One thing that we’re consistently told about VB is that our readers trust us. Transparency and honesty in our reporting is one of the most important values we hold.
For that reason, after six and a half years of publishing, it’s important to us that you feel part of the journey of moving the site from VentnorBlog to On The Wight.
Aiming for a spring launch
There’s lots going on behind the scenes and we hope to launch in the spring, in the meantime, we thought we’d take you through the various stages of our logo designs.
Those who are into design should find it interesting and for everyone else it’ll help you understand why we’ve gone down a particular route and what we feel is important about the new designs.
OnTheWight version 1.0
Way back in 2008 (! yes, we know!) we started thinking about a new name for VentnorBlog. As mentioned previously there are only two things wrong with the name. The first is Ventnor and the second Blog.
We needed to adopt a name that represented our coverage of Island-wide news and events, as well as dropping ‘blog’ because, well, VB stopped being a personal blog many years ago.
Graphic designers to the rescue
We were impressed with the graphic design work of two VB readers that we’d got to know – Islanders, David Knight and Simon Lowe.
They were up for helping out to create a new ID (identity) and set to work on our brief.
We were looking for something that would be easily recognisable, work well on screen, in print and at small sizes.
The lads came up with a range of logo designs to choose from and we opted for the one that has been in use for the last three years or so on our sister-sites.
Speech bubble design
One of the main things we liked about the design was the speech bubble element.
VentnorBlog has become known as somewhere Islanders can have their say on issues affecting us all.
With over 60,000 readers’ comments, it is by far the most prominent location of Island discussion online (excluding the monolithic Facebook).
The plan to publish focused sites within the OnTheWight brand, meant that the speech bubble could be used to hold the title of the sub-section, such as events.onthewight.com.
On The Wight Version 2.0
When we launched our event listings site back in 2009, the plan was for other sites to follow shortly afterwards. However, as we all know, life can often get in the way of good intentions.
Last year we finally had the impetus to drive the plans forward and move VentnorBlog up to the next level.
Part of that drive includes the involvement of another fantastic Island graphic designer, Shaun Cuff.
Shaun has very kindly volunteered his time, working with us over the last year to develop the next stage of the ‘On The Wight’ identity.
But more about that in Part Six of the VB Journey. We promise it won’t be long.
Read Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four of the VB Journey – taking you along with us, rather than springing the major changes on you unannounced.
Images: Smiling donut: daedalust | Question mark: Foxy Moron under CC BY 2.0
