Modern Antenna Design
Jeremy Leslie is director of magCulture, member of the D&AD Executive Committee and a passionate advocate of editorial design. Busy, then! He's agreed to share a few insights into his latest project, the redesign of men's magazine, FHM, which relaunched in the UK this month.
1. Can you describe the process of editorial design - are there unique challenges to the discipline?
The basics of editorial design will be familiar to any graphic designer. Typography, grids, use of imagery and spatial composition all figure. But there are also a number of less familiar specialist skills involved.
First of all, you are one of a team of people with
specialist creative skills. As designer you are responsible for every visual
aspect of the magazine, but alongside you the editor has an identical level of
responsibility for the choice of story and tone of writing. Then there’s the
picture editor who will share with you responsibility for photography. You have
to work as a team, taking on board each other’s views. I believe the roles of
editor and designer are merging – the best magazines employ people who
comprehend both content and its presentation.
A critical issue often overlooked by designers without editorial experience is that a magazine isn’t a series of single pieces but needs to hold together as a whole. The balance of text and image and any page can vary enormously. The running order and variation from page to page needs not only be carefully considered but also open to change as the issue comes together. During production the whole magazine is in a permanent state of flux, and only when the final page is completed does that flux end and the flat plan become secure.
Harder still is the way that creating pace through the pages means sometimes a story will be designed and illustrated in a particular way to appear different to what precedes and follows that story, rather than designed purely in the best way for that individual story.
2. How do you start tackling a project for a well-established brand like FHM?
The first things to do were to get to know the
magazine, talk to the editor, pull some tear sheets together from other
magazines, then agree the right direction – agree a brief.
FHM is a long-standing brand that has lost its way in
recent years. This made it a relatively simple brief. In its heyday it was one
of the most influential men’s magazines, but it had lost sight of its audience.
There was a strong magazine trying to fight its way through the wrong design
– it was confusing to the reader, the content and look didn’t match. The
FHM reader wants simple things presented without being over-designed. The
design had to be invisible, which is harder to achieve than it sounds.
Design-wise it had to look strong but unremarkable.
The various regular sections needed clearer, separate, identities. The whole thing needed a more masculine tone, meaning new fonts and a return to red and black as central colours. In most respects it was exciting working with such a longstanding and successful newsstand brand, but in one specific way it was disappointing. I’ve always felt the FHM logo was weak, so I proposed a revision to that but the publishers didn’t feel confident changing such a key asset.
3. The FHM redesign launched the same week as Apple's new iPad was unveiled. Where do you think the future of the lad's mag and mainstream mag publishing generally lies?
If I had a simple answer to that I’d be a very rich man.
Magazine publishing is experiencing a collective depression at the moment caused by several factors, one of which is the presence of online competition. But the Internet is not the only reason for this depression. It’s easy to forget the massive boom the magazines industry has experienced over recent decades. Like other sectors, magazine publishing couldn’t continue to grow at the rate it was going. It’s been too easy to see a successful magazine, rip it off, and watch the money pour in from advertisers. A downturn was inevitable, and here it is: US publishers have just experienced a 9% drop in newsstand sales. Shocking from a business perspective but from a creative standpoint there have been too many similar magazines chasing the same reader. It’s time for a shake out, and the fact it’s happening is cause for long term optimism; a return to quality over quantity.
I’d separate reactions to the iPad in similar
fashion. From a business perspective it’s the Holy Grail, a new way to publish
content without the cost of paper, print and physical distribution. Whether or
not the big publishers can build a successful business model with it remains to
be seen – Apple will be taking a cut.
But from a creative point of view, the prospect of the iPad is very exciting. There have been plenty of attempts at merging magazine and digital content and presentation with little success. At last, perhaps, the iPad will make this possible. There’s a generation out there for whom the iPod Touch allows seamless access to digital content, be it music, games, news or utilities. The combination of image and text we are used to experiencing in magazines is ideally suited to this environment.
I rely on the Internet hour to hour, but as well as the open interaction it allows me I’d also like a more immersive, mediated digital content experience that is less open-ended than a website and provides the ongoing relationship I experience with magazines.
The future will be a mix of both. Printed magazines
will continue to exist alongside digital magazines of some sort, whether its
the iPad that proves the catalyst or not.
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