When we were conceptualizing how to “refresh” the look of the Khaleej Times‘ print edition, one thought kept coming up: how can we do more than just refresh what is already a good, clean design for the KT?
Instead, we thought, we should use this opportunity to create a print design that highlights how the design of a newspaper should serve readers who are getting so much information via mobile devices.
I am convinced that we have done the right thing, and this Monday, December 6 edition, shows that it can be done.
I would like to call attention to three centerpieces of our concept for a modern newspaper design:
- Surprise with the front page. We created a system of promo units at the top, directly under the logo, that allows the designers flexibility. Today’s front page capitalizes on a huge promo as lead story for Page One.
2. Use large images through every page, emphasizing the one characteristic of print that digital/mobile design can’t match: the large photograph or illustration.
3. Offer “destination pages” that will become essential for the readers, such as a page devoted to one topic:
4. Let good digital ideas migrate to print, such as the use of “social cards” or photo stories that borrow from the style most readers are familiar with, as with Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: image and short text:
The project team
This print design rethinking–carried out as a collaboration with my team at Garcia Media, senior art directors Paula Ripoll and Rodrigo Fino along with Khaleej Times’ talented design director, Raja Choudhury, but also with a year-long project led by editor-in-chief Vinay Kamat that aims at a total transformation for how the Khaleej Times (KT) approaches content flow in a multi-platform environment.
The type palette
- Lyon text (Family)
- Lyon Display (family)
- Stag (family)
- Bureaugrotcomp (family)
Marketing for a new product
What next for the KT?
Be on the lookout for more of the transformational elements of this project as the Khaleej Times continues to introduce them in the weeks and months ahead.
Of related interest:
Read my op ed piece announcing the launch of the new KT:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/opinion/khaleej-times-reinvents-itself-for-a-brave-new-mobile-world
Read the editor’s introduction to the new concept:
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/a-new-design-for-our-readers
An interview about this redesign with the KT’s design director, Raja Choudhury:
http://newspaperdesign.in/khaleej-times-redesigned/
Previously in TheMarioBlog about the KT’s transformation:
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TheMarioBlog post # 3336