Red, Black, & White: Public Radio Station Logos From Across America

I work for a public radio station in Durham, North Carolina and have never been a big fan of our logo. I think it looks outdated and clunky; the color palette lacks intentionality and the font creates repetitive shapes in each letter, which I believe takes away from the impact of the text:

I think the station could use a logo that better appeals to younger and diverse listeners in their 20s and 30s (much of the station’s current listenership is older and white).

So, I wanted to see what other public radio stations across the country have developed, logo-wise. I was expecting to see a lot of old-fashioned-looking designs using script fonts and primary colors, like this logo for Kansas Public Radio:

I thought, there are only so many designs you can create with a station’s call letters (the four letters beginning with “W” that identify nearly every public radio station). Not to mention the fact that many public radio stations don’t have the resources, or have long not had the financial or staffing resources or savvy, to approach their logos in a thoughtful, intentional manner.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few modern logos that more effectively use accent colors and contemporary fonts — especially among the larger public radio stations:

You’ll notice a lot of repetition and similarity in color scheme and concept in the logos above (for the major public radio stations in New York City, Chicago, and Austin, from top to bottom). Bold, capitalized fonts, the use of negative space against a colored background, and especially the color palette of black, white, and/or red, appear to be popular features of logos among public radio stations across America. Red is quite eye-catching and can focus the attention of viewers quickly — is that why it’s such a popular color choice?

Here are a couple more that share one or more of these features, but are a bit different in style:

(KQED is San Francisco’s major public radio station.)

The thing is, these public radio stations aren’t really competing with each other; they produce local journalism for different geographical markets. They don’t need to distinguish themselves from other public radio stations — rather they need to differentiate themselves from other local news outlets in their communities.

So maybe it doesn’t matter that the logos of public radio stations across the country follow similar styles and color trends. In fact, maybe the similarities help people recognize the ‘public radio look’ (as opposed to the look of a commercial news station or newspaper)). I wonder, what led so many of these public radio organization along such similar paths in visual branding in the first place?

Here’s yet another red and white logo to really drive the point home. This one is from a smaller-market station, New Hampshire Public Radio:

With a bit more searching, I found a few public radio stations that have logos straying away from the above design trends. Most of these were for larger-market stations, probably because they have more resources to spend on visual branding. The below logo for Seattle’s major public radio station is one of my favorites:

The complementary color scheme is contemporary and fun. The pairing of the dark blue-gray with the seafoam, against the accent orange in the ‘shadow connectors,’ distinguish this logo from so many of the other large public radio stations’ logos that feature black, red, and white, or just one or two of these colors.

The use of the accent orange to outline the letters’ connections to their shadows gives the logo an industrial look. From what I’ve seen, that style is rare in public radio station branding and sets KUOW’s logo apart on another level.

No less important is the inclusion of “.org” in KUOW’s logo, which acknowledges the newly-important role that digital content plays in any public radio station’s offerings. It’s not an element I saw in other stations’ logos, but it’s one that other stations might consider including in the future.

WAMU in D.C. took an even more colorful approach to its logo.

I would be curious to hear what my classmates think of WAMU’s logo. Is it too busy? Personally, I like the use of negative space against the spectrum of overlapping colors, from both adjacent and opposite parts of the color wheel. I think the arrangement gives the logo a dynamic, vibrant feel, but I’m partial to multicolor designs. I wonder what the thinking was behind the semi-oval shapes.

I saw even more creativity and risk-taking in some of the smaller-market public radio stations’ visual branding. And I noticed features among these stations’ logos that was lacking in others: iconic or indexical signs, or elements that evoke a station’s geographical surroundings, or even the services it provides. This logo for Wyoming Public Media is an apt example:

The sound bands washing across the bison — what a dynamic way to bring together and represent the station’s offerings (news and storytelling in sound) and its location (the bison is Wyoming’s state mammal).

Wisconsin Public Radio’s logo focuses on what the station offers with a sign representing its coverage map (typical radio coverage maps use concentric circles to show how far a station’s signal reaches):

Indiana Public Radio’s uses a microphone to symbolize its offerings, which wasn’t an uncommon feature in the logos I studied:

Looking at all of these logos side by side, from both large and smaller-market public radio stations, got me thinking about a new version of WUNC’s logo. How could it better appeal to younger and more diverse listeners and consumers of news?

I thought about some of the visual trends I saw among the larger-market public radio stations that have successfully attracted younger listeners, like WNYC and KUT (the black, red, and white color palette and bold type). I also thought about the elements I liked in the smaller-market stations (the iconic signs evoking a station’s location and/or offerings). I brought these trends together in this logo redesign:

What do y’all think?