The package made its full debut at 7 p.m. Eastern Time that Monday, though elements of it started showing up throughout the day in the baseline box and commercial squeezebacks.

The network’s old look, shown on the video wall behind the anchor desk, mixed with the new bottomline during the day Jan. 15, 2024.

The old look, which debuted ahead of the 2020 election, relied on a mix of angled elements and animations, 3D ribbons, stars, and monochromatic girders.

Another look at CNN’s old-style election open that aired earlier in the day on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.

CNN has kept its “America’s Choice” branding and continues to display those two words in a condensed sans serif. The updated design, however, switches the “2024” below to a bolder, wider sans serif.

The new look retains hints of the old package but dials up the 3D glassy and metallic elements. It brings depth and dimension to the various studio video walls.

On Monday evening, CNN rolled an extended pre-produced cold open that used a series of darker graphics rendered to appear as if the viewport was within a large, sprawling dark space defined with rectangular and square structural elements.

The cold open retained the custom music composed by Stephen Arnold Music and CNN’s trademark election theme music.

Many of these scenes included various views of an imaginary wall with space to display a video clip inside a 3D alcove. The alcove was wrapped with a series of red, white and blue borders and bars in various thicknesses, including some strong red verticals.

On either side, the space featured walls with a repeating reveal line pattern, creating a linear texture of sorts. 

The scenes spotlighted the 3D space’s shiny floor along with what appeared to be a riser with a red side sporting repeating stars. 

The riser featured a thick glassy slab above and below, creating a prominent bevel effect, also found in 3D text used in the open alongside relevant imagery.

This text was displayed with a subtle 3D outline, creating an illusion that the faces of the letters were farther from the viewport than those borders. However, the outline could also be seen as falling behind the letters, more like a traditional bevel, creating a push-pull effect.

A diagonal motif was used in some of these screens, including a red fill overtaking white lettering and the text used in the lower left, which varied between a diamond-like pattern and thin diagonals. 

View on Giphy

After the meat of the cold open ran, a fully animated sequence appeared on screen, starting with a highly glassy 3D version of the CNN logo. This was followed with blue and red “24” panels that slid aside to reveal the America’s Choice logo, which appeared as  dimensional lettering with a vertical line of stars installed on one of the walls of the same imaginary space featured in the open.

These animations also notably had a lighter feel, with more off-white and light gray.

A quick swing-around by the viewport revealed a wall with candidate portraits which then opened star-ship style into the ceiling and floor to reveal a second 3D space showcasing a silvery outline of Iowa along with the subtitle “Iowa Caucuses.” 

This was then eclipsed by an elaborate sandwich of stepped stars accented with plenty of 3D metallic effects, beveled edges and blue and red faces featuring additional CNN logos and references to the caucuses. Both of these scenes can presumably be updated for other election-related coverage, such as the New Hampshire Primary.

Finally, the stack of stars begins separating, with the camera zooming through the opening to reveal live video — in this case the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines.

For on-set video walls, the 3D effect is most notably used to create quasi-virtual set extension looks that draw on the open’s idea of 3D alcoves.

Most of the on-set video wall graphics have 3D effects that attempt to blend in with the real scenery.

The actual 3D alcoves come in a variety of configurations and can also include matching 3D text that appears to be sitting on the bottom part of the alcove. 

This variation includes blue accents to coordinate with Joe Biden’s party affiliation. Note the redesigned baseline banner with the diagonal line textures, blue space on the left and red bar on the right with the diamond texture in the background. The off-white space between showcases the updated ‘America’s Choice 2024’ look along with additional stars and a 3D ledge look along the bottom. 

Here, the map of Iowa occupies one alcove, while additional text and a countdown sits in the upper left, with an empty blue space backed with the diamond texture and star accents sits empty, creating a a feel of some built-in furniture or cubby holes.

This version features three lines of text, though only the final one actually appears to sit on a the 3D surface. This example also showcases the stacked columns of stars with 3D mullion effects that are used on other video walls as well.

As CNN moves between video wall graphics, there are two distinct options.

The first option is a quick animated wipe featuring what appears to an oversized, softly embossed version of the CNN logo on a white background. This look, incidentally, appears to be at least part of the influence for graphics found in the network’s election-themed promos that have been airing since 2023.

Those promos, however, take the oversized CNN logo a step further with red and blue outlines peeking through. The text in these promos also uses mixed case in a wider, friendly version of CNN Sans, as opposed to the condensed all caps used throughout most of the updated election package. 

The second option includes having the graphic slide up toward the ceiling, garage door-style, revealing the next look appearing to sit behind it.

Throughout the evening, additional venues in both New York and Washington, D.C. were used, most with large swaths of seamless LED. The network added a variety of background options behind talent, including red and blue panels divided by simulated silvery columns with reveal lines or mullion-style frames, more star columns in red, blue and silver, and variations of the alcove look with a cityscape view fed to the opening.

The network continues its use of keeping a large banner running along the top of many video wall graphics, including the one behind the Washington, D.C., panel, that simulates the feel of a header installed over a window.

Many of these graphics can be considered virtual set extensions, at least to some degree, because they appear to suggest that there are additional 3D elements on the set — however believable this ends up being. 

This approach has become common across CNN, including on its flagship dayside program “CNN NewsCentral” and much of its primetime programming, with various video wall graphics attempting to simulate the look of structural scenery. 

For the most part, the election look has fewer of the issues found with CNN’s other attempts at this effect, including oddly-scaled textures and less-than-convincing 3D effects and shadows that look more like Photoshop bevel and emboss layer effects. 

The effect is actually more convincing when the graphics being shown use only elements such as maps, cut-out portraits and labels because these blur the line between what’s supposed to be real or not, unlike the large 3D lettering that sits on the ledge of the alcove — which, while eye-catching, just feels like it had gone a bit too far.

CNN also introduced an updated look for its fullscreen data graphics. These are often displayed against a looping gray background featuring blurred versions of 3D stars, with the look becoming flatter and more embossed as it moves from left to right.

These graphics have the advantage of being clear and easy to read. And, because they are set against the animated background, you don’t have to worry about the on-screen bug, bottom line, or other elements covering it.

The approach also lets CNN use the same graphic, just without the white background, on on-set video walls behind talent — including being able to keep the graphics relatively the same size whether the control room takes it fullscreen or feeds it to a video wall.

CNN’s trademark Magic Wall on-set touchscreens retain the previous look used during the last cycle. 

Elsewhere on the network, some shows continue to use the old, angular election look as of Jan. 16, 2024.

For the network’s New Hampshire town hall with Ron DeSantis, the new design was present in the stage design with updated banners.

The network’s heavier use of 3D and imaginary virtual spaces has connections to other looks used in broadcasting today. It’s hard not to see connections to CBS News’ election graphics look. There are also some similarities with the newly-debuted ABC-owned stations graphics package, including the implementation of 3D alcoves. 

The post CNN overhauls election graphics package for 2024 appeared first on NewscastStudio.

The show, announced earlier in January 2024, uses a panel format and is hosted by Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders-Townsend.

“The Weekend” originates from Studio N5 at the network’s Washington, D.C., bureau near the Capitol.

The show brought out the high circular table often used in this space for the three hosts and guests to sit around, which is placed slightly forward of the studio’s large video wall alcove. That background is used at the top of the show when Menendez, who sits camera center of this view directly in front of the center wall, introduces herself and the other hosts.

“The Weekend” uses circular elements as a major motif in the show’s design — including showcasing the trio of hosts in at the start of the open in three “arches” that could be seen as a nod to the NBC peacock’s feather shape.

View on Giphy

The open takes viewers through a kaleidoscope of scenes, including a multicolor-banded animated wipe with the show’s logo repeated inside of each. 

Hosts are then each showcased with their own unique sub-look, if you will, which is first hinted at in the triptych of photos at the very start of the open. 

Menendez gets top billing against a red, orange and violet background with halftone dots and yellow text. Halftones are, by definition, a series of repeating dots and they often change in size to create the illusion of darker areas of an image, so it’s a natural choice for a textural pattern for the look. 

Steele is next with a dark blue background accented with red lines in increasing or decreasing thicknesses — a look that’s probably the simplest of the three. The lines are similar to the color-changing backlit staggered horizontal elements found along the base of the video wall and part of the wall opposite the setup.

Sanders-Townsend is placed in front of a green background (which happens to be one of the signature colors of her previous show, “Symone”). Violet lines and a repeating colorful array of silhouettes are also used.

All told, there’s a core set of visuals blended in one or more of each of these looks — lines, circles, halftones, oversized typography, and color. 

The view then shifts to an off-white background with black halftones, line accents and a series of black shapes that, through somewhat choppy animation, move around the screen and eventually serve as the base for the various letters in the show title. 

For example, three different circular shapes form the three “e”s in “Weekend,” echoing their roughly circular shape, while three triangles form the “W.” Other elements include cursor-like rectangles and angled lines in both thin and thick varieties. 

The lowercase “n” is formed with the curved arch accent and a series of halftone marks, which fill in the space under the letter’s curved leg in the logo. A circular bubble forms in the middle right of the screen and quickly reveals the host three-shot in the studio in front of the video walls.

In this view, the perpendicular video wall behind Steele’s position camera left draws much of its look on his part of the open. On the opposite side of the table, Sanders’ green is used.

Menedez’s color palette runs along the bottom of the center video wall behind her camera center position. As the center portion, the design also features a stylized D.C. skyline placed off-center with an irregular array of repeating circles used as a matte along the top.

All three backgrounds feature additional photography inspired by Washington; again, many of them are placed inside circular frames.

Steel’s blue background features a widely spaced series of marks that slowly get larger as the eye moves from the top to bottom of the graphic, similar to how the lines change thickness in his part of the open (incidentally, those lines find their way into the camera center background behind Menedez). 

Sanders’ background, meanwhile, has slightly more imagery and features a tightly spaced circular pattern that winds up with lighter greet four-pointed sparkle shapes.

No camera blinds are used to capture “in the round” layout; instead cameras for Steele and Sanders-Townsend appear on either side of the studio at various times. They’re positioned so that Steele’s body blocks most of Sanders-Townsend’s camera from view and vice-versa.

Menedez’s one-shot largely features the D.C. cityscape and the bold bands running horizontally along the lower part of the graphic.

Steele is shot in front of Studio N5’s real windows overlooking the Capitol, with the LED column found here fed a blue image with the show logo, an array of red dots and a thin curved line that appears to be either taken from the show’s graphics or part of a peacock feather.

Sanders-Townsend’s one shot typically includes a video screen with internally lit frames built into the wall along one side of the studio and an edge-lit peacock element. 

It’s worth noting how both the CR and CL positions both have a peacock-like element in the background — and how, in its simplest form, a peacock feather consists of a circular tip with straight but angled lines, much like many of the elements found in the show’s graphics. 

When an in-studio guest is featured, he or she sits across from Menendez, though slightly off-axis. This person’s one shot is the blocky column in the corner where a three-panel array of screens meets the wall of windows. The background, in this case, is the wood-toned column and its blocky edge-lit horizontal accent segments (similar in profile to those found in the open to form the “k”). 

The smaller on-set monitors throughout the studio typically feature different looping animations of the show logo against a constantly morphing wash of colors borrowed from those in the open and other spots. The loops typically don’t match, allowing a myriad of colors to be on-screen. In some cases, these arrays are also used to promote social media profiles or other MSNBC programming with a camera slowly zooming in on the panel with a corresponding graphic. 

The post MSNBC brings unique, colorful new look to ‘The Weekend’ schedule appeared first on NewscastStudio.

The new design centers on a slightly refined “CW” logo, with the curvy strokes made a bit thicker and the space between vertical elements narrowed. The network also dropped the word “The” from the logo, though the article is still part of the network’s official name. 

Chris Spadaccini, the chief marketing officer for the network, told Variety that the “The,” which used to live inside of the curve formed by the “C,” was removed mainly for legibility purposes. The word became too difficult to read at smaller sizes, which has become a common occurrence when it needs to appear on streaming and mobile platforms. 

Spadaccini noted that the “The” is now implied in the network name, and Nexstar expects that, thanks to years of familiarity with the brand, the public will still call it by the “full” name. 

Nexstar acquired a 75% majority of The CW in mid-2022 from Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, who still own 12.5% each.

Another reason behind removing “The” from the logo was that sub-brands, such as “CW Sports” and “CW Original,” don’t use the article — and in some cases, such as “The CW Original,” don’t exactly make sense.

It also dropped its longtime green color scheme in favor of a reddish-orange known as “CW hot sauce.”

CW worked with DixonBaxi on the redesign.

The network also introduced an updated color palette, including a dark background color with hints of blue and green. It’s definitely a sharp look with a touch of sophistication and almost feels like the color you’d expect an encyclopedia or other reference tome to be. 

Contrasting with that elegance the palette is rounded out with a minty green, basic white and pink, the latter of which has begun popping up on streaming platforms, mobile devices and connected TVs in the form of a refreshed app icon. It’s also become the look of choice on social media.

Nexstar has opted to officially retire the “Dare to defy” tagline and Spadaccini, who told Variety he’s not a fan of taglines, doesn’t know if one will be used again.

If the orange-red color is The CW’s hot sauce, then its new motion language could be described as a slithering snake with a bit a of sass. 

A linear element is being used extensively throughout the new look — a sort of hooked-like shape with a sense of horizontal elasticity that grows and shrinks and essentially represents the entire letter “C” with the far right of the “W.” 

This is often starts out as the full logo — before the two middle verticals playfully shrink down as the element grows in width, with only the far right one remaining. 

View on Giphy

The animation is often purposefully used as both a way to grab and keep the eye as well as a tie-in to other on-screen movement. It’s also not restricted to always being the same width or even fully on-screen at the same time — with the extended horizontal line bleeding off screen at times. 

In other cases, the “hook” is used as a sort of container for other on-screen elements, including smaller images or text.

Promos typically feature an end bumper with the dark background color and the logo slinking on and off screen — often “shoving” other text along for the ride — before ultimately landing left-aligned and vertically centered. This look can also be used at the start of promos or, alternatively, the animation is largely retained but placed over fullscreen imagery. 

There’s also a variation where text enters the screen from one side and ends up center aligned both horizontally and vertically before growing slightly for emphasis and then being replaced with a larger CW logo that also grows slightly in the brief time it’s shown.

Oversized repeating typography in a bold, clean sans serif is also used extensively throughout the sizzle the network released Jan. 12, 2024, ahead of the Critics’ Choice Awards telecast the network is carrying — a relatively big event for the decidedly lower profile network.

Individual show promos sport variety of takes on on-screen typography, including larger scale letters and fullscreens with type against colored backgrounds.

Keeping the logo relatively similar has the added advantage that affiliate stations will have some time to transition to the new logo. For what it’s worth, WCIU, one the network’s larger Nexstar or Mission Broadcasting-owned stations in Chicago, had not updated its promos or bugs to the new look as of Sunday, Jan. 14, 2023’s Critics’ Choice Awards airing.

Many of these stations brand as “The CW (Channel Number)” or with a city or region name in tow, such as “The CW 26” for WCIU.

The original CW logo dates back to the network’s 2006 launch, though when originally announced, a different look was used.

The post The CW dishes out the sauce with new logo, branding appeared first on NewscastStudio.

The CMG Graphics Hub, based out of WSB in Atlanta, led the package development, with it built on the Chyron Prime graphics platform.

Most shiny 3D elements are used in fullscreen animated elements, including opens, stingers, and wipes, with a focus on angular elements and diamond shapes, often with arrow elements inspired by those shapes.

Opens typically lean more toward a rather subdued color scheme with a series of arrow pointers entering the screen from opposite directions, while the station’s logo, rendered in separate 3D pieces, flutters into view. Only one station has launched a more complex open featuring additional station branding.

Some of the stations position the logo roughly in the left two-thirds of the screen, while others display it wider, stretching more into the openings created by the 3D glass and metallic elements to swap in local imagery to the right.

Opens also contain a line of marching text with various locales separated by pipes under the logo.

A similar look is used for various fullscreen animated elements, such as the “Right Now” stinger shown above. These tend to be more text-based and feature blue and silver shapes, with everything arranged inside a large central diamond, often sporting a silver arrow accent to the right. Some stations take these elements a step further by layering in photos. 

The text in these graphics is highly 3D and features what appears to be more of a matte face with more reflective sides.

Surrounding this are multiple angular elements, shown at various degrees of intensity and the option for a more subtle checkerboard-like pattern. There are several variations available and a thick silver arrow-like element often serves as a wipe.

For other portions of the package, including lower thirds, OTSs and fullscreen lists, a much flatter look is used, though there are some graphical tie-ins to elements found in the 3D design.

A ticker bar can be added to the bottom of the screen, capped with a thin yellow line on top with a white one below. Stations can insert branding or sponsor logos here as needed.

The far left of the screen is reserved for a bug and time and temperature that sits above the ticker, with layouts varying from station to station.

For example, WFTV in Orlando puts its red boxed logo to the left with a semi-transparent box next to it for a stacked time and temp.

Action News Jax (WFOX and WJAX, run by CMG via a JSA in Jacksonville, Florida) runs its logo along the top of the space, including having the option to add a “First Alert Weather Day” notation, and puts the current time and temperature below in a black bar.

WSOC in Charlotte, North Carolina, opts to run its circular “9” logo in a slightly narrower space with the time and temp part of the ticker bar below.

Meanwhile, the lower thirds themselves use a blue rectangle with a white line running up the left side and most of the way across the top, which does an effective job at framing out the space and the information displayed in it.

Story banners run wider than identifier insert graphics and the second tier typically includes a yellow pipe on both sides of the text displayed here, which ends up subtly drawing the eye to it while also building a connection to that scrolling list of cities in the opens. Inserts for double anchors run the full width with a triangular arrow accent to the left of each name.

The lower right of the lower thirds features a sort of reverse L-shaped accent, drawing on the arrow-like elements in the animated fullscreens.

Roughly half of the blue bar also features a twinkling matrix of dots.

There is the option for an additional tier above the blue bar, typically shown in white or red for breaking news. Some stations appear to allow a slight gap between the lower third insert and ticker, which can be used to add a red accent between the two. 

For teasers, a two-line blue box can be added in the lower left corner, accented by two yellow L-shaped elements, again inspired by the arrows and angles in the open.

Another layout includes adding a full-width blue background with dot accents behind the ticker and roughly half the of the bug with a white box with a yellow underline used to house the headline text.

The package also includes an OTS template that occupies slightly less than half of the screen width and features a sort of stepped layout combining white, gray, yellow and blue bars to create a sort of frame for the topical imagery with a blue box below for additional text.

There is also a list-style option with a white header element, yellow accent and multiple shades of blue used for each item of text shown.

Fullscreen lists use an ultra-clean look with a blue header with generous breathing room along the top with space for lines of text, capped with a colored vertical rule on the left below. There is also the option to make the current point larger and bolder.

CMG has been steadily rolling out the new look the week of Jan. 8, 2024, with nearly every station in the group seeing the design launch. WSB, WJAX, WFOX, WPXI, WHIO, WFTV, KIRO and WSOC have all debuted the new design in one form or another.

Action News Jax (WJAX and WFOX)

Motion Graphics

WJAX

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WSOC

Motion Graphics

WSOC

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WFTV 

Motion Graphics

WFTV

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WPXI

Motion Graphics

WPXI

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WHIO

Motion Graphics

WHIO

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WFXT

Motion Graphics

WFXT

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Motion Graphics

WTVD

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The implementation so far appears largely the same as at its sister stations, though with a notable distinction that the station is the only one in the group that doesn’t have a logo with at least the suggestion of a circle outside of the network logo.

Instead, WTVD, which brands on air as “ABC 11 Eyewitness News,” has a blocked italic “11,” so the logo entrances tend to shift the circular swirl animation to focus on the smaller ABC globe logo in the lower right of the numeral.

The graphics package, designed by Vivid Zero and driven by unspecified research findings from SmithGeiger, first debuted at WLS in Chicago in June 2023.

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The network’s logo, which previously featured the NBC peacock above the letters “CNBC” in a wide, squat sans serif, has been updated to use both the redrawn peacock icon and NBC Tinker font. Both of these elements have been slowly updating across multiple NBCU properties that sport the bird or typography since the new concept was first introduced for the television network itself in the fall of 2022.

The changes mean that the network name extends beyond the left and right feathers of the peacock above, instead of sticking closer to the width of the icon in the old version.

The old CNBC logo with old version of the peacock and wider, shorter logotype.

Incidentally, MSNBC previously used a similar typographic treatment as CNBC logotype when it arranged its letters in an L-shape arrangement. 

While CNBC continues to stack the logotype and peacock in most lockups, the two elements can also be placed side-by-side in some applications, such as in the network’s website header, though it swaps to the stacked version when the user scrolls down. CNBC has also stopped the practice of outlining the peacock in white in most cases, another change that is spreading across NBCU.

This, however, has the effect of certain feathers fading into the blue background behind the website header background, an issue that’s been noted on other applications of the new icon.

In addition to the new logo, CNBC also used the opportunity to roll-out a new on-air graphics package, including updating its famous blue and white ticker.

The ticker itself most notably lost its shadow effects. 

Another big change is the shift away from the darker, glassy and glowing elements in favor of a flatter, more rectangular look with clean lines and brighter accents.

Gone are the beveled edges, light flares, gradient-filled on-screen text and glassy 3D elements in backgrounds and opens. 

CNBC calls the approach, which was developed with Troika, a “a clean, minimal overall aesthetic that delivers simplicity to the viewer so they can engage comfortably 24/7.”

The network spent nearly two years developing the new design, which is based off an on-air grid system and the concept of a square shape serving as the base of the new design language.

“All actionable information and language can be seamlessly communicated through this core design element,” the network notes.

In a design theory graphic shared with NewscastStudio, the idea of a company can be illustrated by a single square, with a three-by-three grid standing for a sector. A much larger cluster of squares can then represent the concept of the market as a whole.

The use of this square-based concept starts with the network bug being positioned inside a square box in the lower left of the screen — a new location. The space to the right of this is typically reserved for the ticker, which remains a two-tier setup.

Exact configurations can vary based on daypart and current market conditions, but the top row of the ticker continues to focus on company or fund names, ticker symbols and current trading prices.

Instead of the more literal “up” and “down” arrows in green and red, respectively, CNBC has switched to a different take inspired by that square base.

By slicing the square in half much like you might cut a sandwich if you’re feeling a bit fancy, the network has created two indicators that correspond with ups and downs.

The green “up” arrow now points north east as opposed to true north, while the red “down” one is pointing south east instead of directly south. The meaning is still fairly clear, especially with the help of the colors. 

Meanwhile, the lower, blue tier of the ticker, now known as the “bottom line” has been switched to show major market indices, commodities and bonds, including similar color-coding. Outside of market hours, these can change to reflect futures and implied data.

The square foundation is also used in fullscreens, including animated backgrounds and stingers for breaking news and market rallies.

View on Giphy

The green “Market Rally” stinger that’s popped up around the debut of the new graphics features a eager bull formed from squares — though its body and figure still curve thanks to the undulating surface the 3D boxes sit on, even as he appears to triumphantly buck his head. 

In this example of the old CNBC graphics package, the ticker is noticably smaller. The CNBC logo in the white box on the right was used as a bug, with the market information below it known as the ‘bug stack.’ This information has largely been moved to the ‘bottom line,’ the new name for the blue band in the ticker. 

The entire ticker can now be wider than it was before in most layouts, expanding from being about 75% of the screen width to somewhere just shy of 100%. 

The blue bar in the ticker had been used previously to separate out Nasdaq stocks and other information such as weather, but it appears the network felt it was more important to devote this real estate to at-a-glance market summaries, which often was displayed in a box  the network called the “bug stack” — an element that ate up a lot of real estate.

“Combining both ticker elements into one was part of the overall redesign plan which included refreshing the lower third banner. This was done partly to make the banner information more clear and accessible,” Robert Poulton, vice president and global creative director told NewscastStudio.

“We’ve kept the iconic CNBC ticker element and created a permanent home for several items that could sometimes be found in different locations within the lower third. The overall package with redesigned charts, data boards and other elements will allow us to showcase our content, talent, guests and the insight they provide,” added Poulton. 

The new graphics use a curated selection of blues, blacks and grays along with white and the red and green market indicators. 

Market info is definitely more out of the way here, though removing actual stock quotes from the blue bar obviously reduces the number of quotes that can be on-screen at any given time, something the network may be content to live with now that stock quotes a few swipes or clicks away for even lay people.

Above the tickers and bug, the network can now insert a nearly full-width lower third spotlighting the topic at hand. Previously the bug stack would often limit how much text could be shown on-screen. 

The far left, in the space above the bug box, there’s space for the current time as well as segment labels or franchise names. 

Show or other branding can also be flashed on-screen in the primary banner space with a blue background and white text with the show name scaled to be slightly more than the height of the white box itself to help delineate it from a topical banner. 

One thing that didn’t change with the new CNBC graphics is the use of Gotham as its primary typeface. With the exception of the logo, this font is used in almost every on-screen element, from lower third banners, tickers, charts and video wall graphics. It’s not also applied, in full-width, to much of the ticker text, meaning that the ticker is easier to read but also can’t display as much information at once.

Dropping the more glassy, darker look means the network now uses a bright approach that uses a blend of imagery, oversized outlined typography along with simple geometric accents, including use triangles, microtext, blocks of solid color and peacock elements in elements such as opens. 

While each show still uses its own unique open, the title screen at the end of each one follows a similar layout: The CNBC logo in a white box on one side and the show title in white text inside a deep blue box to the right, with the except of “Last Call,” which uses a white version of the logo and show name placed inside of medium-thick outlines, similar to how it looked at debut.

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In addition to the on-air changes, CNBC also worked closely with Vizrt to migrate over to its systems across the entire network, fueling everything from lower thirds to real-time market data to on-set video walls.

A new custom user interface allows producers to create and drive graphics from their workstations. This includes being able to use a mix of both data-driven and producer-created looks as well as share the content across other NBCU properties. 

CNBC was able to tailor their ecosystem with Viz Engine 5, developing plugins and control interfaces for graphics playout.

Project Credits

Client: CNBC

SVP, Marketing: Tom Clendenin

VP, Global Creative Director: Robert Poulton

Associate Creative Director: John Rehm

Sr. Director, Design & Brand Standards: Julie George

SVP, Business News: Dan Colarusso

VP, Business News & Programming: Craig Bengtson

SVP Technical Operations: Steve Fastook

SVP Design & Production NBCUniversal News Group: Marc Greenstein

VP, Production & Studio Operations: Andy Barsh

Agency: Troika

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The pre-taped show hosted by Gayle King and Charles Barkley is running Wednesdays at 10 p.m. “through 2024,” though a special airing is planned for 9 p.m. eastern on Dec. 6, 2023. 

The show is produced from Studio 19Y at CNN’s Hudson Yards studios, with home base positioned opposite the side typically used for the “CNN This Morning” anchor desk.

The studio includes scenery on all four walls and originally debuted in 2019 for the network’s then-morning show “New Day.” 

The part used by “King Charles,” meanwhile, was originally home to “Cuomo Prime Time” until the show was canceled. 

Like the rest of the studio, this side is wrapped in faux brick walls and metal columns as well as multiple seamless video walls designed to appear as windows.

“King Charles” does not use the grid-like scenic element that was previously part of Cuomo’s background, but does make use of the vertical LED video tower that was previously placed behind that movable scenic element. Dimensional lettering with Cuomo show title that could be flown in is likewise not used.

The show uses a bold, condensed sans serif font for its logo with gold and violet used extensively throughout its look. Select elements make use of a rippled glass texture, often placed in front of other elements, including bright lights.

The words “King” and “Charles” are stacked on top of each other, with “King” in gold and “Charles” in violet. King’s first name is tucked in above her last name in smaller type, while Barkley’s surname gets similar treatment below.

The simulated glass is also used on the studio’s video wall “windows” to partially obscure the cityscape behind it, which has been tinted violet and gold in places.

Also included in the video wall graphics are simulated mullions, including ones splashed with violet light.

The LED video tower is used to display both topical and branded graphics. 

Likewise, the studio lighting has been shifted toward a violet and gold scheme, with the brick tinted purple and integrated accent lighting shifted to yellow.

King and Barkley both sit on chunky armchairs in matching gold and violet fabric. King sits on the gold one, matching the color her name uses in the show graphics, while Barkley is on the violet one.

Additional matching armchairs can be brought in for guests and positioned in an alternating pattern. 

The home base is set up on top of the studio’s square riser with inlaid video tiles. The three segments of the installation feature gold glints to the left, a neutral center with the initialism “KC” and violet on the right. That arrangement puts King on top of the gold floor and Barkley on the violet.

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The show’s opening sequence is in a mix of black and white and color with violet and gold tints applied. It includes King and Barkley mingling with crowds in Hudson Yards with brief snippets of current event and pop culture conversations incorporated. 

King and Barkley are introduced along with a preview of the upcoming guests, whose names and photos are integrated into city-inspired surfaces such as a taxi topper, near a crosswalk and subway station walls in an approach similar to late night talk shows. 

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The two-toned approach is carried through to the show’s animated elements, including bumps in the same scheme with the names “King” and “Charles” similarly placed in separate colored segments. The words “Gayle” and “Barkley” are also used in larger form as a sort of accent element.

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When “CNN This Morning” launched in 2022, it used Studio 19X down the hall. At the time, the network said that show would eventually moved to its own set, but that never happened and the show moved back to 19Y. 

“King Charles” should not be confused with the current British monarch of the same name. Barkley is sometimes referred to as “Sir Charles” in popular culture. 

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The new logo is largely an update on a 2021 version that featured the NBC peacock alongside the network name in all-caps using a proprietary font called Wordmark.

The 2021-2023 MSNBC logo.

The new version of the logo replaces the peacock with the redrawn version of the famous icon that NBC started rolling out about a year ago.

It features an updated color palette and slightly more space between feathers. It also eliminates the use of a white border around the icon in most cases.

The network name, meanwhile, has been replaced with another bespoke font, NBC Tinker, the typeface that has been used for the television network logo since 2013, though when the peacock was updated in 2022, the network began migrating to a new bolder, more spaced out version of “NBC.”

Tinker is named for Grant Almerin Tinker, who lead NBC from 1981 to 1986. It was based off the font Sweet Sans but with key customizations for NBC by Capacity Studios.

Since then, the NBC television network, NBC News division and NBC News Now streamer have all switched over to Tinker.

The most recent change was Now, which switched in November.

MSNBC has switched to the new version of the logo in its bug, social media and the graphics package for “MSNBC Reports,” the dayside programming brand it introduced along with the 2021 logo update.

For blocks of “Reports” that have a permanent anchor, the show is officially named “(Anchor Name) Reports,” though the graphics that appear within each block typically are a mix of both the named version and generic one. 

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Much like the changes at NBC News Now, MSNBC appears to have largely taken the original graphic project files and swapped out the logo and switched select on-screen typography to Tinker.

This includes switching to Tinker for the “(Anchor Name) Reports” titles that appear through opens, stingers and transitions. The package also makes use of oversized NBC peacock elements and lettering, much of which has been updated.

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What didn’t change is the network’s use of Roboto in its lower thirds and select video wall graphics. NBC News Now also uses Roboto in its L3s.

Other updates included updating the “MSNBC” logotype on the virtual set extension video wall backgrounds the network uses, though topical graphics still use Roboto and other fonts.

Outside of most New York-based editions, including José Díaz-Balart’s hour from Miami and Andrea Mitchell’s hour from Washington, D.C., the network name is replaced with the city name below the peacock in these designs. This is also in Tinker.

The network continues to use VideoHelper’s “We Are Forever” from the “Win Or Go Home” album as the theme for “MSNBC Reports” hours with other shows using their own music, logos and unique fullscreen graphics but still sticking with the same lower thirds.

Some of the changes to the MSNBC logo began appearing the weekend of Dec. 2, 2023, including the network logo in the footer of NBCNews.com changing over quietly.

Initially, MSNBC did not update its website with the new logo, but an update rolled out later in the day Dec. 4.

Along with the new logo, the navigation bar shifted from dark blue to a brighter shade. The new shade still has the effect of swallowing the violet, blue and green feathers, to varying degrees, due to a lack of contrast and the network’s new practice of no longer outlining the peacock.

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The streamer officially switched over to an NBC Tinker version of the logo on Nov. 20, 2023.

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

Tinker is the proprietary typeface, based on Sweet Sans, that NBC uses in its primary logo as well as in the looks for its news division logo, entertainment promos and the “NBC Nightly News” logo.

In late November 2022, NBC began rolling out a redrawn peacock icon and updated logotype with a bolder version of Tinker. NBC had used a lighter and more tightly-spaced version of Tinker going back to 2013 along with its original peacock logo.

NBC News Now also dropped the underline stroke from under the logo while adding a trailing underscore to the design.

A blinking underscore at the tail end of text is a hallmark of the primary NBC News Now graphics package and was used in the old version of opens in addition to the underline. 

Across NBC News Now, opens and other fullscreen graphics have been updated with the new logo, but remain the same otherwise. In most cases, neither the oversized text used in the background of animations nor the microtext accents changed. 

The logo was also updated on on-set video wall graphics, which also still incorporate other fonts in select elements.

The network also updated its bug in the lower left of the screen, though the animation remains largely the same — including the “spinning” wheel animation, feathers that blink subtly from right to left and use of the underscore as a sort of cursor. 

The word “Now” does become underlined in the bug briefly, but, unlike the old version, it does not remain on screen. 

Both the bug and most uses of the logo in animated graphics now shed the white outline around the peacock, which follows a similar strategy used elsewhere.

NBC News Now did not redesign its lower third inserts, which use the open-source Roboto, and were last updated about two years ago.

Essentially, it’s more accurate to say that NBC News Now has switched to a new logo, as opposed to saying the graphics were redesigned. 

NBC News Now previously used the network’s other proprietary font, Wordmark, in its logo. That font is still used in the MSNBC logo.

Kate Snow, left, and Zinhle Essamuah anchor Nov. 20, 2023’s edition of ‘NBC News Daily’ with the updated ‘NBC News’ logotype visible on both the left and right side of the studio.

In addition, both hours of “NBC News Daily,” one which airs only on Now, with the other carried on the NBC network, were updated with a Tinker version of the NBC News logotype. 

The font used to spell out “Daily” and Founders Grotesk, which is used prominently through this show’s look remains the same. “Daily” shares an insert graphics look with NBC News Now. 

Despite its uses on NBC News Now and the network’s flagship evening newscast, “NBC Nightly News,” Tinker has not spread to the news division’s other prominent shows “Today” or “Meet the Press.” It also hasn’t spread to MSNBC.

CBS has managed to get both “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Evening News” to migrate to TT Norms (“CBS Sunday Morning” also uses it, but Sunday morning public affairs show “Face the Nation” does not). 

CBS also uses Norms for all of its owned stations as well as its national and regional streaming news services.

ABC News is more inconsistent, with all of its major news programs, “ABC World News Tonight,” “Good Morning America” and “This Week” as well as its streamer ABC News Live, using different fonts in logos. ABC does lean heavily on Proxima, however, across many of its offerings. 

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The show broadcasts live from Atlanta at 8 a.m. eastern on Saturdays.

For now, the show is using a set originally built for CNN International that has been modified extensively over the years. 

The set is still based at the complex formerly known as CNN Center, though the network is finishing up a move to Techwood after selling the building in 2021. CNN parent Warner Bros. Discovery has arranged to lease back space in the building until the move is complete.

The show’s graphics feature glimpses of the Atlanta skyline along with a reflective glass building facade element that’s used throughout the look, including extensively in the open and on-set graphics. 

Graphics also make use of gold trails of lighting.

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The show logo is set in Proxima with dark blue faces and gold-toned edges. Many parts of the look, especially the logo, conjure similarities to the former weekday show “At This Hour.” 

“First of All” starts with Blackwell standing in front of the studio’s video wall but also makes use of the studio’s anchor desk, which includes LED video panels and dimensional lettering reading “CNN Center.”

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