. I have to agree with the other posters who have noted that it is pretty derivative in that it clearly imitates a number of other network brands. However, I don't necessarily think that this is a bad thing, being innocuous is a hell of a lot better than being awful and having grown up watching WGN, I can tell you that this is some of the best branding I've seen them produce. And I'm still angry about having to sit through all those Cubs games.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:07 PM

Mark’s comment is:

Well at LEAST it looks like a logo now. Compared to the previous one it is definately an improvement!

It so hard to see the logo on screen as a bug now it blends in with the background.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:15 PM

Ann’s comment is:

I think this is a great improvement. I agree that it looks like a logo now.

I really thought the other logo was a little disturbing especially when at the bottom of the TV screen it blinked.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:16 PM

Gentleman Agitator’s comment is:

Satan's daughter, be gone from WGN! I do not know about mixing a 50's ish looking font with a 70's ish looking font. I guess they are supposed to invoke when a lot of their programming was made or something, an Americana nostalgic feeling...or something.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:21 PM

Johnny Holeva’s comment is:

I think this is a pretty decent logo idea. Not executed particularly well but it ends up working for me. "A" for idea and ambition (go ahead, read the idea behind it - I can actually by into it). "C" for design craftsmanship.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:42 PM

adam’s comment is:

i like the direction the 50s-ish WGN part is trying to go. they didnt quite seem to pull it off though, especially with that sans serif its paired with.

i will echo a previous chicagoan's comment (i grew up there) and say it does "sorta" have that old school, saturday morning cartoons, wood-paneled walls chi-town feel. which is good. just needs another round or two of refinement.

On Apr.10.2009 at 12:48 PM

donkelly’s comment is:

Maybe they ran a contest or went to one of those $100 dollar logo sites.
It's got potential but needs a few tweaks and fixes to rreally make it sing.. or at least mumble loudly.

On Apr.10.2009 at 01:02 PM

Chuck Spidell’s comment is:

It seems like they're going for the modern vs. vintage approach but still falling short. That slab serif looks like Rosewood Fill. I'm curious how this would look if the typefaces were switched.

On Apr.10.2009 at 02:11 PM

JW’s comment is:

Man that's awful, I tried to watch Scrubs last night and couldn't stop staring at the logo and it's pee yellowness. It looks like they ran out of ideas and just just looked at some old 1950's logos and ran with it. I liked the one in between the eyes and this one. http://www.pwnewsnow.com/cutenews/data/upimages/wgn_logo.gif It may be plain, but it's simple.

On Apr.10.2009 at 02:16 PM

Spunky McFlunky’s comment is:

I thought the eye logo was a joke or something when I first saw it. I really have nothing against this new logo - perhaps because it is such a monumental improvement over it's precursor.

On Apr.10.2009 at 02:17 PM

Ryan Adair’s comment is:

I came back a second time, thinking maybe I needed to revisit it. God, ack, the new one is awful!

On Apr.10.2009 at 02:45 PM

Chris’s comment is:

"Let's Make a Deal"

On Apr.10.2009 at 03:45 PM

JaySticLe’s comment is:

This is precisely the logo I was talking about! And now that I see the WGN America, GSN, and TLC logos next to each other (thanks, whoever posted it), they look VERY similar! In fact, the YouTube logo also looks a bit like them. I sense the logo clone wars are beginning...

On Apr.10.2009 at 04:17 PM

Robin Dadisman’s comment is:

When NBC rebranded, they kept the peacock. I would love to know what the WGN committee was on when they separated the top half designer from the bottom half designer. It's like the BBC and VH1 had a baby and they named it "Ick"!

I think you can still call WGN a Superstation because it's shown nationally but still has local Chicago news and programming.

On Apr.10.2009 at 07:06 PM

publisher’s comment is:

Much better in context. The campaign has some potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0fkCbX3K6g

On Apr.10.2009 at 07:36 PM

Quoin’s comment is:

Those 'W' and 'N' boxes seem to be literally flapping in the wind. Depending on how I look at it, they seem to be at different angles from the 'G' box and from each other.

It drives me nuts. I think it's awful. Maybe this is just end-of-day Friday talking...

On Apr.10.2009 at 07:51 PM

Rusty Shackleford’s comment is:

emil and Gentleman Agitator, I thought of this immediately:

Birds of a feather, I guess...

On Apr.10.2009 at 09:26 PM

Nathan McKinney’s comment is:

I hate to say it, but I actually like the old one better. The new logo does nothing for me. While the old eyes logo is odd, it's at least kinda unique, and about 15 years ago it would have been regarded as cool. Maybe it's just time to start going for the "retro nineties look". The retro 50's look is soooo passé

perhaps?

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:31 PM

Jonna’s comment is:

The redesign is not that impressive, however ANYTHING is better than those eyes. I was really confused when I saw them the first time. I though I was watching some horror movie network. So, hurrah for change of any kind.

On Apr.10.2009 at 10:46 PM

Jeff’s comment is:

The logo is an improvement, if not all the way there yet.

On another note about branding, if you go their website, the header banner ad, the Flash movie marquee, the skyscraper banner ad, and the footer banner ad are all the same ad for Wrestling on their network - using exactly the same artwork. Do they show ANYTHING else on the Superstation?

On Apr.11.2009 at 09:39 AM

designscene’s comment is:

The strange just got stranger. In some ways it may be better than the old logo, but it still doesn't say much. There is a strange combination of fonts and colours there.

On Apr.11.2009 at 10:40 AM

Gustavo Cadar’s comment is:

Yes, it's poor. But is much better than the old one.

On Apr.11.2009 at 02:50 PM

Josh’s comment is:

So this was an internal job? For being a for profit network, they sure don't have anywhere near the design talent the local or any PBS station can pull in.

I mean TPT (in Minneapolis/St. Paul) was just recognized by Apple for their production values and workflow(with Macs) and the TPT identity is solid.

Chicago is full of great designers, but apparently WGN is above the fray of every other major network and thinks they can handle it. In the end its better, but I don't think they "handled" it well.

On Apr.11.2009 at 03:42 PM

stefano picco’s comment is:

I like the newone - still missing the eyes, hard cut so far!

On Apr.11.2009 at 04:13 PM

Justin Hill’s comment is:

http://www.freecorporatelogos.com/thumbs/TBS.jpg
I immediately thought of this TBS logo from the 1990s when I saw this.

On Apr.11.2009 at 04:16 PM

Justin Hill’s comment is:

AUTHOR: Justin Hill
EMAIL: justinhill2k6@yahoo.com
IP: 65.25.251.153
URL:
DATE: 04/11/2009 04:17:12 PM

On Apr.11.2009 at 04:17 PM

John McCollum’s comment is:

I HATED the old one. Like despised it with a burning, venereal passion, so my dislike of the new one almost seems like love to me.

On Apr.11.2009 at 06:17 PM

John Mindiola III’s comment is:

It's like the circus-coming-to-town meets the-world-wide-web. This logo seems like a potentially interesting start with the three panels. You could really do some interesting things there. Deciding to NOT capitalize the America? Bad move. WGN will feel some backlash for this.

On Apr.11.2009 at 07:55 PM

Mongoose’s comment is:

So, it looks like a TV station logo again. This alone is a improvement over the old one, which might only be good for Sci-F... er, Syfy.

And the new one, I think is a bit disjoint between the 'WGN' and the 'America', agreed with Armin. They're two fair and somewhat interesting fonts, but the lower-case 'America' would be better-suited for the BBC America logo than this. (It'd echo the 'a' there.)

I personally like the effect of the letters in the skewed roundtangles; It's distinctive and rather balanced. I notice that in the advertisements they play with the colors, which is good; these colors as they stand look like a classy kitchen.. from 1976.

I give this rebrand a B-, and would give it a B+ if they dropped or more appropriately fonted the 'america'. This is not a good trend so far this year.

--Mongoose

On Apr.12.2009 at 12:27 AM

Josh’s comment is:

Poorly crafted and unremarkable.

To say this is a successful re-brand because it is an 'improvement', is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig.

On Apr.12.2009 at 12:47 PM

Anonymous’s comment is:

I am amazed by the comments claiming that "at least it is better" Bad logos are still bad logos, so this logo has not made any progress at all.

The typefaces are just poor quality and the W an N are all jacked up due to the perspective. The serif on the G looks like a GD 101 student made it by hand. The typeface for America, pfft, don't get me started, why not use a quality typface like chalet in rather than what appears to be a free font.

Sorry want to like it, can't, still a bad logo

C/ C-

On Apr.12.2009 at 01:12 PM

Lucid’s comment is:

BTW last anon comment was mine made from a mobile device

On Apr.12.2009 at 04:01 PM

Shauna ’s comment is:

Well it's definitely an improvement I have to give them that.
I don't like the weird mossy green that makes me think of something that's been sitting out far too long but and I would have preferred if the WGN weren't in a serif font.
It seems that a lot of tv networks are using rounded squares as a logo so maybe they were trying to look less out of place as a tv network.
However from the logo I'd be more expecting reruns of Cheers than WWE Superstars.

On Apr.12.2009 at 07:39 PM

busy bee’s comment is:

Go CUBBIES!!!

On Apr.12.2009 at 07:46 PM

Mark’s comment is:

I haven't noticed before but the G in WGN and the unfinished tail of the e in America look very wrong. The W also looks off, the top of the W doesn't match with the bottom!, they couldn't resolve these issues on a computer? c'mon! Who didn't SEE this? Only the N looks fine, the r looks odd as well! It seems to try to stretch to fill the space! WTH is going on with this logo?

Also matching serif with sanserif? I thought this was a big no no in graphic design, the client must've asked for it! that's the only way I could explain it.

At least the between logo didn't have these issues! Plus it looked up to date, this seems to be somewhat of a step backwards sadly.

It is an improvement over the eyes, but there are several issues that NEED to be resolved.

On Apr.12.2009 at 08:02 PM

N.S.’s comment is:

@ Sacha --

It is Comfortaa. Without a doubt. Looking at the terminal of the lowercase 'e' and the 'a' makes it a dead ringer. They either used Comfortaa because one of their designers happened to have it on his/her computer or because Comfortaa may be based on an existing typeface.

On Apr.13.2009 at 03:32 AM

Erik at Logo Critiques’s comment is:

better than the previous version, but not by much. What's with the sudo 50's style treatment for 'WGN' and then really modern feeling and round 'america'. Well, I'm not a fan... sorry

On Apr.13.2009 at 07:56 AM

SeeingI’s comment is:

It's miles better than the 80s "Patrick Nagel" eyes, but I gotta say, the acromegalic "G" really bugs.

On Apr.13.2009 at 10:29 AM

eCLIPSE’s comment is:

Who care if it is better than the eyes!

It is still "Fugly".

Full Point.

On Apr.13.2009 at 12:11 PM

William Sauce’s comment is:

give this credit for being better than its predecessor is like enjoying the smell of your trash can because it smells better than the dumpster.

for my part, i think both bad typography and garbage need to be seen for what they are.

sure, it's better than the last one, but that's no excuse for poor graphic design. there are just too many conflicting elements—none of which has received the necessary care required for clear communication.

On Apr.13.2009 at 12:36 PM

William Sauce’s comment is:

^^
that said by someone who clearly didn't proofread his entry … shame on me ;)

On Apr.13.2009 at 12:39 PM

Proverbial Thought’s comment is:

Well, I say fire the designer. Or, fire the Executive in charge of the designer. It is painful to wath a company try so hard to get something right, and keep boching the execution. The real irony to me is that their new "flagship" program "Superstars" has far superior graphic design work than the station itself! I think this logo is REAL bad.

On Apr.13.2009 at 04:04 PM

Lapooh Jackson’s comment is:

what is WGN?

On Apr.13.2009 at 04:18 PM

Justin Hill’s comment is:

@ Lapooh: WGN is a TV station in Chicago, IL. It is similar to TBS (a.k.a. WTBS Atlanta), as they both have a strong presence on cable TV, as superstations.

On Apr.13.2009 at 06:00 PM

Mark’s comment is:

and it stands for World Greatest Newspaper which has been previously stated.

On Apr.13.2009 at 06:16 PM

Maddie’s comment is:

Yuck! I just painted over a similar green in my new house. This is very bad.

On Apr.13.2009 at 06:44 PM

ISMISM’s comment is:

looks a little like it was designed on crowdspring.

On Apr.14.2009 at 01:42 AM

honkhonk’s comment is:

AUTHOR: honkhonk
EMAIL: honk@honk.de
IP: 87.149.203.2
URL:
DATE: 04/14/2009 09:13:21 AM

On Apr.14.2009 at 09:13 AM

Don’s comment is:

I actually hate it more, because they didn't learn their lesson.

On Apr.14.2009 at 11:58 AM

Rob’s comment is:

The old logo is shameful and nothing more. The new logo looks at least like a tv station. It is simple and effective though it does not stand out much in today's channel guide. I do have one thing with the typeface though, the lettering for 'WGN' as shown in honhonks comment, looks like alphabet blocks. However, the 'america' typeface seems out of place and does not really fit in with the logo too much.

On Apr.14.2009 at 05:16 PM

Anonymous’s comment is:

You know, i really liked the retro feel of it and the colors they chose, until I turned on my television. For some reason, the station chose to make the whole logo ugly mustard yellow. It does not look pretty! eww...

On Apr.18.2009 at 01:25 AM

Justin Hill’s comment is:

I would've chosen red for W, purple, for G, and blue for N. It would look better that way.

On Apr.18.2009 at 11:11 PM

Chris McCormick’s comment is:

This was something I have been waiting to happen for some time now. I hated those creepy eyes. The new logo is not the best, but is definitely much improved. GO CUBBIES!