A new course for journalism

Journalists and educators Andrew Mills and Amy Sanders noticed that journalism education was struggling to make the most of innovations and transformations in the media – innovations that hold great promise for the industry’s future. And so, Jumpline was born: an information hub and consultancy providing resources and intelligent design innovations to support the transformation of journalism in universities, professional education, and newsrooms.

When the co-founders came to us, they were in need of a name for this initiative, a brand, and a website. After our research and discovery phase, we offered name options with accompanying taglines. Jumpline—defined as “a directional line of print at the end of the first part of a divided story or article”—came out the winner. The rationale? In the same way that the jumpline serves as a point of continuation in a news story, the organization serves as a continuation of journalism. It respects and honours the past while bringing forward-thinking journalists together to co-create a path for the future.

The symbol depicts direction and a jumping off point; taking journalism education from its present state to a transformed future state. The symbol’s reference to both the past (the Greek “diple” used to draw attention to interesting or important pieces of text) and the present (the “>” sign used in software coding) is also a play on the transition from old to new.

View the website here.