Rebranding to Hearken: What’s in a name?

Curious Nation. That was the name of the company I started in January 2015 aimed at fundamentally altering the ways journalists report and relate to their audiences.

While it’s a solid name that both acknowledges the roots of where it began (at WBEZ Chicago with the news experiment I started there called Curious City as part of Localore) and winks at Colbert Nation, it’s not totally right.

Besides being somewhat easy to confuse with Curious City, it wasn't the right container for the next level up of ideas this company is trying to embody.

That’s why we chose Hearken. We went through dozens of naming exercises, nearly landing on Qsworthy (rhymes with “newsworthy”, but lord is it ugly), and deeply considering PrePonder. But ultimately, it was diving into a thesaurus wormhole for all the things we stand for that surfaced Hearken from the archaic abyss. When we stumbled across it, we knew we had a good feeling about it. Hearken felt both classic and sharply modern.

But let’s be honest, we didn't *totally* know what it meant. Besides a slight association with herald angels singing, and hearkening back to something, it was a mystery.

That mystery lasted all of 2 minutes. Once we consulted a dozen dictionaries, Hearken went from instant like to head-over-heels love.

Allow me to do the potentially eye-rolling exercise of defining it.

Hearken: [hahr-kuh n]/

1. To listen

2. Give respectful attention.

Yes!

That’s exactly what we stand for. Newsrooms listening to the public. Giving them respectful attention. Treating them as far more than data points on the metrics dashboard and instead as intelligent individuals with great ideas for stories, untapped expertise and valuable feedback to share at every point of the reporting cycle, not just the end.

We also love that it can be spelled a multiple ways: harken and hearken. We went with the latter as containing both “hear” and “ear” excited us with its additional references to listening.

And “ken.” Oh yes. “Ken” was another one of those words we'd heard before and had a vague understanding of. Allow me:

Ken: [ken]

1. Knowledge, understanding, or cognizance; mental perception

2. Range of sight or vision

Double yes! Isn't that what attentively listening does? It expands your range of vision, of understanding and knowledge. Has ever a word with such a chronological truth contained within its various parts been created? Probably in German or Japanese. But this'll do.

Your Public’s Interest

We went with this as our tagline. Because again, there were multiple meanings contained within and I live for two-fers. Again, our friend the dictionary.

Public interest

1. The welfare or well-being of the general public; commonwealth
2. Appeal or relevance to the general populace: a news story of public interest

Hearken is all about journalists listening to, and expanding their range of knowledge around what their public is interested in. You might be tempted to think doing so would only result in stories about baby goats or sports stats. I'll save my rant on this and redirect any skeptics to a previous post.

We believe paying attention to what’s relevant to the general populace, even just one member of it, contributes toward the well-being of the commonwealth.

Again, we have seen proof this can result in stories of both great interest and import. Our pals at Michigan Radio with their M.I. Curious series using the Hearken framework and platform won a regional Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting with their story answering this question submitted by listener Justin Ross, “What’s the status of the old pipeline under Lake Michigan?”

Cultivate, Validate, Satisfy, Pique

The other fun thing about “Your Public’s Interest” is that you can play with it by adding verbs. Hearken aims to do many things to your public’s interest (all SFW). Right now we have tools to cultivate and validate it through our online platform, and we'll be working on more features beyond our best practices guides for reporters in regards to satisfying and piquing it.

Color Palette

The color combination for our logo was inspired by the two places we've been spending the bulk of our time: San Francisco and Chicago. The foggy pastels and lack of shyness about using splashes of bold color embodies residential San Francisco. Makes me a little sad about moving back to Chicago if only for its preponderance of brick and neutral wooden buildings as San Francisco’s embrace and articulations of color everywhere is endlessly exciting, as are the Dr. Seuss plants.

Good news is, Chicago is home to the amazing duo Nick and Nadine of Sonnenzimmer. We were also very inspired by their inventive color palettes and playful geometry.

Typeface

I'm someone who subscribes to font newsletters. So this part was especially fun. For the word Hearken we went with Verlag, a typeface from the amazing Hoefler & Co. Here are some shortened excerpts regarding its pedigree and personality.

Verlag, the affable Modernist.

Originally created for the Guggenheim Museum, it brings a welcome eloquence to the can-do sensibility of pre-war Modernism. Verlag was carefully planned so that its distinct personality would be checked by a sense of objectivity.

From the rationalist geometric designs of the Bauhaus school, such as Futura (1927) and Erbar (1929), Verlag gets its crispness and its meticulous planning. Verlag’s “fairminded” quality is rooted in the newsier sans serifs designed for linecasting machines, such as Ludlow Tempo and Intertype Vogue (both 1930), both staples of the Midwestern newsroom for much of the century.

We went with Verlag in ALL CAPS for HEARKEN as writing it lower case made it more likely people would pronounce it “hear” ken, for whatever reason. Also the H and the K in all caps Verlag match the foundational mark’s sharpness and angles, so it felt suited for the job. Also we love yelling.

For our tagline we decided on another font from Hoefler & Co., Archer. Below, some excerpts from their write up of Archer, a font originally designed for Martha Stewart Living.

Archer, the colorful slab serif.

Sweet but not saccharine, earnest but not grave, Archer is designed to hit just the right notes of forthrightness, credibility, and charm. It’s a font that’s friendly without being silly, and attractive without being flashy. The result is a typeface that’s well-mannered, easy to work with, and inviting to read.

Foundational Mark

We zeroed in on this mark as the foundation for the Hearken logo for a few reasons. Besides it being an H and a K connected, representing both “hear” and “ken,” it also looks like a window frame, perhaps stained glass, but a frame nonetheless.

As we've been struggling to come up with a way to describe what we do (We're an editorial model! We're also an online platform!), the whole idea of Hearken as a “framework” — a basic structure underlying a system — took care of all both these ideas. Hearken is a framework for partnering with the public.

And you can use this frame to see whatever you want. Use it to launch a series! Apply it to a specific beat! Really, it’s whatever you make of it.

So make something of it already. We're ready for you.

You can find us on Twitter at @wearehearken, email us at founders [at] wearehearken [dot] com, and sign up to get more info about coming on our platform.

Hearken is an audience-driven framework enabling journalists to partner with the public throughout the reporting process, resulting in relevant and high performing content.

Extra huge special thanks to Melissa Small, who is the true labborator in our collaboration. She’s the amazing graphic designer / brain who helped us think through and create what you just read about. Check out her amazing portfolio and hire her if you're lucky. And thanks to the fabulous Laura Ramos for pointing us Melissa’s way and helping us think through who we are beyond being curious.

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