Publishers Weekly Logotype

Publishers Weekly has been in continuous publication since 1872, making it one of the oldest publications in the United States. In 2024, the Publishers Weekly team decided that it was time to redesign the magazine and brought in Heather Haggerty to lead the work. Heather, in turn, gave me the task of designing the new logotype with the brief, “It needs to be bookish, but not old.” She had done a mountain of research and presented me with a sampling of covers from the publication’s 152 year history. We both loved that the pre-digital era of the magazine often had a multiplicity of concurrent logos, rather than a singular, one-size-fits-all mark. We used that as the inspiration to create a feel that could be applied to different structures. These, in turn, could be used by the Publishers Weekly team across their broad array of needs from print to digital to events. We ended up with a traditional nameplate for the cover, a PW badge for branding, a swashy nameplate for when a light touch is needed and a standalone fleuron for more conceptual situations. The team at Publishers Weekly has my utmost respect for embracing our idea.