Atlanta station gets chunky, less lively new logo design

WXIA, the Tegna owned NBC affiliate in Atlanta, has introduced a blocky new logo that, despite the station’s “11 Alive” branding, isn’t all that lively.

The new logo, from agency Matchstic, reimagines the “11” as two thick vertical lines with slightly angled “tops” and the word “Alive” below in all caps.

The typography of the word “Alive” is bolder and more condensed and also features an angle on the “foot” of the “L” that appears to be designed to mimic the angles at the apex of the “1”s as well as match those in the “A” and “V.”

The old WXIA “11 Alive” logo design featured two different shades of blue with serif typography for the numeral and the word “Alive” in a red footer below.

The station also has switched to using a brighter, orange-red color as its primary branding scheme, eliminating the blues and more traditional shade of red found in the old look.

On social media, the logo itself becomes white set against the orange-red shade.

In many ways, the new heavy look follows the so-called “brutalist” trend in graphic design — characterized by minimalism and heavy blocky forms.

Meanwhile, as of Thursday morning, the station’s website, which is located at 11alive.com, has not switched over to the new logo.

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Atlanta NBC debuts new set

The new design does follow the cleaner lines of the groupwide Tegna graphics package, which WXIA switched to in 2013, following a pattern of the company’s stations switching to new, simpler logo designs, such as KHOU in Houston, WUSA in Washington, D.C., WVEC in Norfolk, Virginia, and WMAZ in Macon, Georgia, to name a few.

Online, users are comparing the new logo to everything from skyscrapers to tombstones to teeth.

Besides the new look, the station has also added the “Where Atlanta Speaks.”

New logo. Same mission.

We’re here to connect you to local stories that matter. Let’s talk.
We welcome all voices to the table. Join in! share your thoughts and hear new perspectives.#11Alive: Where Atlanta Speaks. pic.twitter.com/Z9eGgBuVJB

— Cheryl Preheim (@CherylPreheim) January 23, 2019

In addition, the station is preparing to launch a new set in the coming weeks, replacing the set it debuted in 2013.

WXIA, whose call sign includes the roman numeral version of “11” — “XI” as well as an “A” for Atlanta.

The “Alive” branding WXIA uses goes back to 1976, when Consolidated Communications, which would eventually merge with Gannett, began having most of the stations it owned at the time use the name. Once Gannett purchased the stations, most stations stopped using the branding, but it has remained a fixture at WXIA for decades. 

The “Alive” branding was also used briefly at WPIX in New York and WPXI in Pittsburgh, both who happened to be Channel 11 but had no corporate connection to WXIA or its owner.

The layoffs at $GCI were anticipated even before a hostile takeover bid emerged earlier this month https://t.co/nPh1eabw9a

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) January 24, 2019

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In 2015, as part of an industry wide trend, Gannett split its television and newspaper operations into two companies, with Tegna becoming the name for the television group. Technically, however, the split was structured so that Tegna was the “old” Gannett — while the company’s newspaper publishing division kept the Gannett name.