When I saw your title, I thought--oh no!--you were leaving Substack. I am glad to learn you will remain here with a new name. I like the new name. I agree with the commenter who said you might not be "quite hitting the mark" with the colored word "Sunday." To my eyes, I saw the comic allusion but completely missed the stained glass. I don't know how, but I think seeing that allusion to stained glass would be great.
I sympathize with your note about the range of topics you send out--prayer, homilies, cartoons, etc. I have a much smaller readership on my Substack and post about many things, too. One is book reviews. Not many people are readers anymore, and I wonder if it will turn people off. But, as you say, oh well.
Looking forward to reading "SDG's Dailies and Sundays!"
You didn’t miss the stained glass, Mavis—at this point it’s just an idea for how the graphic could be further developed! I am thinking about how best to proceed given the reality of the tiny word mark and the infrequency with which the main icon is usually seen.
I have been fortunate in developing my audience. Partly because I have a fan base from my previous work, and partly because I’ve been fortunate in my friends. The thing about my work is that I ALWAYS wanted to bring together different groups of people. Even when I started my film writing, my goal was always to appeal both to nonreligious movie fans and to religious non-cinephiles!
At the end of the day, writers—at least, the kind of writer I am—write what we have to. I can only write what I wish I could read if someone else had written it. Keep up the book reviews! I will keep out an eye for them.
Thank you, SDG. I was just thinking what you wrote in your last paragraph. A couple months ago someone asked what was my audience, who am I writing for. I had no answer and it’s been in the back of my mind since. Today I thought, I am writing about things that interest me and I like to read about. And there must be at least some other people out there who also like it.
I like the name!! I also agree with the word Sunday not quite hitting the mark. I think the font and colors imply fun, light, and...bubbly. Those descriptors can certainly be what I associate with your cartoon posts but not with future posts about racism, immigration, and most certainly not Trump.
I don’t recall mentioning immigration, but that’s 100 percent a subject I need to tackle sooner rather than later, Battlemaiden!
I appreciate your feedback. Am still tweaking the design, and even when it goes live I can always change it. I certainly want it to be light and playful, in part almost as a counterpoint for when I go as hard as I do on some of the things I write. The playful side of me is always there, even when I’m going all out on some topic of great importance. :-)
Somehow, you're missing an opportunity here. :-) "SDG" already contains the the first two letters of "(D)ailies & (S)undays". So you've got a near-hit, subtle, acronym pun. "SDG's Sundays, Dailies & ... Graces"? Grumblings? We're close to something here.
The logo is pretty good, but somehow I don't think we're quite hitting the color palette for Sundays. It's hitting "candy" rather than "comic". So if you went with Dailies (agree that new paper typeface is the right one here), Sundays (tweaked to look like Sunday comic colors, and maybe a slight newspaper texture), & Graces (definitely simplified stained glass), that would nail it. Or drop Graces, of course. All good.
Oh, and as regards color, I deliberately muted the colors a bit—using the “purer” versions of the different colors had a harsh, jarring look to my eyes. But nothing is, as it were, set in stone.
I feel you, Brian! I gave this a lot of thought, and I’m not seeing how the cost of the third word is justified by that subtle benefit. “Dailies & Sundays” (or “Sundays & Dailies”) works; a third word would just make it too long (“Too many notes,” in the words of the same friend who suggested the name).
Yeah, makes sense. Agree that it's already a mental mouthful. If you weren't already well known by your full initials, it might even be worth dropping the D in SDG. "SG's Sunday Graces" would be a good title for someone else's substack.
I swear I am not making this up: Brainstorming this name with friends went so far and so deep that while discussing the Tolkien-related implications of THE GREY HAVENS, one of my friends went so far as to muse that if a) I DID want to write more about Tolkien and b) IF MY NAME WERE NIGEL, I could call it LEAF BY NIGEL. And this is a great guy who had some great ideas, but sometimes the train of thought has jumped the tracks and it’s time to move on!
I think Dailies and Sundays is a good name. It's allusive and concrete but also broad and expansive, big enough to hold all the different things you write about. And it's playful without being goofy.
I love the name! "Dailies and Sundays" is by far the best option of those mentioned, IMO. "Thought Bubbles" is okay, but suggests to me that the content is light and ephemeral, which isn't (always!) true and almost seems like a kind of false modesty. I won't say "Holy Thought Bubbles" would have actually made me unsubscribe in disgust, but the thought would have crossed my mind. I also agree that "Dailies and Sundays" is better than the opposite order, since I believe that's the form it usually takes in comic collections and such.
My one reservation about the logo is that, while it does evoke Sunday newspaper comics, in the context of this blog, it also suggests to me the kind of cartoon that would appear in a Sunday school booklet, or in a certain kind of illustrated children's Bible - hopefully you know the type of thing I'm gesturing at - and those don't convey a sense of elevation or the sacred to me, certainly nothing compatible with the "stained glass" effect you mention. (I think I felt the same way about those cartoons as a child, FWIW.)
Here in St. Louis, the cathedral basilica has a couple of mosaics in what I think is a similar style, and I've always considered them an aesthetic blemish in an otherwise stunningly beautiful church. You can see one of them here: http://galenf.com/StLouis/2/2010-06-11_stlouis_2922.jpg
I'm not sure if any of the above makes any sense.
Anyway, what is that font that "SDG's Dailies" appears in? It looks very familiar, but the reference is evading me.
So good to hear from you, dear P! I seem to recall you having a tendency not to be a fan of design/branding changes? So I take this as a good sign that I’m on the right track!
The “Dailies” font happens to be Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, and, as _you_ may recall, I have a weakness for “allusive” font names,* but this isn’t one, alas. I’m not married to it!
I see what you mean about the basilica mosaic! If you’re going to go to all the trouble of doing a mosaic, why such a bare, bald look and plain-vanilla style?
As I mentioned to another commenter, at this point the stained glass idea is just an idea that could be brought out in a future iteration—at least, at the large size intended for the welcome page. Unfortunately the page mark version displays too small for such subtlety. Not sure how best to handle that.
---
*The “Decent” in the current Decent Films logo is a Bauhaus style font called “Righteous”! And I dunno if you saw the Chesterton mug I designed for my son, but the exuberant font I used for the words “daybreak” and “glory” is (the very aptly named for my purposes) “Lovely Coffee.” https://bit.ly/40RFGGQ
> I seem to recall you having a tendency not to be a fan of design/branding changes?
Well, I'm probably less fussy about such things on Substack, where the basic design is already fixed and any changes are necessarily minor.
> The “Dailies” font happens to be Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, and, as _you_ may recall, I have a weakness for “allusive” font names,* but this isn’t one, alas.
I do recall your fondness for kabbalistic font names, but I was wondering about the *visual* reference. When I saw the font, I immediately thought "Oh, an appropriate choice for the newspaper comic look"... but then realized I didn't know *why* I thought that.
I've just realized that the font is very similar to the one NYT has used for opinion headlines since 2018, Cheltenham Condensed. That's probably enough to create a mental association with newspapers.
(And that font is recognizable enough that I've seen fake NYT opinion headline screenshots circulated as a joke, in the expectation that people will recognize the style.)
Whew! Glad you are merely changing your name and not goimg away. The name change doesn't make any difference to our being subscribed -- right? By the way, one of the things I very much like about your Substack is that you do talk about many different kinds of things. So please keep it up.
Thanks so much, Mary. Yes, your subscription will not be affected—I will remain right here at greydanus.substack.com! I’m so glad to hear that my lack of a niche, or my interest in many niches, appeals to some readers!
Good Deacon, I sure do enjoy and appreciate following your writing. Thank you for being you.
The new name is apt! Certainly a reflection of the style and mission I've come to know from you. I look forward to seeing where you take it as well as the branding.
Also, thank you for the highlights of your work. Sometimes, life gets busy and I miss things! I was considering similarly sharing my own highlights on my publication this weekend... Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? 😉
I love it! Anyone can understand it, and it’s very nice to look at. Thumbs down on bubbles. I didn’t know what a thought bubble was until you were in art school
When I saw your title, I thought--oh no!--you were leaving Substack. I am glad to learn you will remain here with a new name. I like the new name. I agree with the commenter who said you might not be "quite hitting the mark" with the colored word "Sunday." To my eyes, I saw the comic allusion but completely missed the stained glass. I don't know how, but I think seeing that allusion to stained glass would be great.
I sympathize with your note about the range of topics you send out--prayer, homilies, cartoons, etc. I have a much smaller readership on my Substack and post about many things, too. One is book reviews. Not many people are readers anymore, and I wonder if it will turn people off. But, as you say, oh well.
Looking forward to reading "SDG's Dailies and Sundays!"
You didn’t miss the stained glass, Mavis—at this point it’s just an idea for how the graphic could be further developed! I am thinking about how best to proceed given the reality of the tiny word mark and the infrequency with which the main icon is usually seen.
I have been fortunate in developing my audience. Partly because I have a fan base from my previous work, and partly because I’ve been fortunate in my friends. The thing about my work is that I ALWAYS wanted to bring together different groups of people. Even when I started my film writing, my goal was always to appeal both to nonreligious movie fans and to religious non-cinephiles!
At the end of the day, writers—at least, the kind of writer I am—write what we have to. I can only write what I wish I could read if someone else had written it. Keep up the book reviews! I will keep out an eye for them.
Thank you, SDG. I was just thinking what you wrote in your last paragraph. A couple months ago someone asked what was my audience, who am I writing for. I had no answer and it’s been in the back of my mind since. Today I thought, I am writing about things that interest me and I like to read about. And there must be at least some other people out there who also like it.
I like the name!! I also agree with the word Sunday not quite hitting the mark. I think the font and colors imply fun, light, and...bubbly. Those descriptors can certainly be what I associate with your cartoon posts but not with future posts about racism, immigration, and most certainly not Trump.
I don’t recall mentioning immigration, but that’s 100 percent a subject I need to tackle sooner rather than later, Battlemaiden!
I appreciate your feedback. Am still tweaking the design, and even when it goes live I can always change it. I certainly want it to be light and playful, in part almost as a counterpoint for when I go as hard as I do on some of the things I write. The playful side of me is always there, even when I’m going all out on some topic of great importance. :-)
Somehow, you're missing an opportunity here. :-) "SDG" already contains the the first two letters of "(D)ailies & (S)undays". So you've got a near-hit, subtle, acronym pun. "SDG's Sundays, Dailies & ... Graces"? Grumblings? We're close to something here.
The logo is pretty good, but somehow I don't think we're quite hitting the color palette for Sundays. It's hitting "candy" rather than "comic". So if you went with Dailies (agree that new paper typeface is the right one here), Sundays (tweaked to look like Sunday comic colors, and maybe a slight newspaper texture), & Graces (definitely simplified stained glass), that would nail it. Or drop Graces, of course. All good.
Oh, and as regards color, I deliberately muted the colors a bit—using the “purer” versions of the different colors had a harsh, jarring look to my eyes. But nothing is, as it were, set in stone.
I think you could mute them even a bit more. Right now they are closer to 4-color comic book, rather than Sunday funnies. But it's pretty good.
I feel you, Brian! I gave this a lot of thought, and I’m not seeing how the cost of the third word is justified by that subtle benefit. “Dailies & Sundays” (or “Sundays & Dailies”) works; a third word would just make it too long (“Too many notes,” in the words of the same friend who suggested the name).
Yeah, makes sense. Agree that it's already a mental mouthful. If you weren't already well known by your full initials, it might even be worth dropping the D in SDG. "SG's Sunday Graces" would be a good title for someone else's substack.
I swear I am not making this up: Brainstorming this name with friends went so far and so deep that while discussing the Tolkien-related implications of THE GREY HAVENS, one of my friends went so far as to muse that if a) I DID want to write more about Tolkien and b) IF MY NAME WERE NIGEL, I could call it LEAF BY NIGEL. And this is a great guy who had some great ideas, but sometimes the train of thought has jumped the tracks and it’s time to move on!
What Mavis said. I was like, OH NO, I just found you with that brilliant C&H post. Say it isn't so.
So, whew.
A moment of drama! :-D
❤️
I LOVE the new name and the logo!
Thanks so much, Michael!
I think Dailies and Sundays is a good name. It's allusive and concrete but also broad and expansive, big enough to hold all the different things you write about. And it's playful without being goofy.
I really value your opinion, Melanie! Thanks so much.
I love the name! "Dailies and Sundays" is by far the best option of those mentioned, IMO. "Thought Bubbles" is okay, but suggests to me that the content is light and ephemeral, which isn't (always!) true and almost seems like a kind of false modesty. I won't say "Holy Thought Bubbles" would have actually made me unsubscribe in disgust, but the thought would have crossed my mind. I also agree that "Dailies and Sundays" is better than the opposite order, since I believe that's the form it usually takes in comic collections and such.
My one reservation about the logo is that, while it does evoke Sunday newspaper comics, in the context of this blog, it also suggests to me the kind of cartoon that would appear in a Sunday school booklet, or in a certain kind of illustrated children's Bible - hopefully you know the type of thing I'm gesturing at - and those don't convey a sense of elevation or the sacred to me, certainly nothing compatible with the "stained glass" effect you mention. (I think I felt the same way about those cartoons as a child, FWIW.)
Here in St. Louis, the cathedral basilica has a couple of mosaics in what I think is a similar style, and I've always considered them an aesthetic blemish in an otherwise stunningly beautiful church. You can see one of them here: http://galenf.com/StLouis/2/2010-06-11_stlouis_2922.jpg
I'm not sure if any of the above makes any sense.
Anyway, what is that font that "SDG's Dailies" appears in? It looks very familiar, but the reference is evading me.
So good to hear from you, dear P! I seem to recall you having a tendency not to be a fan of design/branding changes? So I take this as a good sign that I’m on the right track!
The “Dailies” font happens to be Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, and, as _you_ may recall, I have a weakness for “allusive” font names,* but this isn’t one, alas. I’m not married to it!
I see what you mean about the basilica mosaic! If you’re going to go to all the trouble of doing a mosaic, why such a bare, bald look and plain-vanilla style?
As I mentioned to another commenter, at this point the stained glass idea is just an idea that could be brought out in a future iteration—at least, at the large size intended for the welcome page. Unfortunately the page mark version displays too small for such subtlety. Not sure how best to handle that.
---
*The “Decent” in the current Decent Films logo is a Bauhaus style font called “Righteous”! And I dunno if you saw the Chesterton mug I designed for my son, but the exuberant font I used for the words “daybreak” and “glory” is (the very aptly named for my purposes) “Lovely Coffee.” https://bit.ly/40RFGGQ
> I seem to recall you having a tendency not to be a fan of design/branding changes?
Well, I'm probably less fussy about such things on Substack, where the basic design is already fixed and any changes are necessarily minor.
> The “Dailies” font happens to be Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, and, as _you_ may recall, I have a weakness for “allusive” font names,* but this isn’t one, alas.
I do recall your fondness for kabbalistic font names, but I was wondering about the *visual* reference. When I saw the font, I immediately thought "Oh, an appropriate choice for the newspaper comic look"... but then realized I didn't know *why* I thought that.
Ah, well, that was just instinct! I was looking at condensed serif fonts and that one felt right. :-)
“Kabbalistic,” I love that!
I've just realized that the font is very similar to the one NYT has used for opinion headlines since 2018, Cheltenham Condensed. That's probably enough to create a mental association with newspapers.
(And that font is recognizable enough that I've seen fake NYT opinion headline screenshots circulated as a joke, in the expectation that people will recognize the style.)
There you have it! That’s probably what I was thinking of, subconsciously. :-)
Whew! Glad you are merely changing your name and not goimg away. The name change doesn't make any difference to our being subscribed -- right? By the way, one of the things I very much like about your Substack is that you do talk about many different kinds of things. So please keep it up.
Thanks so much, Mary. Yes, your subscription will not be affected—I will remain right here at greydanus.substack.com! I’m so glad to hear that my lack of a niche, or my interest in many niches, appeals to some readers!
Good Deacon, I sure do enjoy and appreciate following your writing. Thank you for being you.
The new name is apt! Certainly a reflection of the style and mission I've come to know from you. I look forward to seeing where you take it as well as the branding.
Also, thank you for the highlights of your work. Sometimes, life gets busy and I miss things! I was considering similarly sharing my own highlights on my publication this weekend... Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? 😉
I love it! Anyone can understand it, and it’s very nice to look at. Thumbs down on bubbles. I didn’t know what a thought bubble was until you were in art school
Love the new name and the Logo... colors are cool!