MAGCULTURE.COM / BLOG

Design Week redesigned

Designing for designers is often a thankless task. First, your audience always think they know better. This view then splits in one of two directions – the reader either believes the work in question is over-designed and fussy, or that the design is a missed opportunity and under-designed. These two extremes will also be offered about the same project by different people. You’re faced with a bunch of critics who believe their opinion valid, yet have probably never designed a magazine in their lives.

So congratulations to the Design Week team, who redesigned their magazine last week. This is a magazine that caters for all areas of design, not just graphics, so there will be plenty of designers of all types ready to argue about the merits of its layouts. In my experience some of the most innovative creative minds in one world can be the most hardcore conservatives in another.

The previous design was looking distinctly threadbare, and art director Sam Freeman has overseen a development of that previous incarnation that vastly improves the presentation without startling the readership. The old design seemed to rely on the idea that the only colour on the page would be the images of work. This was a valid concept, but in reality meant that to provide tonal variation a range of dull greys (tints of black) were used as backgrounds and for headline variations. Even the cover logo would sometimes appear in what looked like 40% black. Not very dynamic. As you can see (above), the logo now reverses out of the cover image, and is all the stronger for it.

The major change, then is the addition of colour. Judging from the launch issue, the News & Comment section uses blue, the Profiles are green, Education uses purple and Specials are orange. The colours feature across the top of each page, immediately making the issue more easily navigated. The same colours are used across the pages to highlight headlines and sub-sections.

I particularly like the News in Brief run across the bottom of this spread (above).

This is not a major reinvention – the editorial side of things remains virtually unchanged – but is a very welcome reinvigoration of a magazine that should at the very least reflect the values it promotes.

A slightly reduced page width allows a new grid (and presumably a reduced print bill) that is far more flexible – no more articles stretched across five narrow columns on a page. New fonts and more considered detailing (below) complete the new look.

The magazine has also launched a new blog. Next up, stable mate Creative Review redesigns.