We at the Waltham News Alliance know Waltham is a great city. We also know that Waltham deserves a great newspaper.
At our founding this spring, we set out to become Waltham’s go-to news source. To reach that goal, we recognized that we must communicate our vision and values to the entire Waltham community.
To that end, we want to share the story behind our logo and design.
Logo
Our designer centered a historical Waltham Watch graphic within our paper’s name. We chose the watch to reflect our name, The Waltham Times. But more importantly, we chose this image to honor the city’s past, namely its world-renowned Waltham Watch Co. (which produced 40 million watches and timepieces while based in Waltham) as well as Waltham’s prominent role in the Industrial Revolution.
The designer based the watch featured in the logo on an actual women’s driving watch from the 1930s. The watch hands, showing the time as 3:20, point toward the contemporarily written word “Times,” offering a nod to the city’s future.
Tagline
Our tagline emphasizes the values that will govern this publication.
We feature the words “go-to news source” in a clear, bold type to draw the eye and emphasize our commitment to providing reliable, high-quality news coverage.
The next part of our tagline – “nonprofit” – reflects our 501(c)3 tax-exempt status.
Next is “unbiased,” which highlights our adherence to fact-based independent reporting and the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
Lastly, we feature the words “community-focused.” The Waltham News Alliance strongly believes in the power of local reporting to foster an engaged and informed community.
Font
For the word “Waltham”, we chose Bodoni 72 Oldstyle Bold providing a classic and traditional aspect as a backbone of Waltham. “Times” is rendered in the font Stone Sans ITC TT Bold – Custom-tailored. The “i” sits sheltered under an adjusted “T.” The modern font of “Times” represents the young, multicultural, transient personality of Waltham today.
Putting it all together
A one-point rule extends beyond the words creating a visual pulley to draw the eye and anchor the watch as it dips below the logo text and hovers over the tagline. The line draws everything together to compel a read-through from “The Waltham go-to news source” to “community-focused.”
The combination of the watch logo and the word “Times” emphasizes forward locomotion (they are roughly train-shaped). Everything together is meant to evoke Waltham’s industrial history, its current status as a vibrantly diverse community, and its future as a city on the rise.