Story of Us

Posted by Claudia Bottoms on 28 October 2010 | 4 Comments

Tags: getting started, logos, fonts

It's the kind of question every Art Director wishes to be asked: "If you could dream up a magazine, what would it be?"

Within days, Lauren Eberle, Lori Reese, and I were sitting in my living room discussing just that. The meeting was the culmination of working and learning together for the past few years, with a unique opportunity within our grasp. We could create our own publication, with the business and legal sense of Gina Stewart and Kathy Worm behind us. We were in quick agreement on the focus: North Carolina travel, food, wine, and decor.

The weeks following that meeting have felt a bit like an episode of Dinner: Impossible on the Food Network (minus the grumpy British guy). Our challenge: to launch a fresh, top-notch lifestyle magazine in time for the holidays.

We dreamed up the majority of our 2010/2011 editorial calendar before we even had a name. Choosing a name = easier said than done. In this day and age of dodging trademarks and securing website, Facebook, and Twitter addresses, that's no small task.

I've included below some of the others that we considered. I find it always helps to see how words look visually before committing to anything:

 

• We loved Taste North Carolina, but that was quickly ruled out for being too similar to our friends at Taste Carolina.

• There were two things I didn't like about "Flavor:" the ascenders in "fl" left me with a lot of dead space at the top of the logo that would prove difficult down the road when working with cover images. And, I think it seemed like a better name for a magazine about Florida. It might just be the fact that my brain likes to think in typography, but it was begging for this treatment: flavor.

• I liked the way "palate" looked on the page, but not the way it sounds. "NC Good Life" was approachable, but didn't seem sophisticated enough to carry the tag line.

The stand out to me was "SavorNC:" it would tuck nicely into the top of the cover, had compelling meaning, AND all of the necessary trademarks were available. After our panel discussion over lunch at Village Tavern, the votes were unanimous. Our webmaster got the alert to reserve all of the necessary domains, and we were off!

(They say behind every great man is a great woman...in our case, Adam Eberle, husband to Lauren, is our great man behind the scenes. He didn't know when he married Lauren that he was also signing up to be our webmaster and IT manager, but he does it with a smile.)

While the name was a challenge, the font I selected was not. "Whitney” has the sleek, modern look I wanted, but it isn't as utilitarian as some sans serif fonts (like Gap's recent logo disaster). It also has versions in multiple weights and italics, making it very versatile to use inside the publication for sidebars and subheads.

Within a few days we were live on Facebook, with business cards, a media kit, and advertising contracts to follow...and, now, our behind-the-scenes blog! We're extremely excited to put this publication together, and look forward to sharing this fearless journey with you!