The Record in Stockton, California debuted its new design on May 1. Not only did The Record launch its new look, but it was printed on a new press using a new front-end system.
The last time 110-year-old newspaper in California’s San Joaquin Valley, had a new press was 49 years ago. The new TKS offset press replaces the 1956 Goss Headliner letterpress, which is the oldest letterpress for a daily newspaper west of the Mississippi.
The redesign, headed by Dr. Mario Garcia with Garcia Media Creative Director Kelly Frankeny and Record Presentation Editor, Ryan Becker, showcases a “3-Minute Record,” visual briefs, color navigation, layered information and greatly improved typography. The new design improves legibility across the newspaper—from the news sections, to stock pages to the classified advertising sections.
Garcia Media chose Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ serif Chronicle Display for headlines, decks and flags—a font specifically designed for newspapers. It is combined with their Knockout Series for utility boxes, graphics, navigation, listings and agate. Knockout is a versatile sans serif face which can be used for both text and display, with lighter faces working as small as 3-1/2 point.
Poynter Old Style Text is used as the body face, which fits more characters per line and was part of the Readability Series sponsored by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and the Font Bureau and developed by Tobias Frere-Jones. The classified section also uses Poynter Agate, part of the series, which tailored font families specifically for newspaper readability and flexibility.
The Record’s new logo, based on Chronicle Display, has been modernized and appears in a “wine” color, appropriate for a region in the northern valley where a great majority of the nation’s produce is grown, including grapes for certain California wines. The color palette is accented by a khaki- green, used in various shades for utility boxes, sidebars and informational graphics.
The cleaner, more-organized presentation updates the existing design which evolved for years, adapting to the limitations of letterpress printing. The result is a more modern paper, integrating many more pages of color. Visual briefs, or small color photographs that tell stories visually from across the world, country and region have been added as well as color navigation by section and a daily “3-Minute Record,” and A-section feature which summarizes the daily news report.