Ls graphic design

Internazionale magazine has a new layout

5 Ottobre 2009 @ 12:44 | Archiviato in: Notizie, Grafica, Pubblicazioni, Tipografia

Internazionale is a weekly magazine, founded in 1993, that publishes in Italian a selection of the best articles from the foreign press. In spite of the worldwide crisis of the printed papers, its circulation has grown by 27% in the last year in a country where newspaper readers are below European average. After 16 years Mark Porter was chosen to redesign the layout for the first time: you can read about the 10 months process on his blog. As an Internazionale subscriber for more than 10 years I must say I am happy with the new look (in spite of being a graphic designer I guess I am more the usual conservative reader in this case). Keep reading for more pictures of the old and new layout, as the new cover (see above) hasn’t change much.

Headlines
One of the things I like the most is the choice of using a single typeface family for the whole magazine. Lyon by Kai Bernau, previously seen on The New York Times Magazine, works perfectly well. The only weak point is the cover: as Internazionale sells mostly on news-stands they decided not to change it much to keep it recognisable. (Paul Barnes fixed the logo, but only a trained eye can spot the differences) Lyon hasn’t the same impact as Benton Sans, or maybe it hasn’t been used in the best way yet.
The overall look of the inside is perfectly fitting with the contents of the magazine: it’s professional, clean, organised, serious but not boring and the use of picture is still great.

Details of the new layout

New and old design
The previous layout was set in Benton Sans, for the headlines and pull-out quotes, and Miller for the text. I agree with Mark Porter when he says that «Italian news magazines tend to be a little hyperactive, with lots of different typefaces, colours and graphic elements».
The old layout was already very clean and clear, as you can see below, even though there was a rather massive use of colour boxes. Now all the hierarchy is resolved with thin vertical and horizontal lines, different text sizes (the same vertical grid is used in a less rigid way), and the use of colour for the different sections and the titles of the boxes on the side.

PS: I hope I am mistaken, but the type in the infographics looks like it has been stretched.

[Hi-res pictures on my Flickr]

Marta