Clayton Notestine - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cover the south. Uncover the nation.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was evolving. After 150 years, the legendary brand was struggling in the age of platforms and algorithms. Things were on a collision course with "blandification." How does the brand keep its roots in a modern media landscape?

Our answer was to keep it Southern. If change is coming, it's coming to the South. So, when the future emerges there, who better to tell it than a modern Southern voice?

Project and Responsibilities.

BRAND EVOLUTION • VERBAL IDENTITY • TONE OF VOICE • MANIFESTOS • HEADLINES

Before we joined the rebrand, AJC was on a collision course with generic verbals and a sans-serif masthead.

Verbal System

The brand voice blends the intelligence of top-tier journalism with Southern character, brought to life by short, sharp, headline-inspired language that's sharp without sounding preachy or academic.

"More than purveyors of fine paperweights." Probably my favorite line of the entire rebrand. Hats off to Cam Leberecht.

Brand Guidelines

How do you make branding and content work together? We knew early on that we'd have to plot the brand's authorial voice to specific use cases, to preserve the integrity of their reporting, and leverage modern media constraints. This led to us codifying a spectrum between functional and expressive visuals and verbals.

Thanks to:

Ned Reid, Jaime McMurtie, and Drue Miller for the trust and constant collaboration.

Credits:

Creative Direction by Blake Howard
Design Direction by Gray Hauser
Designed by Gray Hauser, Brit Blankenship, Brian Paul Nelson,
Reid Parsekian, Michael Martino, Déborah Neaves
Verbal Identity by Cam Leberecht, Clayton Notestine
Blackletter Refinement by Dalton Maag
Animations by Max Prince
Project Management by Patrice Fielder

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