New Type in New York Times Mag
The New York Times Magazine unveiled a redesign today. Aside from the magazine being "9 percent smaller -- a little off the top, a little off the sides" (as the editor wrote in his letter that doesn't seem to be online), there is a brand new type palette at work. "This week we are introducing a new typeface, Lyon Text, that was designed by Kai Bernau and Christian Schwartz and will be used exclusively by the magazine. It is more condensed than our previous typeface -- with the result that the words-per-page tally has hardly been affected. Perhaps if we hadn't mentioned it, you would hardly know the difference.... We are introducing new display-type faces -- Knockout (by the studio Hoefler & Frere-Jones) and Nyte (by the Portuguese designer Dino dos Santos) ..."
These three are joined by Stymie and Process Type's Sunday from the previous design.
Scans below. Check out the link to Lyon Text above for more information and samples.
Page with Knockout, Nyte, Lyon Text, and Sunday
Nyte by Dino dos Santos
Lyon Text by Kai Bernau and Christian Schwartz
14.Jun.2009 9.34am
What was the stated objective of the redesign?
14.Jun.2009 10.44am
"What you are sure to have noticed is our new design. When we were told last winter that our dimensions were being downsized, we took a cue from Rahm Emanuel -- we muttered lots of words we aren't allowed to print, then saw how our 'crisis' might present an opportunity: a redesign. The magazine's look had not changed much during this decade, and for at least one good reason: We have annually won a raft of design awards, including the 2007 magazine-of-the-year-award from the Society of Publication Designers. But every object can use a bit of refurbishing now and then, and that is what our art director, Arem Duplessis, and his staff have done -- they've given the magazine a cleaner, more modern feel without changing who we are and what we do."
14.Jun.2009 3.48pm
"A more modern feel"? It still looks like design from the eighties to me.