The connection between graphics and writing

Creation starts with the written word — be it a script for a movie, content for a website, a marketing campaign or great journalism.

Perhaps it’s fitting that we have borrowed our motto, "One for All; All for One", from the novel The Three Musketeers, first published in serial form in 1844 in the magazine Le Siècle. Ponctuation Grafix too has a strong affinity with, and a great respect for media — given the long journalism history of founder Warren Perley.

In fact, when we said in the first paragraph of this section of our website that Warren and Art Director Rodney Hall have worked together for 18 years, we understated the case. The reality is that Warren and Rodney have been working side by side an average of 50-plus hours a week since 1988.

That’s when Warren co-founded with fellow journalist Wesley Goldstein an upscale weekly newspaper called The Hampstead Herald, which eventually became known as The Weekly Herald and was delivered to 25,000 homes in the west-end Montreal municipalities of Hampstead, Cote St. Luc, Town of Mount Royal, Westmount and Montreal West.

At The Weekly Herald, Warren, Rodney and a cadre of devoted journalists and graphics people worked tirelessly on their Macs (Mac IIx - running system Mac OS 5.5, for the historically curious) to create one of the first totally desktop North American publications. It was a marriage between solid journalism and creative layouts. Warren put to good use his extensive previous career in daily journalism — 16 years between 1972 and 1988 reporting and editing thousands of stories at The Canadian Press, The Montreal Star, The Gazette, United Press Canada and finally as Bureau Chief at United Press International.

You can check out the front page of almost every Weekly Herald edition between April 1989 and February 1991 in the section of this website called Writing to give you a taste of that publication’s eclectic story mix. The excitement engendered by that fresh, recipe for media coverage was reflected by the comments at that time from noted journalists and politicians:

  • Then-Gazette columnist Albert Nerenberg described The Weekly Herald as a “sassy, intelligent weekly” in his column of February 5, 1991.
  • Then-mayor Bernard Lang of Cote St. Luc called The Weekly Herald “very professional…well done” in an interview in Nerenberg’s column of February 5, 1991..
  • Jack Todd, at that time the Page 3 columnist for The Gazette, called Warren a “newspaper tiger” in his column of June 6, 1991 and an “energetic iconoclast” in his column of November 21, 1991..
  • Mayor Vera Danyluk of Town of Mount Royal said in a letter dated February 5, 1991 that The Weekly Herald “did an excellent job of obtaining the facts and presenting their articles in a professional and objective manner.” .
  • Former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau wrote in a letter dated May 8, 1989 thatThe Weekly Herald was a “fine looking weekly.”.
  • Former Royal Bank CEO Roland Frazee wrote of The Weekly Herald in a letter dated June 6, 1989: “It certainly seems to me you are producing a quality product….”