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The Scrivener's Fancy

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It is not often we ask a client to write their own case study, but how could we not in this case!

"The idea for 'The Scrivener's Fancy' was a simple one, but one which required pitch-perfect execution: a weekly 'on-line newspaper' to house four 'columns' of humour-writing, with a faux-highbrow presentation. The most important task was to differentiate it from the thousands of humourous blogs that clutter the internet, and to put the spotlight firmly on quality prose, as opposed to supplying endless links, pictures and clips. Graphically, the look we were chasing was that of an up-market, slightly snooty literary magazine like 'The New Yorker' or 'McSweeney's', the thinking being that low humour often works best in posh fonts (our by-line is 'Lowbrow commentary in elegant surrounds'). We realised that we would need the services of someone with a very good eye for classy design. After looking around, it soon became clear that Lemonade were the best people for the job; their typographic work was way out in front, and their list of credits dauntingly impressive.

Unlike most of the jobs they tackle, ours had no commercial component whatsoever. We are not selling anything except our own dodgy jokes. I was initially worried that Lemonade might be a tad overqualified, that it would be like hiring Mercedes to make a go-cart. But the more I looked at their site, the more I came to accept that for the best execution we would need to employ the best. Fortunately, the team were familiar with my previous work, got the idea immediately, and had no problem keeping it straightfoward and holding back on the 'bells and whistles'.

Very few amendments were made to the initial design, which is 'classic' and easy-on-the-eye. And, with virtually no publicity, the site already has a cult following that is growing every week. And contributors love to see their own work so fancily rendered. Perhaps most importantly, as someone who knows bugger-all about computers, the team have made the site very idiot-friendly in terms of updates and amendments.

I couldn't be happier with how the 'Fancy' turned out. Thanks to Lemonade, even when some of the writing is a tad ordinary, at least it looks a million bucks." 
- Tony Martin

Tony Martin is a Melbourne-based writer. His new book, ‘A Nest of Occasionals’, will be released in October.

www.thescrivenersfancy.com