NBCNews.com, apps update to new logo along with streamer

In addition to updating the NBC News logo on streamer NBC News Now, the network also shifted to the new logo on its flagship website, NBCNews.com and associated mobile apps.

NBC News Now streamer ‘tinkers’ with its logo font

The change appeared to happen the morning of Nov. 20, 2023, around the same time NBC News Now shifted to the new logo, which includes a redrawn peacock icon and the word “News” in the bespoke NBC Tinker font.

A screenshot of NBCNews.com before the logo change, including the old version of the NBC News Now logo in the video preview in the upper right. 

The logo update online was done as a standalone change, with other areas of the website remaining the same.

Previously, the website used the old version of the NBC peacock next to the word “News” in all caps bold Founders Grotesk. In this version, the word “NBC” was not included in the logotype; instead users were presumably supposed to read interpret the peacock as standing in for “NBC.” 

This is similar to how, for a period, NBC was using the .com as a stand-in for “NBC.com.”

The old version of the site also had the logo in all white, including the normally colorful feathers.

Advertisement

The updated version of NBCNews.com’s header with the full-color updated peacock and NBC Sans font.

The new site has switched over to a full-color version of the updated peacock along with NBC Tinker used for “NBC News,” which is now fully spelled out.

NBC also changed out the favicon, the small icon that often appears in browser tabs or title bars. That change was not immediately noticeable when the other changes went through, but this could have been due to a caching issue.

It was about a year ago that NBC started to use a redrawn peacock icon along with updated typography. NBC had been using NBC Tinker since 2013, but switched to a bolder, more generously-spaced version of the lettering in 2022.

Since then, NBC Tinker, which is based on Sweet Sans, has been added to the looks of promos, “NBC Nightly News,” the network’s special report slate and, most recently, the NBC News Now updates.

Because “NBC” is now included in the header logo, the logo does take up a bit more space next to the main navigation bar, which changes slightly based on the news of the day and day of the week.

Meanwhile, NBC News’ apps on major platforms also updated both their icon and logo.

Previously, the all-white peacock with the word “News” below in Founders Grotesk was used; essentially the stacked version of the website logo.

The recent update switches over to the full color, updated peacock with more space between the feathers and a stronger head notch. NBC Tinker is used below the icon to spell out the full name of the app.

The logo has been updated in the header and other key places within the app itself. 

Both the website and app content continue to use largely the same set of fonts, including Publico Text and Foudners Grotesk Mono.

In most cases across NBC’s website and apps, the full-color logo is set against a dark blue background, which doesn’t offer quite the amount of contrast as the all-white version did. 

The result is that some of the feathers become a bit more difficult to make out — at times almost playing tricks on the eye. This is especially true with the violet and blue ones and, to a lesser extent, the green one. Because these “cool” colors with less contrast form the background are on the right side of the logo and the left side is all warmer shades with more contrast, the visual muddiness tends to create an odd feeling of unbalance.

Advertisement

Notably, when a user starts scrolling down on NBCNews.com homepage, the header bar continues to shift to white, making the logo easier to read.

While previously versions of the peacock brand standards allowed it to be outlined in white in cases when more contrast was needed, the new guidelines don’t appear to allow that, as a white border around the feathers was also removed from NBC News Now’s graphics.

Shifting both NBC News Now and NBCNews.com along with their related mobile apps at the same time made a certain degree of sense given the close connected between the various platforms. NBC News Now, for example, is carried via the NBC News app on smart phones and smart devices, with the exception of streaming TV providers where NBC News Now is listed under its own name.