County Highway

County Highway is a 20-page broadsheet newspaper designed by Abbott Miller and team at Pentagram. It highlights political and spiritual articles, as well as agriculture, civil liberties, animals, herbal medicine, literature, art, and music.

From Pentagram’s website:

County Highway is a new newspaper based on an old idea—that nothing compares to the joys of reading in print. Positioning itself as “America’s Only Newspaper,” the bi-monthly publication harkens back to the glory days of ink-stained broadsheets, as well as the alternative press, that covered local communities alongside national issues. Pentagram has created a visual identity and editorial design for County Highway that looks back to the heyday of 19th-century newspapers and celebrates reconnecting with print culture.

The design is constructed with a pleasing medley of typefaces. Job Clarendon (by DJR and Bethany Heck) is featured prominently in the logo and masthead, as well as in various weights for some of the article headlines. It is a display face designed with the letterpress era in mind. The other display typefaces act as ingredients to ground the look firmly in the 19th-century. Caslon Doric (by Commercial Type) allows for more variation on the article titles, Trio Grotesk by Schick Toikka adds micro touches along the spreads, and Blackoak (by Joy Redick) works as a loud, brassy display face. For body text, Shift (by MCKL Type Foundry) is employed, balancing the newspaper in a space to be as serious or as playful as it needs to be.