The Other New BusinessWeek
October 15th, 2007BusinessWeek, Design
The BusinessWeek redesigns just keep on coming—but this time around it’s our print colleagues taking the wraps off a shiny new package. Magazine creative director Andrew Horton and the folks at Modernista! have been hard at work retooling “the book” from top to bottom, and the finished product hit newsstands Friday. Go check it out. You could say I’m a little biased, but I think it’s been a long time since a business magazine looked this good. Clean layouts, distinctive typography, and a new no-nonsense minimalist logo.
News Types
My current office obsession is poring over the new typography. For purely selfish reasons of course—I can finally start using these new faces online! And there’s plenty worth digging into here.
First up is Berthold’s Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica’s direct ancestor. (Indeed, while Helvetica was celebrating its 50th birthday this year, Akzidenz was gearing up for its 110th.) BusinessWeek’s cut includes the great condensed version that the new logo is set in. It’s a genuine retooling, not some clumsy squashed knockoff of the regular face.
Three flavors of Akzidenz Grotesk: Regular, bold, and condensed bold—as seen in the new BusinessWeek logo. Love that open capital Q.
For body copy there’s Cyrus Highsmith’s Quiosco, a typeface constructed specifically for newsprint legibility. Which it achieves, with personality, thanks to quirky inner and outer letter shapes. It also has what I consider to be a must for large swathes of newsprint copy: a full set of titling and text figures (aka, “old style” numbers).
Quiosco by Cyrus Highsmith. Quiosco comes in four weights (named One, Two, Three, and Four, appropriately enough) for different printing conditions. Quiosco One pictured here.
Type wonks may recognize Quiosco from the 2007 Type Directors Club Competition. Unlike Akzidenz, this font is barely into its second year of existence. A newborn paired with an 1890s Realist old-timer. Historical juxtaposition makes my inner typophile smile.
Kissin’ Cousins
The only real change for the website involved—naturally—swapping in the new logo and tweaking the navigation. I was never really happy with the old “grey box” highlighting, and always saw it as something we’d eventually revisit and refine. Fortunately, the new magazine made this a cakewalk by setting up a strong graphic language to work with.
The BusinessWeek.com navigation before (left) and after the recent update.
The resulting navigation is cleaner and clearer by far. (So much so that some folks think we redesigned the site again!)
With time I’m sure we’ll be making more style nods to each other, where appropriate. The idea is that the magazine and the website do what makes sense for their respective mediums, but remain squarely synced with the overall BusinessWeek brand. Cueing off of, but not slavishly imitating, each other.
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Comments
zeldman October 15th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Thanks for the type breakdown. I love Akzidenz Grotesk Condensed Bold. It never looks tired. The new logo (and nav) are looking great on the site.
David Sleight October 15th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Thanks! I was pretty delighted when I saw it being used during an early preview of the design. It’s one of those typefaces that manages to look clean both in print and on screen, so I was really looking forward to rolling it out on the site.
francesco October 16th, 2007 at 2:07 am
New type looks great! I’m looking forward to it me too.
Liz Danzico October 16th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
It really does look like a redesign of the site. Also: I think I love Quiosco.
Business Week Redesign at //nedward.org October 16th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
[...] UPDATE: David Sleight takes a look at the typography behind the redesign. [...]
David Sleight October 16th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
@Liz: Yeah, I get a kick out of how much the cleaned up logo and nav have lifted the overall design of the site. And Quiosco is indeed a dreamboat!
Brendon Cromwell October 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I think the new site and print look great.
Now I think the WSJ.com site needs to be updated.
Links for 10/17/07 :: flickerbulb October 17th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
[...] Stuntbox - The Other New BusinessWeek [...]
j w dunn » BusinessWeek’s Facelift October 17th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
[...] I ran into an interesting piece about type in BusinessWeek’s recent redesign. [...]
Business Week Resdesign | NerdStarGamer October 17th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
[...] I read about Business Week’s redesign yesterday in Brand New, but didn’t get around to actually posting anything about it. Today I’ve stumbled across it again on Stuntbox and I have to say that I really like the new look. The new logo by itself is kind of boring, but paired with the rest of the redesign, it’s great. [...]
Andrew Boardman October 17th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Lovely redesign. I’m looking forward to seeing the print edition in my inky hands.
Patrick Wang October 18th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Terrific redesign — great job on applying M!’s update to the BW.com.
Would you be able to comment on the decision to drop the blue underline bar? While the logo is visually stronger, it loses distinction from The Economist identity. The website design is unique from Economist.com but in light of Economist’s white text, red bar advertising campaign, the overall BW identity is too similar to your biggest competitor.
David Sleight October 18th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
@Patrick: Thanks very much. Regarding any similarity the The Economist, both logos are really wordmarks—they live and they die by typography. And in that regard I think they’re about as diametrically opposed as brands can be.
David Brassard October 20th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Count me as one who immensely hates the new “design”.I had to fight with me “eye” to read the new format.I sent a nastygram to the editor-in-chief and cancelled my subscription.
David Sleight October 20th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
@David: What in particular are you fighting with? Typography? Layout? Colors? Some interaction of all three? Can you site a specific page that you find particularly difficult to deal with? While sending a “nastygram” might make you feel better for a moment, it isn’t constructive because it doesn’t tell us anything beyond simple distaste.
Matt Alland November 1st, 2007 at 9:21 am
I think it’s overall a better logo, Looks less cluttered - however the original design had a timeless quality to it - the new one has a contemporary feel - however the magazine seems more contemporary, not an old school business magazine - so it makes sense to update the logo accordingly. Feels cleaner yes.
Joe February 24th, 2008 at 3:09 am
The new format sucks. I’ve been subscribing to businessweek for 10 years now. I always loved the magazine for its straightforward content and analysis. I can’t put my finger on what it is - did businessweek coincidentally shift their content focus with this design? Or does the new design limit the content? Either way I do not like the new mag and am now a reader of its website.
David Sleight February 25th, 2008 at 9:56 am
@Joe: No, I can’t say that there was any substantive shift in the actual content that I’m aware of. Sections of the magazine were physically reorganized to make better navigational sense. For example, columnists are now grouped together instead if being split to the front and back of the book.
John Svid February 25th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Wow great site! Some really helpful information there.
I’m sorry for little off-topic, but I want to ask you about design of this site.
Did you make this template yourself or got from any templates website?
Looks pretty cool for me. Wonderful well this reading.
David Sleight February 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
@John: Thanks much. Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, the template for this site is 100% my own blood, sweat and tears—we aim to please!
KarEncarp July 2nd, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Thanks authors for the specified materials, a lot of the compelling advice. All good.
ChoowsCip September 1st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
wow :)
its very unconventional point of view.
Good post.
realy good post
thx :-)
Business Week Redesign at //nedward.org September 15th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
[...] David Sleight takes a look at the typography behind the redesign. ¶ October 16, 2007 in design and media [...]
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