Charles Apple

Sarah Franquet, our design director, is leaving the Observer to fulfill her dream of living in the mountains of North Carolina.

Sarah and her husband, Pete, have sold their Charlotte residence in the Cotswold neighborhood and have purchased a log home in the small town of Waynesville, 30 miles southwest of Asheville.

Sarah’s 27-year newspaper career began in Folkston, Ga., at the weekly Charlton County Herald, where her “news editor” position included everything from reporting to pasting up pages to selling office supplies. She moved on to The Augusta Chronicle as a reporter, then later metro copy and layout editor. In 1981, she became the first lifestyles editor at the now-defunct Gwinnett Daily News, a small but feisty paper near Atlanta.

Her first stint in Charlotte began in 1983. Over the next 10 years, she held several positions, including designer, editor of a weekly entertainment magazine and deputy features editor.

In 1993, she took a design position at The Palm Beach Post, a Cox newspaper in West Palm Beach, Fla., and stayed for 11 years. Most of her work there was in features design. Her last position was sports design director. She was honored as Cox designer of the year four times.

She returned to the Observer in 2004 as design director. During her 3 1/2 years here, she established herself as an idea person who cares deeply about her staff and what we present to our readers every day. She made great hires and helped improve our news design, especially on 1A. She helped launch several new products - Observer Homes, Road Trips and EYE - and worked with her team to create The Idea Book as a way to inspire us to embrace alternative story forms. And she got a 1A spadea published during a Panthers’ playoff run.

Sarah’s last day is August 31 and she hopes to be in her new home in the mountains in early September. Sarah plans on doing freelance design work from the porch of her home overlooking a mountain stream that cascades through her property. We hope that she includes the Observer on her list of potential clients.

Sarah will be missed for her hands-on approach to her job, her boundless creativity, sense of fun and decency. She is all you can ask for in a good colleague.

In these extraordinary and challenging times, we are fortunate to have Robin Johnston, deputy designer director since 2003, ready to step up as our new design leader.

 

Robin, a Charlotte native and UNC Chapel Hill graduate, started her career at the Chicago Tribune, where she worked for three years as an assistant art director. She returned to her home state, taking a job at the (Raleigh) News & Observer. The birth of her first child helped pull her back to Charlotte, where much of her family still resides.

In her more than four years at the Observer, Robin has worked with many desks throughout the newsroom. While her primary focus was in Features, she designed Sunday 1A for eight months last year, and has worked on projects with Business, Metro and Regional.

Her vision for newspaper design is sprinkled throughout the Observer: she was a key participant in prototyping the first “Best Of” section, the Style section, Sunday Arts & Living, and the new Neighbors sections. In addition, she led the features design team as they launched eight new or revised sections.

Please congratulate Sarah and Robin.

I checked NewsPageDesigner, but found samples of work by neither Sarah nor Robin.

A little bird at the Observer, however, sent me this wraparound Harry Potter page that ran July 15. Robin wrote and designed the project. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view:

In fact, on the far right, is a photo of Robin reading to her son, Ben:

 

 Congratulations , Sarah, on a job well-done! And congratulations on the promotion, Robin!

Best wishes to you both!