Westinghouse font vs. Anklepats font: Can somebody point out the differences?

[ixnay]

Can Scott Fybush or somebody point out the supposedly subtle differences between the Westinghouse font and the so called "anklepants" font, please? ???

ixnay

 

[fybush]

Not easy to do in a forum that doesn't allow embedded images, but the most obvious difference is the "M," which is stretched out to an almost grotesque width in "Anklepants." The differences are a little more subtle on some of the other lettering. The Westinghouse "O," for instance, is somewhat wider and has a more graceful curve to the bottom of the letter than the Anklepants O, which is more rectangular and has a less graceful transition from the thick vertical strokes to the much thinner strokes on the side of the letter.

Some of the angles are off in some of the other letters, too - the Anklepants "Y" has an odd backward-angled cut in the basin of the "Y" that doesn't exist in the Westinghouse "Y," for instance. (Compare "KYW" as rendered in Anklepants to the KYW 1060 logo; this also shows some of the differences in the Anklepants numerals from the Westinghouse font, where the curves and angles on the Anklepants "3" and "6" in particular aren't quite right.)

 

[1069_KIFR]

Scott, if I understand correctly, KYW TV has the Anklepants font while KYW Radio has the Westinghouse font?

 

[fybush]

That's not correct. Only a handful of former Westinghouse stations still use the original font. WJZ in Baltimore is the last one to use the font in its original form; KYW radio and KDKA radio use an italic version that was created late in the Group W era, while KPIX uses a "5" that's similar to the Westinghouse font but more angular and vertical.

KYW-TV doesn't use any form of the Westinghouse font anymore; it now uses a sans-serif "3" that's more closely related to Helvetica than anything Group W ever did.

I've only seen the Anklepants version used on a handful of stations. KXNT in Las Vegas used it for a while (you can see a low-res version at http://radio-info.com/in3_src/images/newsletter/logo_kxnt.jpg), and WOWO in Fort Wayne had an odd hybrid logo for a while that combined the "WOWO" calls in their proper Westinghouse font, unchanged since Group W sold the station in 1982, with "NEWS-TALK 1190 AM" in Anklepants next to it.

You can get a pretty good idea of the difference between the "real" font and Anklepants by comparing the 2000 WOWO logo, seen here: http://web.archive.org/web/20000301004253/http://www.wowo.com/ to the 2004 logo, seen here: http://web.archive.org/web/20040610201344/http://wowo.com/

The Anklepants letters are grossly out of proportion to each other; the Westinghouse font, having been designed by trained graphic designers, flows much more smoothly.

 

[nickelodeonfan97]

For what it's worth, Group W-era signage is still hanging on the side of KDKA's studio in Pittsburgh:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/KDKAGateway.jpg

That shows the official Westinghouse font.

 

[ixnay]

That's not correct. Only a handful of former Westinghouse stations still use the original font. WJZ in Baltimore is the last one to use the font in its original form; KYW radio and KDKA radio use an italic version that was created late in the Group W era, while KPIX uses a "5" that's similar to the Westinghouse font but more angular and vertical.

KYW-TV doesn't use any form of the Westinghouse font anymore; it now uses a sans-serif "3" that's more closely related to Helvetica than anything Group W ever did.

I've only seen the Anklepants version used on a handful of stations. KXNT in Las Vegas used it for a while (you can see a low-res version at http://radio-info.com/in3_src/images/newsletter/logo_kxnt.jpg), and WOWO in Fort Wayne had an odd hybrid logo for a while that combined the "WOWO" calls in their proper Westinghouse font, unchanged since Group W sold the station in 1982, with "NEWS-TALK 1190 AM" in Anklepants next to it.

You can get a pretty good idea of the difference between the "real" font and Anklepants by comparing the 2000 WOWO logo, seen here: http://web.archive.org/web/20000301004253/http://www.wowo.com/ to the 2004 logo, seen here: http://web.archive.org/web/20040610201344/http://wowo.com/

The Anklepants letters are grossly out of proportion to each other; the Westinghouse font, having been designed by trained graphic designers, flows much more smoothly.

Just got back from vacay, Scott. Thanks for the WOWO links, but I can't make out the obvious differences even with reading glasses.

ixnay

 

[fybush]

My apologies, ixnay - I may have sent you on a bit of a wild goose chase with those two WOWO archive sites. The oval-enclosed "WOWO NEWS-TALK 1190 AM" logos at the top of both the 2000 and 2004 pages are, in fact, nearly identical. Both use the original Westinghouse "WOWO" combined with Anklepants for "NEWS-TALK 1190." It's the other logo on the 2000 page, the "WOWO RADIO," that's entirely done in the original Westinghouse or a very good imitation thereof.

I wish I could find a higher-res version of the hybrid Westinghouse/Anklepants WOWO logo. To my eye, several of the Anklepants letterforms (in particular the "T") are just hideously out of proportion - the top bar on the T is way too thick and somewhat too wide, the "S" is malformed and the "E" isn't quite right, either. But having said that, I think there are some people who can see fonts, and some who can't. (My grandfather was a commercial artist and my father was an architect, so I grew up around this stuff.)

Can you tell the difference between Arial and Helvetica on sight? If you can, the difference between "real" Westinghouse and Anklepants should be even more obvious; if both look more or less the same to you, you probably won't see the difference here, either.

 

[Garrett]

Not easy to do in a forum that doesn't allow embedded images, but the most obvious difference is the "M," which is stretched out to an almost grotesque width in "Anklepants." The differences are a little more subtle on some of the other lettering. The Westinghouse "O," for instance, is somewhat wider and has a more graceful curve to the bottom of the letter than the Anklepants O, which is more rectangular and has a less graceful transition from the thick vertical strokes to the much thinner strokes on the side of the letter.

Some of the angles are off in some of the other letters, too - the Anklepants "Y" has an odd backward-angled cut in the basin of the "Y" that doesn't exist in the Westinghouse "Y," for instance. (Compare "KYW" as rendered in Anklepants to the KYW 1060 logo; this also shows some of the differences in the Anklepants numerals from the Westinghouse font, where the curves and angles on the Anklepants "3" and "6" in particular aren't quite right.)

 

[Garrett]

Not easy to do in a forum that doesn't allow embedded images, but the most obvious difference is the "M," which is stretched out to an almost grotesque width in "Anklepants." The differences are a little more subtle on some of the other lettering. The Westinghouse "O," for instance, is somewhat wider and has a more graceful curve to the bottom of the letter than the Anklepants O, which is more rectangular and has a less graceful transition from the thick vertical strokes to the much thinner strokes on the side of the letter.

Some of the angles are off in some of the other letters, too - the Anklepants "Y" has an odd backward-angled cut in the basin of the "Y" that doesn't exist in the Westinghouse "Y," for instance. (Compare "KYW" as rendered in Anklepants to the KYW 1060 logo; this also shows some of the differences in the Anklepants numerals from the Westinghouse font, where the curves and angles on the Anklepants "3" and "6" in particular aren't quite right.)

Not to mention the Anklepants "4" looks NOHTING like the 4 that WBZ TV Boston used until 1996.