Design in 2017 – what will editorial look like?

What do you think 2017 will hold for editorial design?

Editorial creativity will continue its healthy renaissance as small independents continue to point the way forward in all aspects of publishing. Small indies will continue to morph into larger, influential publications.

But the bigger context is that if you care about political discourse 2017 is the year to support the publications you believe matter – newspapers, magazines, websites. Alternative voices are going to become more precious than ever.

We can’t all launch our own magazine to deal with this crisis, but we can easily buy, subscribe and share others. Now!

What was your favourite editorial design project in 2016?

There is so much great work going on that it’s hard to whittle it down to one. So I’m going to propose two, one from each extreme of the magazine spectrum.

The New York Times Magazine has been an easy choice for this type of commentary for some time, but its High Life issue, where they turned the magazine 90-degrees and produced an entire issue about the skyscrapers of New York using tall page layouts was a simple, clever and relevant adaptation of the regular format.

Meanwhile new architectural indie the Real Review launched with a unique square format folded vertically in half. Beautifully simple again but just as breathtaking, this physical effect encourages reading and renders the intelligent content wonderfully accessible.