National Geographic Does National Geographic’s success across a range of different platforms in the digital age offer any lessons to other magazines? Only this perhaps: if the content of the magazine is strong enough (and National Geographic’s 125 years at the forefront of advances in photography, journalism, exploration and archaeology means it most certainly is) readers will pay for the privilege of accessing it. That might be as worrying to some as it is reassuring to others, but the yellow-framed bible of the natural world has earned its right to flourish.
Design is a vessel for content. If the content isn’t up to scratch then the vessel, however smart, won’t be worth a damn. So National Geographic is a Champion of Design on two counts: as a brilliantly bold and effective piece of branding; and because it has always made content king. When I am trying to show clients the power of branding to affect perception, I show them a picture of a penguin. ‘It’s just a photo of a penguin. Right?’ Then I add a yellow frame, ‘Ah, it’s a National Geographic photo of a penguin.’ The image immediately grows in stature. The real merit of National Geographic’s brilliant identity isn’t the warm yellow border, however, but what it frames: decades of pioneering photography, carefully selected and presented. The covers are a window onto the world; inspiring, eye-opening, illuminating. Even when you see the mark as a logo with nothing inside 140
the box, it conjures up all the fantastic images that have been shared with us. Beyond judging the book by its cover, the inside of the magazine has long been an elegant and considered design exercise, supporting the material in an un-showy and non-trendy way. Thus, the magazine ages well and can be revisited years after publication. As the brand moves into apps, merchandise and suchlike, it shows an elasticity that is only possible, in essence, because it has kept things simple – both in branding and in never allowing design to get in the way of content. SA