Look at us now.

• Author: Kinney, David
• Position: Up Front - Business North Carolina

Not long after the News and Observer Publishing Co. bought BNC in the mid-'80s--the first of three times the magazine has changed hands--Frank Daniels Jr. (still one of the owners) asked his cousin to check it out. Derick Daniels had been an editor and executive with the Knight Ridder chain and president of the Playboy empire, so he knew a thing or two about magazines. One of the first things he did was put us in touch with New York graphic designer Don Wright.

Wright gave the magazine a new look--one that married the progressive face of business with that of this state, a place that, while embracing change, still clings to the traditions of its past. It's a look that, in the 17 years since we introduced it, has won dozens of awards and helped the magazine earn national acclaim.

In the mid-'90s, just in time for BNC's 15th anniversary, he freshened things up, more a nip-and-tuck than a makeover--we still look a lot like we did before the Berlin Wall fell. That's one of the things Rob Edwards was eager to change when he was hired as art director early last year. I gave him some rope but not too much. And I didn't hesitate to yank it. This design, I kept telling him, is not new but still has a lot of strengths: Learn to use it--and them--to your advantage.

Last month, when we began production of this issue, I told him to spruce up the departments that run in the front of the magazine. When Don Wright revisited his design nearly a decade ago, he brought movement to it with slight changes in the typography and...