Fix The News

Fix The News (FTN) is the news platform dedicated to celebrating stories of progress. Previously known as Future Crunch, FTN has been spreading good news for over eight years through its newsletter with over 55,000 subscribers, website and social media channels. Meanwhile, its podcast shares conversations with people stitching the world back together. One third of its revenue from paid subscribers goes directly to small charities using science and technology to make a real difference.

“We exist because of a simple belief”, says Angus Hervey, founder of FTN. “If we want to change the story of the human race in the 21st century, we have to start changing the stories we tell ourselves. That doesn’t mean ignoring bad news. It means finding as many opportunities as possible to celebrate progress for people and the planet when we find it.”

“When we only tell the stories of doom, we fail to see the stories of possibility,” Angus also says in his special broadcast from the TED stage, titled “Why are we so bad at reporting good news?”

The rebrand signals the beginning of a new, deeper commitment to the long-term project of showing that another form of journalism is possible, and economically viable.

The main goal was to create a bold and optimistic identity that would represent what humans can achieve at their best. Early versions of the logo were directly inspired by the classic NASA “worm” logo. Many people who have been to space talk about the “overview effect”, an increased sense of connection to people and Earth as a whole.

Other inspiring elements were progress bars showing improvements across multiple scientific fields, and graph charts depicting the declines in global problems such as poverty, disease and crime seen over the last few decades.

The distinctive new logo comes in two versions, the short FTN wordmark which is used in situations where space is limited, such as broadcast and social media, and the full name wordmark, used for the newsletter, website and other applications. In special situations, the custom steps-like F can also be used on its own.

The bright blue brand colour references our planet, blue-sky-thinking and a positive view of the future. A warm, full-of-energy yellow and an optimistic purple provide additional support.

The identity uses Inter, a modern and functional typeface family designed by Rasmus Andersson, available as an open source font family.

An ever-growing set of patterns can also be used across various applications such as screen presentations, social media and merchandise.

This project has been very close to my heart. We really need more examples of people doing kind, positive, inspiring things, both for other people and for the environment. Most news channels and much of the entertainment produced these days try to portray a bleak world, but the reality is that there’s hardly ever been a better time to be alive. I hope more and more people will follow the FTN stories, and feel inspired to play their own part in making the world a little bit better for them and everyone else.

Many thanks to Jason Kottke, without whom this project would not have happened. Jason runs Kottke.org, one of the oldest and most influential blogs on the web, a constant source of inspiring and delightful stories for inquisitive minds.

Working directly with Angus Hervey, the founder of Fix The News.

You can sign up to the FTN newsletter or read many inspiring stories of progress on the Fix The News website.