mario garcia
Case Study | Real
Simple
The Challenge: Real Simple is not your typical style magazine. The design needs to mirror the specific editorial philosophy of pure, elemental style. With his design, Robert Newman created a beacon of light and clarity in the midst of a world of clutter. It wasn’t sensible to design a complicated, overly decorated page that describes how to unclutter a closet and thus one’s life. Designers took cues from the title and the editorial. Specifically, Real Simple advances its design philosophy through three major areas: color use, white space, and how words and images blend in the story telling process.
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pure design
What we did: The contents page typifies the approach at Real Simple. Newman describes the design: “Most contents pages serve as little more than reference tools for the editors who put out the publications. To us, the pages give the reader a sense of the magazine’s interior design and mission over and above the information and data they deliver. And they aren’t ‘work’ to look at.”
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mario garcia
What we did: Unique to Real Simple is an overall color palette, in both type and photographs, for each issue. Sometimes it’s very prominent and other times it’s subtle, and often it’s related to seasonality. For example, in an issue with a lot of photographs of blue sky and water, the designers opted for blue type and blue accents. The philosophy is to let the images and/or the content themes dictate color.
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pure design
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