The North Star Lights the Way

The Star Tribune has been around since 1867. It has managed to survive through the digital age to become the premier Minnesota-based news company. The logo has gone through a few iterations through the years until it settled in its current form. Overall it isn’t overly striking. It’s simply a star symbol and a solid wordmark. This subtlety is likely by design as it falls in line with their tagline:

“More of what matters to Minnesota. All day. Every day.”

Their brand forms the support structure that allows their news to stand-out. The font of the wordmark is custom-made. It shows an irreverence for font-faces and the importance of the various elements that make letter forms complete and legible. Each letter is locked up really well with pixel-perfect kerning. Though it is a sans-serif, some elements of the mark make it appear to be serif-inspired. Specifically the lower-case “t”, “r”, and “b”. Which is a breath of a fresh air among a market that specifically tends to avoid serif fonts entirely for fear of looking too “old-fashioned”.

The star, a common Minnesotan reference to the North Star, brings some much needed visual interest to the logo. As stated in their brand guidelines the star is meant to represent the North Star’s traditional significance of providing direction when lost. The upward “cut” in the logo also represents the directions up and forward. This alludes to the idea that their news helps their readers to find direction by providing relative news and information. The green colors of their brand are meant to represent vibrancy, growth, and renewal as well as have high contrast with black. This also makes it perfect for the mostly gray/black color used on newspapers. Though the logo’s form is very traditional, I think the application serves this news company well and it certainly helps them stand out and proudly represent Minnesota.