You probably noticed our new logo on the top of our home page. It's one of the changes and additions we are working on this summer.

Since there's no text book on how to create a news website, we've sort of created our own. One element that we overlooked until now is a "hortizonal" logo.

After studying several news websites, we came up with these requirements:
1 - We wanted something red to represent Bluffton High School
2 - We wanted something purple to represent Bluffton University
3 - We wanted a graphic that informed the viewer where we are located.
4 - We wanted something horizontal and more easily usable on the Internet.

After stewing on the matter longer than necessary we contacted Ronson Slagle, a graphic designer in Cinncinnati, who has design experience in several larger city dailies newspapers.

In much of Slagle's career as a graphic designer, he has worked to impact the look of the papers and websites of news organizations like The Cedar Rapids (Ia.) Gazette, The Ithaca (N.Y.) Journal and The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Currently he works as a book designer in Cincinnati for F+W Media, creating media for the country's top artists and craft experts. When he's not working, Slagle says is on the lookout for new Mexican restaurants to try (in a never-ending effort to find the world's best guacamole), hunting for music at record stores (his collection stands at over 2,000 CDs and records).

Samples of his work can be found at Ronsonville.com.

We will still continue to use the original Icon logo on other pieces. It's more rectangled look did not lend itself to our need for a horizontal masthead.

You may ask about the "green" Ohio. Well, green seems to be the color of choice in today's society. As a non-printed daily news source, we felt that we have been "green" since day one.

We've made some additional changes. Our Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and RSS feeds are at the top of the home page. There are other changes and we'll share those soon.