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Pittsburgh's PBS station appears to be poised to drop its "three rivers" logo in favor of an updated look that reimagines the "Q" in its name as a speech bubble.
The new logo began rolling out in November 2024 on WQED's social media, with the station still retaining the old look on its website and TV signal. Owner WQED Multimedia did not comment on the change.
The updated logo reimagines the letter "Q" as a speech bubble-like shape, with a custom-drawn glyph taking the place of the letter in the updated lockup.
The other letters in the wordmark are displayed in a clean sans serif that's bolder than the previous look.
Prior to the change, WQED spelled out its call letters in a geometric sans serif with an additional Q-like icon placed next to it. The crossmark of the "Q" was used to form the appearance of three waves, a nod to the Pittsburgh's confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers merging to form the Ohio River near downtown.
The old logo had weaknesses, however -- the waves' thicknesses were inconsistent and it also could be confused as "QWQED" thanks to the letter "Q" essentially repeating itself in the standard horizontal lockup.
The new logo introduces much more consistent strokes. The curved and pointed stroke that forms the "Q" and speech bubble in the negative space reads relatively well as the letter it replaces and bumping up the boldness of the typography helps significantly with visibility.
The station has long focused on the letter "Q" as one of its brand differentiators, so it makes sense that that letter carries much of the responsibility in the new branding. While the sharp point on the Q's tail does feel more like something you'd see in a more geometric sans serif -- perhaps one with a more pointed "W" -- that's largely forgivable since it helps distinguish the letter "Q" from the rest of the design.
It's not clear what WQED's plans are for the new logo -- or when it might roll out more broadly. It's also not clear if its FM radio station that uses the same call letters as the PBS station will switch over as well, though the two entities did share the previous river logo.
It's also worth noting that the notion of a speech bubble is, perhaps, even more relevant to a radio station as an audio-only medium. Television, of course, is primarily visual, but audio is still an important complement to the moving images and the image of bubble can also double as representing ideas, thoughts and sharing or exchange of information.