Paper talk
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February 2010 cover of Interview magazine, shot by Craig McDean and styled by Interview creative director Karl Templer
Design Week asked a selection of top-level art directors which recent printed publications have particularly impressed them. Here we present some of the best - and worst - in current editorial design
JEREMY LESLIE
DIRECTOR, MAG CULTURE
This is a really exciting time for editorial design. Recent mainstream highlights include Monocle, British Elle, The Times’ new science supplement Eureka, and the US edition of Wired. All are setting new levels of intelligent content presentation. The independent scene continues to throw up surprises, the latest being the beautiful food launch Fire & Knives, designed by Rob Lowe. The recent massive growth in customer publishing seems to have dented its creative hunger, although South Africa’s M/K Bruce Lee, designed by The President, is one extraordinary exception. The big story, though, is thecross-fertilisation of formats and channels promised by several new projects. Portuguese newspaper I is an A4-sized daily that has more in common with magazine design than traditional newspaper structure; The Newspaper Club is a very clever scheme to help non-pub]
SIMON ESTERSON
ART DIRECTOR, EYE, THE INTERNATIONAL
Things I like: magazines that are still printed. Vogue for its photography. Wallpaper for its art direction and exploration of paper, printing and binding techniques. Monocle for the restraint of its layouts and intelligence of its illustrations. New York for combining form and content and making a weekly look better than most monthlies. Jamie for being ’the’ non-glossy food magazine. Apartamento for its small format and being a magazine about interiors that haven’t been tidied up. The Architectural Review for being redesigned. The Times’ science section Eureka for making a newspaper magazine that isn’t just about lifestyle. Interview for Fabien Baron’s typography (so much black, such fine hairlines). Things to be sad about: the closure of Borders shops in the UK. Thingsto look forward to: the Apple iPad.
FERNANDO GUTIÉRREZ
FOUNDER, STUDIO FERNANDO GUTIÉRREZ
I like all the usual suspects. The New York Times is beautifully crafted and always interesting. In entertainment, I like Vanity Fair - it’s classic and keeps its values - and in fashion I like Acne Paper, which is nicely crafted, has nice typography and images, and is very experimental. My favourite depends on what you mean by magazines, whether they are purely commercial or art. Independent magazines can be a lot more experimental. Kilimanjaro, for example, has been going for a long time and still produces beautifully crafted and surprising editorial products - and that’s what magazines are: they’re about passion. I also like The Drawbridge, which is more like a newspaper, but with magazine values. It’s picture-led, but carries articles by well-known authors, and is edited in a magazine way. What Interview magazine in New York has done through its redesign is great - the magazine was in a bad way, but now it’s together, very fresh and ’of the moment’ - that’s the one that mostinterested me recently.
KEN LEUNG
ART DIRECTOR, MODERN PUBLICITY
There are a lot of intelligent, well-designed men’s titles around at the moment, with Fantastic Man, Vogue Hommes International and Man About Town being my regular long-haul choices. Apart from being great reads, each magazine has brave, beautiful and visually inspiring design. My current and all-time design favourite would be Idea magazine from Japan. It devotes each issue to a different design theme, ranging from Cuban posters to printers to flowers, with every issue showcasing a new look and feel along with a wealth of inspiration in its typography, layout and special finishes. Idea’s monographs of design icons such as Max Huber, Emil Ruder, Wim Crouwel and Jan Tschichold deliver a depth of detail and research unrivalled by most design reference books, making the issues fantastic collectables that take pride of place on my bookshelves at home. It can be a little hard to find but it’s well worth the effort.
MICHA WEIDMANN
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, MICHA
WEIDMANN STUDIO
Paradis features timeless luxury for the contemporary man. It is beautifully produced and elegantly designed like quite a few other magazines of that genre. What makes it stand out is the quality of its contributions. The amount of great pictures gathered, art directed and produced is fantastic. It includes pictures by Guido Mocafico, Nathaniel Goldberg, Jürgen Teller, Erwan Frotin – the list of great photographers and artists is long. Design makes magazines look good, but Paradis really shows how art direction and the work behind the contributions enriches whatever is communicated.
DAVID HILLMAN
STUDIO DAVID HILLMAN
My favourite publication has to be The Guardian because it has stuck to its guns since creative editor Mark Porter’s redesign. It is the only one out there where everything has been looked at, where the editorial content and design have been developed together. The other great thing about it is that all the separate sections behave as a complete package without being repetitive. Even the website looks the part; it has recognised that just because it is a digital medium it doesn’t have to be completely different. I’m very fond of G2, with its small, pocket-sized newsprint - light and practical. And the double-page spread photography in the centrefold of the main paper is knockout. The most disappointing paper has to be the Daily Mirror. Under the editorial eye of Hugh Cudlipp (from 1938) it was such a great, campaigning newspaper. It was honest and ballsy with a good use of pictures and strong headlines. Now it has lost its way and it’s just another badly designed tits-and-bums rag.
