The Nation

Principled. Progressive.

Our Role

Digital Publishing, Digital Collateral, Research and Strategy, Responsive, Web Design and Development, UI / UX Design

Collaborators

The Nation, Tré Seals of Vocal Type

Shining a literary light

Rich editorial history

A truly 21st century publication

Shining a literary light. For more than a century The Nation has been a beacon for progressive ideas, democratic politics, women’s rights, racial and economic justice and peace.

Rich editorial history. Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has long believed that independent journalism has the capacity to bring about a more democratic and equitable world.

A truly 21st century publication. The Nation nurtures younger writers, appeals to young readers, and engages with the issues and movements that inspire the passions of this generation and the next.

Shifting paradigms. Opening minds.

The Nation engaged Athletics to help reinforce and amplify The Nation’s position at the forefront of progressive political and cultural discourse through a modernized site experience and dynamic storytelling. The Nation’s intuitive and inviting editorial platform is designed to engage more deeply with new and existing users while celebrating its modernity and relevance. This encompassed re-envisioning The Nation’s brand behaviors for digital while improving user journeys, taxonomies, simplifying article types, and increasing subscriptions and conversion.

The Nation's mobile navigation is designed to be equally comprehensive and intuitive.

The Nation brand is contemporary but does not shy away from its heritage. Its large masthead and a strong use of scale allow The Nation to be bold and imaginative while retaining clarity and precision.

Purposeful by design

The Nation’s signature red is the driving signifier for both brand recall as well as key actions. The openness of the white printed page is retained in digital while red rules are used for information delineation. A secondary palette has been introduced to help bring optimism and visual flexibility without overwhelming The Nation’s core brand colors.

The Nation’s flexible architecture is designed to respond to breaking news, big announcements, and thematic suites of articles. The site is driven by content versatility. Political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis that The Nation is renowned for can be easily organized while preserving advertisement modules.

“As our country and the world undergo extraordinary and tectonic shifts, these times demand that The Nation be ever bolder, willing to unleash our imaginations and ready to think anew. ”
Katrina vanden Heuvel. Editorial Director & Publisher of The Nation

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Athletics and The Nation worked with Tré Seals of Vocal Type to update The Nation's wordmark to to be more iconic and legible in digital formats while retaining a reference to its long history and original masthead. A flexible approach to the utilization of the word mark was developed to better accommodate responsiveness and scaling.

Looking beyond the page

In the process of developing The Nation’s site experience, Athletics explored how the Nation brand could be expressed beyond digital. The Nation’s refreshed word mark is a strong, elegant, and timeless expression of it’s mission: The Nation speaks truth to power to build a more just society.

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