Brand Identity · 2024
Harbour Review Masthead
A literary quarterly wanted a masthead that read as serious without reading as old. We drew a custom display serif from the bones of its founding 1971 nameplate.
The Problem
The old nameplate aged the whole publication.
Set in a licensed revival, the masthead had drifted out of step with the editorial voice — ambitious, contemporary, unafraid. New readers read the wordmark as a museum piece before they read a single line.
The Solution
A custom display serif, drawn from the 1971 original.
We kept the diagonal stress and the high waist of the founding letters, then sharpened the serifs and opened the counters for digital reading. The result is the same review — just clearly the one being published now.
The masthead finally sounds like the magazine. Subscribers noticed before we announced anything.
The Outcome
A nameplate that carries across cover, spine, and screen.
newsstand pickup in the two issues following relaunch
custom display serif licensed to the publication in perpetuity