The ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ and Ryder Let Customers Lead the Way on Focus Groups

As the Peter Allen song goes, “Everything old is new again.” That certainly describes what’s happened at “The Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Founded almost 200 years ago as “The Pennsylvania Inquirer,” the paper, its site and mobile app underwent a redesign in late Sept. The deliverables include a new font, a bolder color palette and additional space for photography and interactive graphics.

Yet the redesign respects The Inquirer’s rich history as the country’s third-oldest daily. For example, the brand’s new font, Philadelphia Inquirer Clarendon (PIC), mixes modern and historic elements. In fact, some of PIC’s characteristics include elements from a font The Inquirer used in the 1860s through the 1920s.

In addition, the redesign does more than offer readers a richer experience that looks better and reads easier. It makes producing the paper easier and more efficient.

"We wanted to make sure any design changes improved our operations and efficiency," Sabrina Ram, The Inquirer’s VP of communications, tells us.

For example, designers and editors now work with industry-standard production equipment, such as Adobe InDesign. When a three-column story must shrink to two columns, a designer can literally drag it into the smaller space.