The Pinstripes are still here

Here I was passing through the Atlanta International Airport Sunday. I was connecting to my flight to Bogota there, and had just landed from New York at Terminal T.

Suddenly, I see Atlanta Business Chronicle—a familiar title, and an even a more familiar logo.

The sign you see here was securely placed over the door to what I would describe as a press kiosk, just like the ones we see at airports everywhere.

I took my camera for this photo, and, suddenly the memories of the Pinstripe Project for American City Business Journals rushed back into my head. Here is how the pinstripes came to be. A major goal of the Pinstripe Project , in which I was working with then Garcia Media art director, Reed Reibstein, was to standardize things and create a common visual languate for this group of 40 very local business journals across the United States. The pinstripes we came up with gave the project a name, and our concept of the “pill box” logo replaced a variety of styles that I had gently described as a “chamber of (legacy) horrors” when I first saw the 40 ACBJ titles together on a table.

I am happy to know that I am not the only one who remembers that phrase and that moment. Here is how Emory Thomas, Vice President-Local Markets for American City Business Journals, and who was project leader, recalls it:

I well remember your “chamber of horrors” assessment – that shortcoming was the reason I contacted you to begin with! The design decisions we then made together paved the way for a profound upgrade of both our publications and our ability to attract design talent. Just this year, one of our publications – the Memphis Business Journal – was given the coveted distinction as one of the World’s Best-Designed Newspapers by the Society for New Design. This flatly would not have happened without our project Pinstripe.

Pinstripes forever

Emory is also fond of the pinstripes used for the branding:

I still get a kick out of seeing pinstripes and the fonts we chose in all of our branding — published, and in promotional contexts, and indeed all over our corporate headquarters.

Years after the Pinstripe project launched, it is good to know that it has served ACBJ well. Emory Thomas agrees:

The pinstripe logos, fonts, design structure and holistic philosophy have served an enduring purpose that lives freshly on to this day – unifying our branding, and providing a flexible modernity to the look of all of our products, which span digital, print, events, social media, and much more.

It’s always good to say hello to a brand we helped create!

Here are some of the ACBJ titles, all sporting the Pinstripe logo–a unifying visual element that is still in use today.

It is not unusual for me to run into brands that we at Garcia Media have created over the years, normally when I find an old copy of a newspaper/magazine on the back seat of an airplane, or when I see them online. However, to see one as the sign outside an airport store was a first.

The Pinstripe project lives not just wherever the ACBJ titles appear, but, surprisingly so, at the Atlanta Airport, Terminal T, near Gate 7. Just in case you care to drop by to check it out.

Ironically, and I can now smile about this, of all the titles in the ACBJ group, it was, indeed, the publisher of the Atlanta Business Chroniclewho did not cozy up to the “pinstripes” logo as quickly as the rest of his colleagues. “Couldn’t we keep our old brand,” the friendly publisher suggested. I remember my body going into a cold chill when I heard that. Thank God that corporate heads prevailed and the pinstripes made it to all the titles.

I imagine that the publisher in Atlanta has either grown to love the pinstripe logo enough to display it for the world to see at home at the Atlanta airport, or perhaps he is no longer there. Now I am curious!

A consistent brand across titles

As you can see in the example below, Washington Business Journal, the stripes could be blue or burgandy, but the style was the same–a pill box that allowed for a promo teaser to appear to the right of it. All 40 titles in the American City Business Journal titles adopted it.

About the Pinstripe Project

The design of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, from prototype to reality

Silicon Valley Business Journal: Creating the ultimate multi-platform operation

Lessons learned from Silicon Valley, and a look at some details of SVBJ

Launch party for The Story in Zurich

From Monocle Weekend

THE INTERROGATOR / EDITION 30

https://monocle.com/minute/2019/09/21/

Mario García

Editorial consultant Mario García has advised the most important newsrooms in the world on design – and how best adapt to a digital transition. More than 700 publications, from The Wall Street Journal to the South China Morning Post, have received his strategic steer. Other than being an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, he also runs his own consultancy firm: García Media. Nowadays his speciality is how digital devices influence narrative structure and consumption; his latest book, The Story, was written specifically to be read on a phone. Here, though, he confesses to a few analogue pleasures.

What they are saying about The Story!

The Story is here!

You can now download my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, from Apple Books at $6.99
This is Book 1 of a Trilogy! The other two books coming soon.
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-story-volume-i/id1480169411

The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Order The Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.

My chat with in Monocle Radio

Listen to my chat in Monocle Radio’s The Stack: Latest episode‘The Face’ and ‘The Story’:We welcome the return of the print version of ‘The Face’ and talk to legendary newspaper designer Mario Garcia about his latest book, ‘The Story’.
https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-stack/368/play/

My interview with CNN en Español

I was a guest in the program Encuentro, hosted by Guillermo Arduino daily at CNN en Español. The interview was about how we read on mobile devices and my introduction of my new mobile storytelling book, The Story, to a Spanish-language audience.

García: Si tienes una buena historia, la gente la va a leer