Macworld

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct, 2000

PANELISTS: Michael Grossman, creative director, World Publications, and an editorial/design consultant. Maryjane Fahey, principle of Maryjane Fahey Design.

Grossman

COVER DESIGN

The attitude-heavy concept cover is appealing, but it will be a challenge to equal month after month. The logo has been "unrefined"--it's a little coarser and brasher looking. Rooflines are small but prominently placed; use of recurring section titles smartly telegraphs interior structure.

TYPOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS

The text type/leading combo is about the largest ever seen in a magazine not aimed at the very young or old. This means a sense that there is much less stuff. Side tabs are cute, but too intermittent to be truly effective. Most individual page designs deserve good grades, but the cover feature looks strangely advertorial.

ACCESSIBILITY

Interoperability with the companion Web site is the conceit here. The big type certainly leaves you feeling the content must be somewhere else, which may drive readers to the Web--or to another information source altogether.

COMMENTS

It's laudable to see a redesign step outside the box. A lot about this design is fresh, much of it perversely so (e.g., text type larger than secondary coverlines). But though it's deteriorated lately, over the years Macworld has been very well designed, and while the new design does a lot to simplify, organize and incorporate the Web, the result is a magazine that seems to deliver less.

Fahey

COVER DESIGN

The new Macworld cover is much more crisp and modern. Tweaking the logo is a vast improvement. It retains its identity, but the updating of its characters gives it a more approachable look. The combination of the new, crisp and clean white background and no-nonsense black logo is a winner.

TYPOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS

It's a major disconnect to move from the strong bold cover to the candy palette of the TOC. These color choices belie the smartness of the design. They should have trashed the old palette and gone for strong all the way. Cutesy details used throughout the redesign should have been dropped. These details are not consistent with the new, more successful essay pages.

ACCESSIBILITY

This is where I think they have improved the magazine a great deal. The new grid to front of book differentiates itself from features and first-person essays. The feature well makes a strong opening statement. The step-by-steps throughout the how-to section now are consistent and easy to use. The reviews section is much smarter and makes more sense in the back of the book.

COMMENTS

The basic bone structure of the redesign is good, but the art choice, color palette and "fussiness" in details all detract. I'd have liked to see ideas developed further, like the use of very small type and images used on the cover. They should push the design's potential power and focus on its modern edge--keeping it approachable, but dumping any hint of "pretty" for pretty's sake.