'Energetic' Headline rebrands for 30th anniversary

Headline Publishing Group is rebranding to cement its status as a “publishing heavyweight” going into its 30th anniversary year. 

The “bold” rebrand, including a newly-designed logo, was revealed at Headline’s 30th anniversary party at the German Gymnasium in King’s Cross, London, this evening (4th July), attended by authors including Martina Cole and Victoria Hislop.

The logo, intended to match the publisher’s "modern and energetic nature”, was designed by award-winning brand agency Magpie Studio, which has worked with TFL and Channel 4. 

The shape of brand's sky-blue logo - a looming H with a low crossbar - could playfully be seen to mirror the look of the publisher's offices at Carmelite House, where it moved to in April of last year, and/or to show an exclamation mark in the negative space. 

Patrick Insole, art director of Headline Publishing Group, said: "We wanted to develop a bold and colourful new brand that captures the passion, energy and pride that we all feel in working for Headline. Working with innovative, London-based brand consultancy, Magpie Studio, we have created a confident and distinct new identity that is a stylish reflection both of our unique publishing vision and our commercial sense of fun.”

In addition to turning 30 this year, Headline has announced two new imprints, yet to be named, a new commercial imprint under Michael Joseph's former publishing director Alex Clarke and a new lifestyle imprint under Michael Joseph's Lindsey Evans, who joins Headline in September.

Headline was founded in 1986 by Tim Hely Hutchinson, Sue Fletcher and Sian Thomas. Over the course of 30 years, Headline said it has sold 260m books and published 3,160 different authors, and, since 2011, sold 15.5m e-books.

Recounting the humble beginnings of the house, Tim Hely Hutchinson (below) paid tribute at the event to founding partner Fletcher for her "high standard publishing" and "phenomenal efficiency". He said: "To start the business we spent six months raising just over £1m. We worked hard, enjoyed many bestsellers and awards and succeeded in floating on the stock exchange only five years later with plus-ish £15m. Two years later we bought Hodder and Stoughton for £55m, creating Hodder Headline, which quadrupled our size, and led to the creation of Hachette UK.

"We have constantly strived to be the best," he continued. "To us at Headline and Hachette, the best has always meant making the house the most effective and the most welcoming home for talented authors and publishers."

Hely Hutchinson also praised former m.d. for Headline Jane Morpeth, now chair of the group, who he named "instrumental" in so much of Hachette's success. Welcoming Mari Evans as m.d., who took over the role in February, he said: "Under Mari, and the winning team of long established and new publishing professionals she has assembled, I am certain that Headline's next 30 years will be glorious."

Evans said: "I feel so privileged to work for this great commercial publishing house and it’s time now to mark a new era. I want Headline to become a byword for nimble and energetic publishing. I want Headline to represent a mindset that evolves with the times to find new ways to sell books and give people the best possible reading experience. We’re rebranding in our thirtieth year to reflect our innovative, playful nature, and we wanted something that inspires, as well as encapsulates our ambitions. The first thirty years have been terrific, and our new look marks a fresh chapter.”

Picture: Adrian Pope.