When David Waxman and Aaron Smith saw the worn out St.Joseph’s Hospital with its practical lines and brick layer, they fell in love with its simplicity. With a rich history of service and hospitality embedded, the co-founders readapted an apartment building from the walls of the century-old hospital.

Now the apartment just needed to find its identity and tell its story with a website, brand name, newsletter, and newsletter name. Thus, The Civic is born.

Centered around bringing the public together, The Civic fosters connections and invites residents to connect with the North Philadelphia neighborhood.

The newsletter gives potential and current residents the info they need to connect with the neighborhood, the city, and the building itself. “The Column” is one of the many names I came up with for the newsletter. It’s a nod to The Civic’s ideal of connecting residents with the neighborhood, just like how a column connects different, separate spaces.

And what’s a better way to explore the new neighborhood than by a fun choose your own journey. By yours truly of course. I researched popular neighborhood attractions, designed the layout with my chicken scratch handwriting, and wrote the content to go with it.

Click for an up close and personal look of the website or The Column.