It’s a common verity that a magazine staff tires of a design long before the reader does. In fact, I’d hazard a guess and say most readers don’t even notice a new design — unless they don’t like it, in which case the response is both lightning-fast and deafening. We freely admit guilt. We sickened of the old design, and decided that our tenth anniversary would be the perfect time to hone the magazine, with you, the reader, foremost in our minds.
Business-to-business publications are too often dull, listless affairs, with second-rate graphics and tedious, painfully literal interpretations of ideas. Although a magazine may tell you exactly what you need to know to do your job better, it may not be quite the thing you want your neighbor across the aisle in Seat 22B to catch you reading. We want you to be able to enjoy your magazine without squirreling it away inside, say, The Wall Street Journal.
This was at the crux of our reasoning when designing the new O+F. Many hours were spent on ideas ultimately jettisoned because the art and editorial mix just wasn’t quite right. Teamwork is the most important component in making such a proposition work. Luckily, I work with one of the wittiest editorial directors it has been my fortune to know, and together we hope we’re bringing you a winning combination of essential information, pithily presented and wrapped up in a design-conscious package.
We’re proud of our magazine, and we want you to be proud, too.