As the first first step in a series of website updates, The Gator is proud to introduce its new logo.

“Now that we are in our fourth year of production, we felt that it was time to  introduce some changes to our site design,” says Editor-in-Chief Shani Breiman ’18 said.

Michelle Levinger ’19, the newsroom’s chief cartoonist, consulted on the logo. She also created her own distinct logo, which served as the inspiration for the final product designed by Pixel Logo Design, a professional company.

Levinger’s designs will also appear on The Gator’s Facebook and Twitter sites, as well on any future newsroom stationary, clothing, and paraphernalia.

“I really love the opportunity that The Gator has given me to express my artistic talents and give back to a community that has done so much for me all of these years,” said Levinger.

In the coming months, The Gator will also introduce additional changes to the look and functionality of the overall website. This includes the ability to more easily search for stories by author, as well as featuring more than just one story in a main homepage slider.

In that regard, for inspiration The Gator is looking to the Denebola, the official online student newspaper of Newton South High School.

The Denobola, one of the most celebrated student journalism websites in the country, caters to a different kind of community, Breiman explains.

“Newton South is a very large public school, and it’s important to mention that we are not evaluating ourselves against what they are able to do,” she said. “As a small private school, that wouldn’t make much sense. At the same time, we can still learn from what the Denebola does well, not just with respect to website design, but also how they produce various forms of quality content.”

Breiman also noted that Brimmer and May is the only private school in the area with a developed student news website.

“What we are able to do is really quite extraordinary and unique,” says Breiman. “To the best of my knowledge, none of our competitor schools come close to doing what we do with The Gator, or have a new Media Lab to produce the kind of content we put out on a weekly basis. That’s really saying something special about our community and it’s commitment to student voice.”

For his part, Gator advisor David Cutler ’02 is “exceptionally proud” of how far the newsroom has come in just under four years. He is also excited to have the new logo featured on the set of Gator Nations News, the next episode of which is scheduled to air next Friday.

“It’s going to feel free good to see the new logo as a part of the set design,” said Cutler. “This will bring even greater uniformity across our platforms.”