February 6, 2008
New Elle
I’ve liked British Elle for a while now; I remember at one design awards judging session arguing for it to be shortlisted only to be outvoted by the other judges. Their reasoning was something along the lines of it only being as good as a magazine of it’s type should be. My argument back was that while that was true, it stood apart from most of the UK women’s market for being just that: good while others weren’t.
Well, now it’s even better-looking, following it’s redesign by art director Marissa Bourke. Already on it’s second issue, this relaunch is a major one. It shares a design sensibility with it’s previous incarnation – the monochrome text and generous use of white space are retained – but is otherwise a completely different magazine.
Previously it bridged the gap between the upmarket titles (Vogue, Harper’s) and the mainstream – now its looking to move upmarket and join those titles. It’s the first womens title to try this, but its move away from a brasher populism towards a new grown-up look coincides with similar moves made by UK Esquire. Add Monocle to the mix and there’s a theme developing: serious, grown-up magazines aimed at a smaller but wealthier audience. If the current newsstand front cover, above, doesn’t convince you of this, see the all-different subscription edition below.
This split cover run isn’t a new technique – US titles like the New Yorker have done this for years, and Wallpaper* has been doing it for a while here at home – but is becoming more common as mainstream magazines seek a bit of the cool that the independent sector retains. The latest Esquire takes this split further still, stripping off all cover lines and using an alternative portrait where Daniel Day-Lewis avoids the obligatory eye contact expected of a cover shot.
Here are some details of the interior of the new Elle.
The first thing to note is the lack of Futura. It still features as a part of the typographic mix, used in body copy and for the folios, but the instantly recognisable (but highly dated) use of Futura as a central part of the title’s visual identity is over. Back come the sort of classic fonts that Elle would never have used before: Baskerville, Clarendon and Engravers.
I’m really excited by this re-launch, and judging by comments posted to my earlier brief mention of the first issue, others are too. It’s one of those pieces of editorial design that has a complete confidence in itself, a self-belief that each addition to the page has a role and purpose to it. If it wants to be monochrome it does it; if it wants to be colourful it goes multi-coloured (see ‘Bangles’ page above) Nothing is superfluous, the make-up of each page uses image and text without additional decoration – it’s simply the content made smart.
8 Comments
Comment on February 8, 2008 by dadif says:
I think its ok but I agree with the other judges you mention above. Ok isn’t great.
It is also another mag that borrows heavily from fabian baron and Paris vogue in terms of type.and for all the use of ‘trendy’ Serifs inside the designer hasn’t got the talk to convince the bosses to ditch futura on the cover, so the whole thing looses integrity before you’ve even got to the contents page.
But you know. Its ok. Maybe that’s good enough in the current climate. I don’t think it will have a long lasting effect on sales and my guess is they’ll be another redesign in a year or so which does broadly what this one has, investing some ‘of the moment’ type and editorial ideas into the same old rather tired package.
Despite all the clunky type and snootiness i still prefer vogue.
Comment on February 8, 2008 by david says:
I agree, It is ‘OK’.
The editor has said that they are going for the advertisers and not for sales.
It is all a bit ‘try hard’ and has none of the passion and finesse that you see in Vogue.
It will be interesting to see how the covers develop: Are they going to not have A list actresses at all? Are they going to leave those for Glamour and Marie Claire and concentrte on models and ‘cool indie people’, which are all very alienating for the normal fashion buying people. This isn’t i-D or Sazed or even POP, it IS a mainstream fashion magazine.
When the team of Candy and Bourke took over at Elle they had a big redesign (remember Riley Keogh on the cover?) that lasted for 3 or 4 issues and then they reverted back to the original elle format.
Comment on February 8, 2008 by jeremy says:
It does makes typographic references to Paris Vogue, but is much less decorative. That’s my main point, that there is a clean starkness that is rare in mainstream magazines.
Their problem will be, as hinted at by David above, that the new positioning bridges the high-end budgets of Vogue and the do-it-for-virtually-free ethos accepted by contributors to i-D/Dazed.
Does Elle have the production budget and/or cool to achieve what they’re aiming at?
Comment on February 8, 2008 by David says:
Typographically it reminds me of Vitals. I think it’s a great move. Anything that distances themselves from Glamour and Marie Claire is good in my opinion.
I don’t think they’re trying to be Vogue (I’m not sure who Vogue is meant to be for any more), they’re just moving more into the middle ground, which has been neglected thanks to the weeklies cheapening the market.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a few other mags follow suit… after all it’s not 032c, it’s just a bit more grown-up, cleaner and classic in it’s approach.
Comment on February 9, 2008 by aulelia says:
that last issue with karolina kurkova on the cover really annoyed me — the design of the whole mag was unappealing to me. it is looking more like french elle with this issue.
Comment on February 15, 2008 by Jana says:
Yeah, particularly that first page (Elle Preview) looks a bit too much like French Vogue…
Comment on May 9, 2008 by Professional Glamour Portrait Photography – Stuart Riddell Portrait Design says:
Well it is certainly sad when magazines decide to aim for ‘advertising’ rather than ‘sales’. It indicated that too many people are downloading illegal copies of it rather than buying it.
Comment on December 9, 2009 by Jay Sean Down says:
Ellen is a great magazine.
