The Hindu : Front Page : "It's all about purity and functionalism"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 14, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

"It's all about purity and functionalism"

Special Correspondent

Dr. Mario Garcia, one of the world's leading newspaper designers, and his colleague, Jan Kny, worked for many months withThe Hindu's in-house design, editorial, production, and marketing teams to come up with a new look newspaper. Here the master answers questions about the philosophy, scope, method, and intended benefits of the most comprehensive redesign in the 126-year-old history of the newspaper. He also looks at the changing role of newspapers in society and peers into the future.

Mario Garcia and his colleague Jan Kny: steering readers in the right direction as they seek more knowledge. — Photo: Vino John.

Garcia Media has designed and redesigned more than 450 newspapers round the world. Did The Hindu present a special challenge?

Mario Garcia: Not particularly, since the team was very willing to learn, to try new things, and because the newspaper's language is English, this facilitated processes for me and my team. The challenge when redesigning a classic, elegant, and traditional newspaper such as The Hindu is to make sure that one improves a good product, attracts younger readers, but does not take away all the wonderful attributes that have made this newspaper the icon it is within Indian journalism. I think we have succeeded.

`Pure Design' is your design philosophy. How has it been applied to the redesign of The Hindu?

The Hindu's new design is all about the purity and functionalism of design at work: the typography is based on two main fonts, Interstate and Chronicle, which render an elegance and clarity to the product; the colour palette mixes soft pastel colours, to go with the content of a newspaper for which credibility, sobriety, and intelligent reporting are the key. Overall, pure design implies no decorations, no artificial motifs, everything that is utilised has a purpose. Such is the design of The Hindu.

What's in it for the reader?

A quicker trip through his or her newspaper journey and, this is very important, a more clear hierarchy of what story is more important than the next, better display of visuals, and an overall more attractive look that should make The Hindu easy not only on the soul and the brain, but also on the eyes.

How does the advertiser benefit?

A regulated editorial colour palette, the systematic use of white space, and a typography limited to two fonts will allow for the variety of advertising shades, types, and colours to become more visually exciting. Also the innovative use of silent ads and other creative utilisations of publicity will help get the advertiser's message across.

How important is it for the designer to tune in to the historical, cultural, and visual context, in our case of a 126-year-old newspaper circulated largely in the south of India?

It is important as a visual springboard, a point of reference, but the modern necessities of readers require that one keeps the historical in perspective, not necessarily on display. We do not read newspapers today the way we did 50 years ago, and we now come to a newspaper with less time, and to reaffirm what we know, not so much to discover new stories. Yet we want help from the newspaper in understanding these same stories that we are reaffirming: the why of the story rules over the what; we want analysis; we want help to survive at home, at work, in the city.

And, ironically, although we are the best-informed group of readers in the history of printed journalism, we crave for editors to steer us in the right direction as we seek more knowledge.

Not an easy task. It is a challenge to edit a newspaper in 2005: readers who know too much, a technology that trains them to think and to read fast, an overabundance of information that requires a `traffic cop' for all this knowledge to be properly channelled. Tall order, for sure.

How often should a newspaper undergo a design change?

As often as those who produce it think that a change is necessary. The good newspapers are in a constant state of evolutionary change. Little changes. A detail here, a type style there, the way one does a byline or a caption. It is a constant process.

What is the difference between re-designing a newspaper and designing a new one?

Thanks for asking: in creating a new newspaper, one does not have the photo of the patriarch and matriarch hanging over the editor's desk! No grandmothers or grandpas to pay tributes to. The window to the future is wide open, large, with blue skies extending all the way. When one redesigns, grandpa is watching, blinking, saying "Oh, my God, we would have never done that!" and grandma is saying "Have these kids lost their heads? Colour?" But there are rewards in both. Please, if the average 126-year-old citizen of Chennai could be remade like The Hindu is remade today, wouldn't that be wonderful? What centenarian would not rush to the plastic surgeon to be totally remade into a young, vital, good looking, savvy new person? And, yes, with the experience that only a 126-year-old can have. I would be a candidate if I live that long, for sure.

Broadsheets, tabloids, and sizes in between — what is the way of the future as you visualise it?The way of the future: smaller. Everything except airliners gets smaller. The future belongs to smaller newspapers, easier to carry, more compact.

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