The Creative Review blog has a piece on the design and custom type work by design studio Non-Format for the new French magazine, Very Elle. This latest work is notable for the lavish custom type created specifically for the magazine to give it a voice.
In the comments, I iterated that while Non-Format created a wonderful typeface for the magazine, the rest of the layout is uninteresting, rather plain and sadly, lacks any distinctive voice other than the headline. “Put your thumb over the titles and it looks like it could be any magazine.”
The other point I made was that trying to execute issue after issue of a monochrome magazine with a custom typeface is extremely difficult. Very design-oriented magazines like Wallpaper or Monocle can pull it off (due to Tyler Brûlé strong minimalist sense no less) but a mainstream, bang-it-out magazine like Elle? Without a strong workhorse typeface, it’s tough to make the type treatments look fresh with each editorial and issue. Custom type like this is too distinctive to reuse over and over. Pretty soon it starts feeling like driving down the highway with the same neon-lit gaudy RV Rentals billboard spaced out every 5 miles.
Moral of the story? If you’re going to do monochrome, all the elements from the layout and photography to the writing and design teams have to be on board because it has to be cohesive or the entire effort feels disjointed. Black & white photography may be forgiving but black & white design takes no prisoners.
(via thisisnthappiness)
Source: thisisnthappiness
