A Fresh Start

Back in February of this year — my first month as editor of this magazine — I promised that change was coming for Philly Mag. I told you that we’d be adding fresh voices to our lineup of writers online and in print, that we’d launch a podcast (plug: listen to Philly Mag Today anywhere you get your podcasts!), and that, for the first time in more than a decade, we’d be redesigning the magazine.

For me, the last bit was the best part. This was a chance to rethink everything — the pages, the typeface, the logo, photography, you name it — in hopes that we might better reflect the spirit and forward thinking of the magazine today, and also who we are as a city right now. You know: a beautiful, historic, no-bullshit, big-attituded, big-hearted city. A metro with momentum. A place with real character.

Since then, Project New Philly Mag has consumed me as well as our creative director Jamie Leary, most of our art and editorial team, and also my poor friends and family, who have endured far more talk of typefaces than anyone signed up for. And so I speak for many when I say that we are beyond delighted to finally present to you the product of this endeavor: a sparkly fresh Philadelphia magazine, with the same old soul (since 1908, baby!) — but an entirely new architecture, new style, new sections, and, most importantly, a refreshed, renewed sense of self. 

Not to make too much of it, but most magazine folks would tell you it’s impossible to do a redesign in just a few months. But we had a secret weapon: Marshall McKinney, the Charleston-based award-winning magazine designer and founding creative director of one of my favorite mags, Garden & Gun (not what it sounds like).

McKinney spent countless coffee-soaked hours alongside me and Jamie, helping craft and articulate this vision, immersing himself in the culture (“Jawn means what, again?”) and sweating every teeny detail — what the shape of the P in the Philadelphia logo might telegraph; which typefaces had Philly connections — all so that we might convey to you, readers, that this was your magazine. Philadelphia’s magazine.

Like any proud parent, I’d love to regale you with every so-Philly detail, every single development that’s emerged, from our buzzy new upfront section, Citywide, to our font — a relative of the one in the first typed Declaration of Independence. But I’ll restrain myself, and instead just tell you something Marshall said in one of our many early brainstorming sessions. “Philadelphia magazine,” he drawled, “just wants to be a love letter to this city.” 

And well, voilà, y’all. That’s it, right there. That’s the north star. I hope you feel it in whatever you land on in this issue, be it our newly expanded food section, The Special; the gorgeous essay about Philly’s next golden era, penned by veteran Philly Mag journalist Tom McGrath; a feature on the coolest hatmaker in America in our new style section, Connoisseur; or, yes, in the typography some 250 years in the making.

It’s love when we’re talking to chefs about what they’re serving up; love when we’re profiling Philly characters. It’s love when we’re holding power to account and when we’re celebrating Best of Philly (rest assured, that’s not going anywhere). It’s love when we shoot a portrait or snag an exclusive; it’s even love when we land the occasional jab. (Philly can take it.)

I said I’d restrain myself from gushing, but do maybe check out our new back page — a monthly photo tribute to one great thing or another in this city. I think this month’s shot, from the Southeast Asian Market at FDR Park, hits the perfect ending note. But it’s the words on the page that really sing:

Only in Philly. 

Nothing but love. 

Christine Speer Lejeune 

Editor

Want to be a part of the new Philly Mag? We’d like nothing more. I invite you to become a member of Philadelphia magazine and our sister publication The Philadelphia Citizen in embracing and changing our city for the better — to be a part of a movement that turns all this love for our city into action. As a member of the Change Philly Movement, you can connect with a community who cares about what you care about: events. Civic engagement. Ideas. Stories. The city itself. Join our membership program, and you’ll unlock access to $2500 worth of subscription perks, event tickets, member swag, exclusive community-partner bonuses and more … all while getting closer to the stories, the people, and the moments shaping our future.