Jom Media

Jom (translated as ‘let’s’ in Malay) is an independent new media outlet founded on the idea of slow journalism. In contrast to a restless world of sensationalism and breaking news by the hour, Jom presents content as long-form meditative pieces, photography and the occasional video and podcast.

Jom offers thoughtfully crafted articles on a weekly basis—every Friday, it publishes three pieces of journalism: a newsletter, a weekly update and an essay covering crucial topics around arts, culture, politics, business, technology and more. What sets Jom apart is its philosophy to place editorial rigour at the heart of everything it produces. That is, adopting a standard process of assessing stories, verifying sources, checking facts, and all other efforts that will allow its team to attain, in Walter Lippmann’s words, ‘a common intellectual method and a common area of valid fact’.

With these values in mind, we felt that the platform needed a visual identity that reflected authenticity and credibility, while keeping true its Asian roots and the intentional slowness of it all. We communicated this with the narrative, ‘news that takes a break’.

Together with Jom, we drew design inspiration for the logo from an indigenous script called Jawi. We consulted Wei Jin Darryl Lim, a postdoctoral researcher specialising in the history of Malay printing, to explore a specific style of Jawi referred to as the ‘19th century Straits scribal hand’. Experimenting with these influences, we arrived at a wordmark referencing the ‘Kashida’ handwritten stroke.

We had also come to a realisation that elements in Jawi allowed for letters to be stacked on top of each other, effortlessly forming the Jom brand symbol. “It is a seal, or cap mohor,” says Faris Joraimi, Jom’s history editor. “It has a potent history in Malay letter-writing, as a stand-in for the sender, giving the document authority but also a kind of talismanic life.”

Our visual identity system across the website, newsletters and social media was designed to capture the brand’s essence. From the deliberate use of space and typographic restraint to the origins of the brand logo and symbol, Jom represents the art of slow journalism grounded in humility and sensitivity, guided by the never-ending quest for truth.