At work with: Mirko Borsche, Zeit Magazin
Mirko Borsche’s studio has grown a reputation for intelligent, entertaining editorial design through the creative direction of multiple magazines; Zeit Magazin, Super Paper and Sepp are just a few examples that regularly show up online and at awards events. We caught up with Mirko in his live/work Munich space as he prepares a special edition of Zeit Magazin.
Where are you today?
Sitting on the sofa in the middle of my office, answering this Q&A.
What can you see from the window?
A terrace, trees and a holywood swing.
Are you a morning or evening person?
I am more an evening kind of person.
What was the first magazine you remember enjoying?
Tempo, a german youth magazine that sadly doesn’t exist anymore.
What’s your favourite magazine this morning?
The New York Times Magazine and 032c.
Which magazines are you working on this week?
Zeitmagazin, Neon, Maxjoseph and Kaleidoscope. At the moment editorial design is 30% of my daily work.
Your use of type regularly challenges convention in a way we rarely see in the UK: it is challenging but fun.
A magazine layout is good when you are able to identify it by a single page torn out of context. The way I use typography is not aiming to be unconventional, edgy, modern or classic. It’s more about making each of the magazines unique on the market, and that sometimes requires unconventional decisions. Fun plays a big role too, I think magazines should be entertaining and surprising at the same time. I believe that as long as I have fun designing a magazine spread, the reader enjoys it, too.
Which one magazine do you dream of redesigning?
Vogue, Homme+, Interview, Intelligent Life, Rolling Stone, Wired, Time, Life, The Guardian, i-D, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vice, T-magazine and any other magazine every designer dreams of. But most of them look already great! Which makes it even more challenging and difficult at the same time. So there is not that one magazine for me.
What are you most looking forward to this week?
The new identity of „die neue sammlung“, a big design museum. and there is a surprising issue of Zeitmagazin coming soon, but I can’t tell any more, it shall stay a surprise ;)
What are you least looking forward to this week?
Reminding my clients to pay their bills!
What will you be doing after this chat?
Working on an installation for Ace and Tate, doing posters for the Bavarian Symphonic Orchestra and Zeitmagazin.