David Hillman says today’s magazines are boring

Fri, 17 Apr 2009

Editorial designer David Hillman says contemporary magazine designs have ‘got boring’.

Speaking at a D&AD President’s Lecture in London last night, Hillman, who was art director of women’s magazine Nova in the 1960s before joining Pentagram as a partner and redesigning The Guardian in 1988, was discussing the threat magazines and newspapers face from the Internet.

He said readers are still hungry for print materials, as shown by the success of the Metro free newspaper among commuters.

But he described the current situation in print as ‘very sad’, saying, ‘When you look at the news rack in Tesco, it’s full of blue-eyed blondes and pink logos - what’s there to attract the reader?’

The event last night, which saw Hillman in conversation with Patrick Baglee, director of creative strategy at Navyblue, covered Hillman’s career from his education at London School of Print through to his work for The Sunday Times, Nova, Pentagram and The Guardian.

In his career, Hillman has won 16 D&AD Yellow Pencils and two Black Pencils.

This was the third event in this year’s series of D&AD President’s Lectures, curated by Garrick Hamm, which has already seen talks by Peter Saville and Jan van Toorn.

The next talk will be by Jonathan Ellery on 14 May in London, and Luke Williamson will deliver a lecture in Manchester on 21 May.

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