KXAN First Warning Weather App

At KXAN we were switching developers for our weather app, and we took that as an opportunity to redesign the First Warning Weather logo. We wanted to make it more modern and easier to integrate into our news package without losing its essential nature or horizontal shape.

The redesign needed a new background as well. Found inspiration in the angle made by the K and the X in the KXAN logo, but turned it into a forward facing arrow that suggested the passage of time and the quickly changing state of weather.

The app developers had already created the basic shell, so my contribution was mainly in choosing colors, fonts and background images that were consistent with our brand guidelines. I also designed a few new title pages.

The most significant functional and aesthetic change was the addition of live weather states, represented by an evolving image of the Pennybacker Bridge, an Austin landmark. If the current conditions are sunny, that is reflected in the image. Likewise, if it’s raining, you’ll see rain.

This was accomplished with the aid of AI. While I don’t use generative AI very often, this exact kind of problem was a good use case. I started with an actual photo and then created 15 variations for time of day and the most common weather conditions.