WHO IS THIS GUY?
Colin Kirkpatrick serves as the Art Director for KIAH-TV Houston. He has guided the branding push of the company through several identity changes as well as a network conversion. His designs have earned Gold and Silver awards from the Houston Advertising Federation, as well as several Lone Star Emmy Nominations. KIAH-TV named Colin the Employee of the Year for 2005, 2006 and 2014. He is active in the sales, promotion, and overall corporate communications effort of the station.
He enjoyed five years as Art Director of Metro Networks/Metro Traffic Control where he worked on a variety of projects for the company founder and owner, David Saperstein. He saw the company through a period of tremendous growth, and ultimately its transition from private to public. He was instrumental in the branding effort for the introduction of several product lines.
Colin earned a degree in Business from the University of Texas at Austin, with additional concentrations in Marketing and Psychology. He is single and lives in Houston, Texas.
About KIAH-TV…
I led the graphics, branding and image effort for the CW television affiliate in Houston through times of great change. I guided the station’s image during its evolution from The WB to The CW, through several identity changes, and both into and out of parent company Tribune’s bankruptcy drama. Areas of responsibility span news, promotion, community relations, operations and sales. This experience has been a tale of two brands. Since 2005, when the then WB network divorced itself from one of the largest stockpiles of brand equity in American corporate history, the challenge has been to regain a foothold in the attention of the television viewer, despite Tribune’s ownership woes and its love-hate relationship with the new CW network. Happily, the by-products of such an undertaking have been a thorough education in the art of adaptation, collaboration, resilience and how to get that promotion on the air through sheer will and magic. What began as largely a news graphics and animation position evolved into a comprehensive art direction role, including overseeing broadcast projects, branding, print, photography, and handling the multitude of oddball projects that make their way to my desk.
About Metro Networks…
When I was taken on as a Research Analyst for media mogul David Saperstein’s traffic service, his company was privately owned, had 45 affiliates and two product lines. When I left the company as a well established Art Director five years later, Metro Networks was far and away the largest traffic reporting network in the country, leveraging nearly 200 affiliates with seven media and content product lines. Was it all down to me? Probably. This was a print collateral, advertisement, and branding focused position, affording me the opportunity to hone my bent for perfection on large-run projects. Before the company’s IPO, the copywriter and I also had the pleasure of operating somewhat like a boutique operation at the whim of the founder for his personal projects and business ventures. Though initially print heavy, this position ultimately blossomed into other areas such as DVD authoring, specialty advertising, and web design.