Redesign of Le Monde Diplomatique
Student project, Gjøvik University College, April–May 2013
The brief was to redesign a freely chose newspaper. I chose to the norwegian edition (in reality it is really the nordic version) of the international paper Le Monde Diplomatique. I chose this because of their content which is far more cosmopolitic than any other norwegian paper, which I thought made it more interesting to redesign than other day-to-day tabloid papers.
In this redesign I have been working on giving it a more magazine like feel. In my opinion the design they have today struggles to communicate the cosmopolitic topics of their reports in a good way. Since this paper only comes out once every month I focused on giving it a more magazine like feel by giving it a more thoughtful typography, structure and hierarchy, and a flexible grid, with 13 columns, which you can play with so the spreads can be more unique without loosing the feel of the design. I think this paper should be the one you take with you and pick up wherever you go since the stories tend to have a longer lifespan than day-to-day papers.
My redesign focused around a series of articles printed in the April issue about Venezuela after Hugo Chávez' death i March 2013.
Front page contains a big picture from the issues most important case. Additional articles are referenced in the top of the page with som basic facts about the issue.
First spread, page 2–3, contains a colophon to the left and a text from the editor on page 2. Page 3 is a meant for a one page article. In this case it is about the same theme, the euro crisis, as the editors text on the left page.
Most of page 2.
Close up of the bottom of page 2.
Close up of page 3.
Page 4–5 is a example on how a group of articles on the same theme can start with big picture and a little introtext to guide the reader into the upcoming articles on the next pages.
Page 6–7 contains the start of the first article about the situation in Venezuela after Chavez' death.
Page 6 starts the article with a title, byline and a intro.
Page 7 starts the article with a lead-in and justified text.
Article from previous spread continues to page 8. Another article on the same theme starts on page 9.
Detail from page 8 of a quote and some short facts concering the two most important persons in the article.
Close up of the article on page 9 including a picture byline and a quote.
Page 10–11, the last spread in this project. Article on page 10 ends with one column on page 11. Page 11 contains a chronicle.
Close up from page 10 with an example on how a fact box of 4 columns can look in this layout.
Page 11 has an example of how to use the flexibility in the grid when the picture uses an empty 1/3 column and bleeds off the page.
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