The Living South has a logo now

The Living South, this project I started in January, is getting a glow-up. I’m really excited to show off my brand new logo. It’s not real if you don’t have a logo, right? 

I chose the lighthouse for a lot of reasons. Though we have dozens along the Southern coast, it’s not as if lighthouses are a uniquely Southern thing. They’ve been around since ancient times, helping mariners find their way home. 

They were especially important where I grew up, near the coast of North Carolina, in an area people called “the Graveyard of the Atlantic.” It was called that because thousands of ships sank off the coast since the 1500s, thanks to the area’s treacherous coastline, the storms, wartime fighting, and pirates. 

I remember in 1999 when the National Park Service literally picked up and moved one of our most famous lighthouses, on Hatteras Island, a few thousand feet to protect it from the sea. 

For me, though, what makes the lighthouse feel so right is it perfectly fits how I see The Living South. I want it to be a beacon, illuminating a way home. For a lot of us who grew up in the South, there’s a love/hate relationship with this place.

The springtime smells, the cicadas in summer, the deep browns and reds in the fall and the ultra-rare winter snow.

But it has its problems, of course, and a history that’s as tortured as anywhere on this Earth. I’m a believer in honesty and I want The Living South to talk about the good that’s here because there’s a lot of it, without running from the bad. 

I want it to tell stories that feel true, thought-provoking, and ultimately optimistic. I want these stories to be a light when you’re out on a stormy sea, stories about people like Rodney Smith Jr., an Alabama man who’s traveling the country doing yardwork for vulnerable people, and Anderson Clayton, who’s organizing rural people in North Carolina, and Isaac Villegas, who looks at his faith as a call to protect migrants and refugees. 

This week, I’ll be updating my pages with the new logo, but you should continue to expect the same, in-depth, independent journalism. 

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do it now for free at thelivingsouth.com. If you’re already signed up, thanks for being here. If you have a story to tell or tips for how I can do this better, write me at billy@thelivingsouth.com. This next part should be fun.

Thanks to Risa Patterson Design for the snazzy new look. Find out more about Risa Patterson and her work here.