THE GUARDIAN'S REDESIGN
author: Vedran Eraković
March, 2007

translation into English: Danijela Tomazović
November, 2009

British daily newspaper the Guardian was founded in Manchester 186 years ago.

The first issue was published on May 5th 1821 under the name The Manchester Guardian. The newspaper was founded by a group of businessmen lead by John Edward Taylor.

The Guardian was not a daily newspaper in the beginning, but initially was published weekly, each Saturday. At that time, taxes on newspapers were high, so it would not pay off to publish daily. After the taxes got a bit lowered in 1836, the Guardian was published on Wednesdays as well, and started to be published as a daily newspaper at reduced price in 1855 after the taxes were abolished.

In 1872, today legendary Charles Prestwich Scott becomes the Guardian's editor-in-chief, and stays on that position for 57 years. He made the Guardian the famous British newspaper, and besides his editor-in-chief position, he also became the owner of the newspaper, buying it off in 1907.

The Guardian is a highly recognized newspaper for its high standards in writing and presenting news, characteristic critiques, but also for its standard good layout which always remained in accordance with the contemporary times and often went a step further.

Recognizable editorial policy is largely due to Charles Prestwich Scott; he was a man of strong principles and is famous for his words: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred... The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard.” What this means for a serious newspaper can be proven on the following example: during sixties of 20th century, and on the contrary of the most British newspapers, the Guardian critiqued government's military action in Suez. This paid off with the 10% increase in the number of readers.

Occasionally the Guardian was losing readers because it dealt with unpopular themes and events, but mostly kept independent editorial policy as well as wide and thorough coverage of the news.

During its long history, the Guardian went through many changes: in 1952 it started to publish news on the cover page, thus replacing the ads previously published there. Regarding this, the Guardian's editorial stated that what was the exception once (news on the cover pages of British newspapers), now becomes the standard.

The word “Manchester” has been taken out from the newspaper's name on August 24th 1959, and it has been called simply the Guardian since then. This change probably was not favored by many, especially in its “birth place” Manchester. However, the Guardian was already and largely way beyond the local boundaries so taking out the word “Manchester” was a completely logical decision.

For the purpose of better supplying the south parts of England, the Guardian starts to be printed in London in 1961. Shortly after, all the premises were completely moved to London, where they are today as well, although the newspapers are printed in both cities.

The icon of newspapers design

1988 has been a very important year for the Guardian: together with improving the quality of printing color, a major redesign has been done: David Hillman, the author of redesign, split the newspaper in two parts and changed the heading, logotype and fonts. Word “The” has been written in Italic Garamond, and the word “Guardian“ in Helvetica Bold. With Italic Garamond, Hillman wanted to point out modern and innovative character of the newspaper, while the reserved and strong Helvetica represented heavy and serious topics the newspaper also covers.

This new Guardian was published on February 12th 1988, and within a few days only, the newspaper received over one thousand letters from the readers, most of them containing negative comments. Despite that, this layout remained the same until today, while design itself is considered to be the key and most important redesign of newspapers in 20th century. It also marks the beginning of contemporary, successful period of the Guardian.

Although the Guardian was understood as the icon of newspapers design, this did not stop its staff to try and make even better newspaper.

In 2003, the Guardian editor returned from vacations in Italy bringing a copy of La Repubblica newspapers along and said: we have to make newspaper smaller. It ended only at conversation level back then, but after the Times and the Independent went into tabloid (tabloid format, but keeping the seriousness of large format newspapers, so called “compact”), the plans only got to be executed faster. Regardless of whether this move of the Guardian was a bit of a reaction to the Times and the Independent decisions to be printed on a smaller format, the cause was the same for all, and that is the fact that smaller format is easier to use.

Unlike the other newspapers publishers hiring outsourced designers, the Guardian decided to give the job to the in-house people. Art director Mark Porter said that this is not the matter of how good the outsourced designers are, but the fact that he himself, working in the Guardian, knows how the newspaper “breaths” and what it needs, so this is why him and his team of designers can do a better job in making appropriate design.

The Guardian's design team decided to use Berliner, the popular format of European newspapers, which keeps the proportions and character of broadsheet, while with a bit smaller dimensions. This is the middle format of newspapers, similar to the one used for French Le Monde or for local newspaper Politika. The advantage that the Guardian staff recognized in Berliner format is that it is barely wider than tabloid, so is equally easy to use in public transportation and other places, because people today have less and less time to go through the newspapers at home, over coffee and breakfast. Besides that, this format is a bit longer than in tabloids, which gives it more flexibility in design.

Printed surface of the new Guardian is 287x443 mm and the paper size is 315x460 mm. To compare, Politika has 312x460 mm dimensions, and 286x430 mm of printed surface, which is only a few millimeters less.

It is not needed to particularly point out how the newspapers format change is a drastic change for a reader, as well as how hard it is to decide to take such a risky step, but it has been taken regardless of that, because the Guardian's creative team was right anticipating that this will bring great benefit on a long term scale. This decision has been particularly hard considering that changing to a new format means complete replacement of printing machines, because the ones in place could print only broadsheet, and obviously tabloid (half of broadsheet). However, bringing in Berliner meant purchasing new machines, worth several dozens of millions of pounds.

The Guardian's Egyptian

Besides the format, the most significant change is visible in typography, which abandons traditional rules of newspapers printing used for a long time.

Most of the newspapers use the combination of different serif and sans fonts to split the news and sections: in Britain almost all newspapers base their layout on one serif and one sans-serif typeface. That was the easier way, they thought in the Guardian, but they did not manage to find anything satisfactory. Since the Guardian is always considered to be a serious and innovative newspaper, they felt it would be wrong to take a step back and use the kind of typography and proportions as used in newspapers for the past 50 years.

This is how they decided to make only one typeface family, but with a large number of variations which will provide the richness other papers achieve through combining several different fonts.

Mark Porter, the Guardian's Art director, gave a hard task to typeface designers – he looked for fonts which were supposed to be modern, but at the same time classical, traditional. The fonts which will give the Berliner a calmer but at the same time more modern layout. As he said himself, it was about time to replace often imitated combination of headers in Helvetica Bold with basic text in News Miller. Another interesting statement of his is that if everyone around you speaks loudly, the only way for you to get noticed and be heard is to speak quietly. Therefore the smaller and visually calmer headers in the new Guardian, ranging between 20-60 pt. As a contrast, the photographs became even stronger and larger.

The fonts were done by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz. Paul Barns was born in England in 1970; he worked for many companies and created the logotypes for Givenchy, ABC television and cult English bands such as New Order and Joy Division. In September 2006, the Wallpaper magazine listed him together with Schwartz within the list of 40 most influential designers younger than 40 years.

Schwartz was born in 1977. In the beginning he worked in MetaDesign in Berlin where he created the logotypes for different companies as well as fonts for Volkswagen. Later he left to America where he joined designers in Font Bureau. He also worked as a freelancer and published commercial fonts together with FontFont, Émigré, House industries and Font Bureau, the fonts for Bosch company, as well as for American magazine Esquire.

Thinking about how to embody all what Porter hoped for in one font – tradition and modern, they opted in for Egyptian, the variation of slab-serif fonts, which give the impression of serif fonts, but are actually somewhere in between serif and sans. (Slab-serifs are fonts whose serifs get closer to stems based on thickness. They emerged in 1815 and were very popular in the newspapers published in the beginning of 19th century. Over time, they transformed into sans-serif fonts, after the serifs were removed.)

The initial plan was not to make slab-serif, but elegant serif family which would be used with adjusted variation of Helvetica. As they advanced, Mark Porter was becoming less and less convinced that these two fonts will accord, so he suggested creation of a completely new sans-serif typeface. Paul then came up with an idea to make slab-serif first, and then take of its serifs – to apply the same methodology used when sans fonts were created, in order to get sans which will accord with serif font. They wanted to use Egyptian only as a connection between two fonts, and not to use it in newspaper. However, as they continued to work, they became more and more convinced that this is the typeface they need not only for the headers but also for the text itself. They found the inspiration for it in Egyptian fonts made in London foundries in the middle of 19th century, one of them being more famous Figgins and the other less known Hugh Hughes, whose Italic font influenced theirs. By using specific proportions and Cuneiform look of serif they managed to make their Egyptian to look a bit classical, but much more modern than other slab-serif fonts.

To make the typeface usable in different situations, they made a large scale of weights and variations. Due to large scale of weights, some variations needed to be drawn and adjusted again, such as Hairline or Black. Italic is very unusual, with an interesting combination of classical elegancy and firmness given to it by sans-serif look. They also made special sets of initials, in extreme weights, used without special adjustment of spaces. They made sans for basic text in a bit narrower proportions because it is designated for usage in narrow columns and similar situations.

Since a lot of attention was given to sports column in the new design, they made a special font for usage in very small sizes, 5,5 pt and smaller. It is used in tables to show sports results, as well as in info graphics, maps and similar. This is why it has large height of small letters, more expressed contrast, a bit lower placed horizontal lines on “f” and “t”, emphasized punctuation marks and is of narrow proportions. Special attention is given to fractions. Although all of this was not planned in the beginning, in the end they made over 200 fonts, including different weights and variations.

New typeface was neat and clear, strong and simple, and very importantly, not without character. It was also flexible enough for usage for almost any element on the page, starting with main headers all the way to personal ads, and according to authors, this was the greatest challenge they encountered: to make one family whose variations will address different needs.

After a few weeks of discussion, the design team decided for the basic text to be printed in 8 pt size, just as it was until that point, but with a bit of larger spacing of 9,5 pt. This ratio absorbs the words but the text remains readable.

Typeface design demands a lot of expertise and careful planning, much more than drawing the letters of interesting shapes itself. As the authors say, this is the last 10% of work, actually determining if the typeface will be good or excellent, and this is the hardest and the most important part, consuming the largest amount of time: whether diacritical marks are in the right place, whether spacing is right…Typeface designer has to decide how much space will be given to each letter individually, and consider what will happen when two letters meet. All this becomes even more important when fonts for newspapers are designed because they are used under extremely hard conditions: bad printing, paper, narrow columns, small size of letters…

Reactions to changes

On Friday, September 9th 2005, the newspaper published new cover page, and three days later, on Monday September 12th, the new Guardian was published.

Although the initial calculations estimated 3 years of work, all was done in only 18 months, and the costs of the transition to new design that the Guardian paid were incredible 80 millions of pounds. This figure includes purchasing new printing machines from Man Roland company, which enable printing in color on all pages as well as printing a photograph on two pages. Art director Porter says that he is especially delighted that he can now use the color in typography, because according to him, he did that in magazines for the purpose of better page navigation and now he can do the same in the newspaper.

New design is mostly well accepted by the readers, although there are some unpleased as always.

David Hillman, the man who himself shocked the Guardian readers in 1988 with his radical design, is one of those not too happy with the newspaper's new layout. This is understandable to one point, because his legendary design went to history. What bothers him the most is discontinuance of the old heading, a decision made only 6 weeks before redesign. Hillman says that this new white logotype on the blue background reminds him of cheap and free newspapers printed allover Europe (such as local Metro or 24 Hours). Regarding the Guardian's typeface, he finds that it is not elegant and that it cannot express the value of newspaper. Hillman seems to be forgetting that his logotype was also strongly critiqued when it first showed up. In 1988, Max Hastings, former Daily Telegraph and London Evening Standard editor-in-chief, said (on the topic of the redesign made at that time) that he is: “very sad while he watches slow death of an old friend”.

The Times also mocked the idea back at that time, saying that not a single serious newspapers designer would ever allow putting anything above the newspaper logotype, and then did exactly this only three weeks later.

This is why the people responsible for this in the Guardian believed that it takes patience, and that people will start to like the new design over time.

Hillman finds the cover page to be a great issue as well. He thinks that it is not good to have so many announcements, because when they are read, the reader does not feel the need to open the newspapers and read the whole article because he already has the resume. Also, in 1988, he banned the concept of continuing the headline from the cover page on fourth page, because he believed that if the headline is continued from first on fourth page, the reader will skip second and third page. Hillman likes something in the new Guardian after all, among other, marking different sections which is clear and striking. He also finds that the fact the Guardian made agreements with ad publishers before redesign, unlike the Times and the Independent, is very important and good for the Guardian. This brings better ad formats to the Guardian which fit in well with the new page format and thus make a more pleasant unit with the rest of text, compared to other newspapers where readers sometimes feel cheated because of the ugly and inadequate layout of the pages.

Redesign consequences

Taken in traditional point of view, there was always a clear difference between sensationalist tabloids and rational, reserved newspapers of large, so called broadsheet, format. This is why the newspapers rarely, almost never, decide to change formats. This generally demands completely different page break, new visual elements, organization of content and way of thinking. The Guardian did this so well that it gives the impression it has always been like that.

The sales very quickly increased to unbelievable 50 000 copies per day, and in 2006, the Guardian has been announced as the best designed newspaper in the world. One of the best proofs for a well done job is many imitations.

No doubt that the excellent layout of newspaper has been replaced by even better. The new redesign brought fresh blood to the old Guardian. Besides a well done job, people in the Guardian are not thinking about vacations. As they say themselves, the future is in constant changing; because he who does not change fells behind.

www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian

Theme: NEWSPAPER REDESIGN
When I say newspaper…