National Geographic Re-Design Case Study

National Geographic :The Importance of Editorial Design

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ew magazines in the world are as revered as National Geographic. For 130 years its breathtaking photography and groundbreaking narratives have helped readers discover the world through its pages. While the brand has evolved with a changing industry—building a thriving television network, books, and kids divisions, travel business, and social media audience (over 100 million Instagram followers and counting)— the magazine itself hadn’t undergone a significant redesign for two decades.

In the fall of 2017, Godfrey Dadich Partners took on the task of re–imagining this iconic publication with a design that would embolden every page of the magazine.

The firm first worked with key members of National Geographic’s staff to identify the core values that should define the publication: arresting, pioneering, illuminating. This would direct a complete makeover, from the magazine’s nameplate to its typefaces to its grid struc-

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ture, and those values needed to drive every editorial and art decision. Two things quickly became apparent.

The first was that the notion of exploration—the soul of the publication—has evolved. Today the magazine charts the frontiers of ideas and culture just as often as it ventures out to the furthest reaches of our planet (or beyond). The second was that while many of these new idea–driven topics are conceptual in nature, the magazine’s power lies in its captivating visuals.

Godfrey Dadich’s editorial and design teams collaborated with Susan Goldberg, National Geographic’s editor in chief, and Emmet Smith, the publication’s creative director, to bridge these two demands.

The editorial team created new story–forms and structures to tackle big, bold ideas with a provocative voice. GDP divided the front–of–the–book into three new sections: Proof tells a visual story. Embark explores breakthroughs with a point of view that is uncompromising in its defense of science, the facts, and the planet.

Explore illuminates the mysteries and wonders all around us. In addition, the team introduced new forms in the feature well to provide editors with dynamic ways to tell stories of varying shapes and sizes, and re–imagined the back page to celebrate photographic contributions from National Geographic’s devoted readers. Given the outsized role that photography has always played in the magazine, the design team conceived systems to make

the images and visual storytelling even more arresting throughout the magazine. To refresh the nameplate, the team recruited Tal Leming of Type Supply to make the logotype more confident, while giving some nods to the past (it hadn’t had a significant overhaul since 1959).The result is a new mark that is exquisitely subtle. In addition, GDP worked with Leming to develop two first– of–their–kind typefaces for the magazine: Earle is an Egyptian typeface named for legendary marine biologist Sylvia Earle; Marden is a sans serif named after reporter and photographer Luis Marden. The re–imagination of National Geographic debuted in the May 2018 issue and was introduced with a one–minute promotional video directed and produced by Godfrey Dadich.The redesign retains the core of the magazine’s identity while pushing the idea of exploration in its pages and in readers’ minds.

The modern world is still full of mystery and wonder, and we were proud and deeply honored to help ensure National Geographic still leads the charge toward understanding it all.

It is important to take a closer look at the moving parts of a magazine, and appreciate the immense attention to detail that editorial design covers. Magazines, although taking a more digital format as of current, are designed with the reader in mind in every decision. The audience effects the initial layout of the publication, as well as how the overall look of the magazine is decided.

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n a publication, the first thing that has to be established is the brand message, or the identity, expression and feel of the publication. This is best explained as the editor and designer working together to construct a strong bridge across which the client– the publisher (or self–publisher)– can deliver the brand and its values to the customer–the reader. The graphic design elements of a brand will consist of logos, color palletes, typefaces, photography and illustration.

These elements come together to form the visual identity that represents a particular brand.

With each issue, the visual identity must be reviewed so that it is kept fresh and vibrant, retaining the values and identity of the core brand without simply adopting a formulaic approach. It is not sufficient to copy the same look across to different outputs. Each extension of the identity must be relevant to the format.

The key to doing this successfully is the ability to keep a recognizable style to the publication, while making each issue sufficiently different from the last one that it is instantly recognized by the reader or the potential reader

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A publication’s logo– the graphical representation of its title– is the first and often the most important element of its cover. While the publication’s title may be as important as the way it looks, for the majority of designers this is something that will already have been decided. A logo is intended to capture and impart the publication’s character, subject, stance and attitude to its intended readership, often in a subliminal way, and, while its primary function is to appear on the cover of the publication, it also needs to work on all of the brand’s representation. A logo is a publication’s calling card and should therefore be visible. Publisher’s are not happy with the logo of their title being obscured (by a photo or an illustration), but there have been many examples of a title being covered or partially covered and still selling very well; the trick is to show just enough of the title to make it instantly recognizable.

National Geographic, when looking a publication’s character and voice, is very recognizable. The yellow border around the edge of the magazine, paired with the typographically strong logo, combines to make a immediately identifiable branding system. The logo, which hadn’t undergone a major redesign since 1959, needed to have a more confident voice that wouldn’t compete with the photography of the cover for the redesign. When the logo was created in 1959, it was utilized strictly as black logotype on a white background.

Photography slowly became incorporated into the covers, and began to compete with the logo. In an effort to reduce this competition, Tal Leming, the designer of the new nameplate, planned on reducing serifs and contrast, overall making it less delicate.

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Re–Distribution of X–Axis

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Reduction of the sharpness of vertices 17

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Revisions to the logo made subtle nods to the rich typeface history of the magazine.

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he whole purpose of the re–design was to establish a new system to showcase the visual storytelling that makes National Geographic distinguishable. More focus was to be put on the photography and visual elements of the publication, starting with the cover, the basis in which new readers would be drawn in. The first and most important part of any publication on which to stamp the brand and its values is the cover. This is the part of the printed magazine that will work timelessly for the publisher, both on the news–stand, where it must get its feel across and stand out from the competition and where, after purchase, it will continue to sell the brand valued on a more intimate scale to both the owner and other readers. The cover of any publication has an enormous task– it must be many things to many people. The publisher has to believe it will deliver sales. It has to be striking and stand out from the crowd, drawing the reader to it rather than to its competitors. It has to appeal to potential new readers

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without alienating existing readers. It has to express the publication’s character as well as its content, and entice potential readers to look inside. The whole purpose of the re–design was to establish a new system to showcase the visual storytelling that makes National Geographic distinguishable. More focus was to be put on the photography and visual elements of the publication, starting with the cover, the basis in which new readers would be drawn in. The first and most important part of any publication on which to stamp the brand and its values is the cover. This is the part of the printed magazine that will work timelessly for the publisher, both on the news–stand, where it must get its feel across and stand out from the competition and where, after purchase, it will continue to sell the brand valued on a more intimate scale to both the owner and other readers. The cover of any publication has an enormous task– it must be many things to many people. The publisher has to believe it will deliver sales. It has to be striking and stand out from the crowd, drawing the reader to it rather than to its competitors. It has to appeal to potential new readers without alienating existing readers. It has to express the publication’s character as well as its content, and entice potential readers to look inside.

The history of National Geographic covers starts with a simple, almost catalog style aesthetic. No photos were involved, and black type was set on a cream or maroon

cover. This eventually evolved into a more illustrated profile, with the now famous yellow border appearing with a floral border laid inside. The floral, oak leaf border started to morph into the background around the late 60s, and then disappeared completely by 1979. The yellow border continues to appear on the covers, establishing a trademark for the magazine and lets its’ readers immediately identify new issues. With the redesign, a couple of different options were explored as to how the typography of the main features was to be displayed, and how the photography and titles would interact. Smaller typography would be included in subscriber’s issues, while single purchase issues would offer a bolder, more graphic cover.

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Original Cover

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Introduction of Floral Border

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Interjection of Border with Image

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Smaller Floral Border

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Full Yellow Border

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Interaction with Logo

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Interaction with Logo and Border

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New Cover of Redesign

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typography

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he new typefaces that were created for the redesign had to have lots of personality, and had to match the typographic styles that had accompanied the publication since its start.

Earle and Marden, the two new typefaces, were based on the serif typefaces used in the 1800s, as well as the headline styles from the 1970s. These two headline styles, a condensed slab serif an a sans-serif, needed updating for the new look of the publication, but had to maintain the sensibilities of the inspiration.

With the redesign, the typography had to have a rich texture, and accentuate the white spaces that National Geographic planned to implement.Tal Leming, the type designer, explains his process for desiging the new typefaces: “I’ve been working on projects in Scott Dadich’s orbit for the last several years. I did a lot of stuff for Wired while he was Editor-In-Chief, notably a pretty weird typeface and some pretty headlines. When Scott an-

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nounced that he was departing Wired I felt a little glum that I hadn’t been able to work on more things with him.

Then, I got an email saying, “This is a big secret: Scott is starting a company. Can you help us with the logo… tonight?” I did and a couple of days later Godfrey Dadich Partners was unveiled to the world. Since then I’ve done a fair bit of work for them and I’ve gotten more than a few emails with notes like, “We’re doing this thing with this amazing person and we’re wondering if you’d want to work on it with us.” Getting an email from them without “Re:” in the subject line is like getting a surprise present. One afternoon, I got one of these from Allie Fisher, a creative director at GDP, and it said, “We’re doing something with National Geographic. Can we give you a call?” A couple of things: 1. National Geographic!?

It’s one of humanity’s great endeavors! 2. No one ever gives me a call, 99.9% of my communication is done via email, I think I had only ever talked on the phone to the folks at GDP twice. So, after processing this for 0.06 seconds, I responded, “I’m at my desk.”

My phone rang and it was Allie and Scott. So, they were doing a major rethink of National Geographic Magazine in collaboration with Susan Goldberg, Editor-In-Chief, Emmet Smith, Creative Director, and the rest of the team at the magazine. This was going to involve reorganization of the magazine’s contents, a completely new design and more. All of this was in prepara-

tion of the magazine’s 130th anniversary. It was going to be a very big, very high-profile project and everything needed to be perfect. They wanted a typographic palette with lots of personality. Would I be interested in working on some typefaces and giving the nameplate some thought? “Yes.” With that, we were off.

GDP had done a ton of research and had compiled a portfolio of significant typographic styles from the previous 130 years that showed an incredibly rich typographic history. They wanted to build the new typographic palette on this research. In particular, they were interested in the beautiful serif typefaces used in the 1800s and the quirky headline styles deployed in the 1970s. They wanted me to focus on two of these headline styles. One was a condensed slab serif (Niebiolo’s Egizio Condensed, set in mixed case with very tight letterspacing) and the other was an idiosyncratic sans serif (Photo-Lettering Inc.’s Fiedler Monogothic Condensed #6, set in mixed case).They wanted me to consider these as starting points for new typefaces with more modern sensibilities. These were to be used with two faces designed by Kris Sowersby of Klim: Grosvenor (a variation of Tiempos Text) and Geograph, a new geometric sans serif.

Shortly after we talked, they showed me early sketches of their ideas for the magazine redesign. I was blown away.The basic building blocks of visual communication

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had been stripped to their essence and combined in stark ways to create something thoroughly modern. The page geometry had a beautiful simplicity.The typography was richly textured. The photography was given the white glove treatment.The hierarchy of elements was clear and unambiguous. Even though these were just sketches, I could see the potential and I was excited to be able to contribute to making a couple of the parts even better.

These sketches used an off-the-shelf digital version of Egizio Condensed and a very condensed sans serif as stand-ins for the typefaces I was tasked with creating.

This showed me exactly what my typefaces would need to do: grab attention, create blocks of texture, convey bursts of information, highlight information details, and act as graphical elements The sketches also showed me the exact environments in which my typefaces would be used: black on a white or lightly tinted, neutral background; white, knocked out of a quiet area of a photograph; black, running over a quiet area of a photograph.

The slab serif was to get the most use, so I started with that. The use of an existing version of Egizio Condensed in the layout sketches allowed me to do a deep analysis what was and wasn’t working with the slab serif. Egizio is one of my all time favorite typefaces. The regular width is amazing, the italic is a masterpiece and the condensed, while quite quirky, can be very lovely in

the right environments. However, in these ultra-precise layouts it just wasn’t right. In headlines the spacing was too loose, the shapes were too open, the short x-height required too much line-spacing and the not-light-butnot-bold weight was not right. In paragraph blocks the proportions were too varied, the width was slightly too narrow and the contrast impaired readability. In gigantic initial caps, the shapes lacked a certain… something.

Plus, there was only one weight. The general feel was good, but Egizio Condensed wasn’t exactly what the layouts needed.

I began by drawing something from scratch that was in the same general aesthetic realm as Egizio Condensed, but addressed the problems I had noted. (Side note: Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to just modify the existing version of Egizio Condensed? I never edit existing fonts [other than my own]. Every typeface designer is different and we each have our own ways of drawing and it’s usually faster to start over than to modify someone else’s work. Besides, modifications are often not permitted by the typeface’s license agreement. So, no, I don’t do that.) I addressed the issues I had noted by reducing the contrast, raising the x-height, unifying the horizontal proportions, making it all slightly wider and so on. I sent Allie a proof along with my general thought that “It’s not working, but I have some weird ideas about how to make it better.”

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New Earle and Marden Typefaces

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hotographers use their cameras as tools of exploration, passports to inner sanctums, instruments for change. Their images are proof the photography matters-now more than ever. Thirty four years before the birth of National Geographic, the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard sourly prophesied a banal fate for the newly popularized art of photography. “With the daguerreotype,” he observed, “everyone will be able to have their portrait taken—formerly it was only the prominent—and at the same time everything is being done to make us all look exactly the same, so we shall only need one portrait.”

The National Geographic Society did not set out to test Kierkegaard’s thesis, at least not right away. Its mission was exploration, and the gray pages of its official journal did not exactly constitute a visual orgy. Years would go by before National Geographic’s explorers would begin using the camera as a tool to bring back what is now its chief source of fame: photographic stories that can alter

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perceptions and, at their best, change lives. By wresting a precious particle of the world from time and space and holding it absolutely still, a great photograph can explode the totality of our world, such that we never see it quite the same again. After all, as Kierkegaard also wrote, “the truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught.”

Today photography has become a global cacophony of freeze-frames. Millions of pictures are uploaded every minute. Correspondingly, everyone is a subject, and knows it—any day now we will be adding the unguarded moment to the endangered species list. It’s on this hyper-egalitarian, quasi-Orwellian, all-too-camera-ready “terra infirma” that National Geographic’s photographers continue to stand out. Why they do so is only partly explained by the innately personal choices (which lens for which lighting for which moment) that help define a photographer’s style. Instead, the very best of their images remind us that a photograph has the power to do infinitely more than document. It can transport us to unseen worlds.

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