A new reason to read: After drifting in design limbo for nearly a decade, the voice of Libertarianism updates its look to become more relevant in today's political arena

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb, 2002 by Robert Priest

COVER DESIGN

The cover and logo have been reworked to emphasize understatement. A lowercase "reason" and numeric date of equal size immediately establish a modern attitude. An image from the movie version of 1984 has Big Brother staring menacingly at the reader, but is saved from coldness and inaccessibility by the clever use of the brown background color. The result is an experience of thoughtfulness and quiet authority. Previous covers had none of these literary qualities, giving no hint as to what kind of magazine was inside.

ACCESSIBILITY

The table of contents, presented on a strict grid with the overall section names and page numbers appearing against white, is easy to follow--and, thankfully, has eliminated the use of gratuitous, randomly cropped illustrations borrowed from the feature well.

TYPOGRAPHY/GRAPHICS

The front of the book begins in leisurely fashion with the "Letters to the Editor" pages using widely leaded lines of type in generous white space. Suddenly, in startling contrast, the type size is dramatically reduced, while the number of columns is increased to four for the "Citings" section. The move creates a tension and pacing change that I would have liked to have to seen more of--the ensuing pages have a tendency toward grayness. As a result, the feature pages are visually uneven.

The cover story opens beautifully. But after this memorable start, the design becomes less compelling. The quirky use of changing column widths is used to no real benefit. At first it's fun: The cover story offers different widths and unusually large outer margins for each of its spreads. The next feature has every third column reduced in width, and wide margins on only the right-hand page of the spread. I would have preferred some other typographic devices to help give these follow-up pages more potency.

Still, the disappearance of bold subheads and drop caps is welcome and helps create a more streamlined look.

COMMENTS

With the addition of color, increased readability and the subtraction of the cartoon as filler, the magazine is much more relevant in today's political climate. Reason's design is now an important part of the way you perceive the issues and ideas expressed within its pages--and to that end, it is very successful.