TAKEAWAY: These projects will forever stay in my mind as trendsetters—or at least memorable instances of what can happen when a project leave a mark.
From time to time, someone conducting an interview digs deep and asks the question that nobody else has asked.
Usually, someone will ask: what was your most challenging project?
But this time, while spending a few days in Barcelona, at La Vanguardia, a journalist approached me and asked me to tell him my 10 most interesting projects.
That’s a tough question. In some strange manner, EACH of the more than 680 by now, has been interesting. Newspapers, magazines, websites, they are always unique. No project is similar to the next. However, this journalist would not settle for that.
So, I was forced to think in terms of specifics. Something like this:
Testing the limit
Image from News Research Journal shows before and after pages for St. Cloud Daily Times
Definitely one of my first projects ever, The St. Cloud Daily Times, in Minnesota: picture a regional newspaper that has the courage to change its nameplate, its brand and logo. It was not easy to convince the powers above to do this, but, eventually, common sense won, a new nameplate appeared,and there was no earthquake reaction from the audience. Valuable lessons learned.
In my case, it was the earliest lesson for one of my mantras: what almost kills the editor does not give the reader the common cold! Ha!
For more details: https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/40_years_40_lessons_6eagke
The text driven newspaper
Definitely The Philadelphia Inquirer: it was here that the editor went to great pains, my first day in residence, to tell me that the Inquirer was all about its writing, the stories, the Pulitzer Prizes on the wall. I learned here that story structures was a good place to start the design of a newspaper. I still do it to this day. Thanks so much, Editor Max King, for showing me the way.
A date to remember
Here is the front page of El Mercurio, 9-11-2001, first day of the new design (courtesy of El Mercurio, thanks to Marco Gatica, design director)
So, it was El Mercurio, of Chile, which had not been a very easy project to maneuver around for a dozen reasons that we do not need to discuss here. In the end, we went from very exciting and futuristic prototypes to basically a change that was nothing more than a face wash. But then, launch day was September 12, 2001, and we all know too well happened on September 11. So, a first day of a new look for El Mercurio, turned into one of the darkest days we remember. Definitely, the most memorable launch of a project for me ever.
The new and uninhibted
And how can one ever forget those projects that represent a new start: the newspaper that is born, created from scratch, as in Singapore’s The New Paper and Brazil’s Diario Catarinense. Anything goes. There is no legacy. No pictures of grandpas and grandmas in the executive seat, with a finger pointing and you as if saying: make sure you don’t rock the boat, respect the DNA and don’t travel too far from shore. Being there done that hundreds of time.
Painting the Sistine Chapel
The Wall Street Journal in its various incarnations, and Germany’s Die Zeit, come to mind. A ghost appears from behind a curtain and admonishes you: Kid, put on your white gloves. Watch what you do here. We are a classic. We are the real thing, from way back. Get inspired but do your thing, but respect us in the morning, and every morning after that. Projects that test your soul. But, they also represent, one’s proudest moment.
For more:
(Die Zeit) https://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/how_we_did_it_pure_design_case_study_of_die_zeit
The total reinvention
So far, hands down: Colombia’s El Tiempo, which truly reinvented itself, abandoned pretensions (and sections) and went for the goal. One of my favorites of all time. The ultimate case study for what happens when change and innovation truly takes over.
The little train that could
Definitely, The Lawrence Journal-World of Lawrence, Kansas: that a small, local newspaper could be so inventive. Still is. I absolutely enjoyed my time with the youthful team of the Journal-World. It is still the one regional newspaper that I send people from around the globe to observe: savvy, aiming for a young audience, as in the University of Kansas student body, and constantly striving to keep up with the technology and the readership trends. One project that makes me extremely proud.
Against the odds
The front page of Sunday’s La Gaceta: celebrating 100 years
Nobody can take the Against the Odds trophy from Argentina’s La Gaceta, of Tucuman. A regional daily published in the northern section of the country, in a sugar-producing region, La Gaceta was ugly and desperate. It turned into a beauty, with substance, an art department, an art director and in its heyday, one of the most design award winning titles anywhere. I learned much here: one could transform a newsroom, one could bring visual journalism to a newsroom that had no idea the term even existed. Design director Sergio Fernandez keeps it going, perhaps against the odds. For me, one memorable project in more ways than one.
No list is ever complete. I hope the journalist who asked got what he wanted. For me, it was fun to reminisce. The projects going thru the pipeline in 2014 can be even more exciting. But those are for another day and another time. To be continued.