The magazine’s new look is clean, bold and colorful. New typeface
families were brought in: Guardian and Brunel from Commercial Type and
National from Kris Sowersby. “We wanted to find some new families of
type that were both extremely readable but contemporary. Some of the
best typefaces in history are being designed now. Readability, a sense
of style and a sense of contemporary-ness were important,” explains de
Vries. Oversized light weights of National with heavy bolds in Guardian
and large Brunel numerals along with bright uses of color catch the eye.
Striking covers have graphics and headlines playing against a white
background. Another key part of the visual refresh: lively charts and
diagrams. “Innovative infographics are extremely relevant to our
audience,” says de Vries. “One of the huge themes happening in business
is ‘big data’—those massive streams of data that are being collected.”
Harvard Business Review curates content from all its sources into distilled guides.
They are available in digital and print formats.The
redesign included a reorientation of editorial as well. One example:
the new Spotlight series pairs feature articles with a set of existing
artwork from a living fine artist, adding a layered, metaphoric visual
theme in place of stock or commissioned illustration. The artists
benefit from the high-profile placement in front of a smart viewership
and the magazine also benefits. “It allows for a little more
abstraction,” de Vries continues. “Our readers are sophisticated. We can
show some tangential connections through art. Our culture, even our
business culture, is extremely visual and very emotional. It’s a
compliment to our readers to give them this other visual line to work
with. It gives us some more color, more variety to work with and, in
turn, that helps us not have to deal with hoary business clichés.”
Bold
typography and graphics also liven up HBR’s native iPad app. Here
graphics can be animated, content can be accessed in linear and
nonlinear options and, more importantly, content becomes dynamically
updated by pulling from the web. With integrated social media options,
readers engage and share in ways not possible with print. Viewed through
the iPad app or on the website, those conversations are of critical
importance to the hbr readership. “The electronic means of communication
are a way of tapping into a much younger, broader, much more
international audience. We have ten million website views a month and a
very big international audience. And that’s largely driven by the blog
posts and the fact that people can access it from anywhere in the world.
And there are vigorous discussions that go on that way.”
The launch screen (left) for one of Harvard Business Review’s mobile apps. The Harvard Business Review iPad app (right) is a hub that constantly updates the blog and digital content, the magazine, books and tools for subscribers. It’s a powerful way to deliver value to readers.An
important consideration at every step is how to continue to serve the
readers. For example, de Vries and his team have created a series of
free mobile apps offering the popular HBR executive summaries and
management and stat tips of the day: “The reason we’re doing this is not
just because we think it’s fun, but because we know that managers and
people in business use these.”
The time and money required to
create successful, functional and aesthetically exciting iPad and mobile
apps is not insignificant. “For some magazines, the iPad is like an
incredible resource drain, a money drain. It takes a lot more effort to
make the experience on the iPad work really well, but we certainly see
that there's a commercial future here and the potential for us as a
brand is really strong, helping connect with our readers and their
loyalty to us.”
Three books from the current line up of HBR Press. The jackets are more confident and contemporary,
more in line with the overall creative spirit of the Harvard Business brand. The exact definition of the modern magazine is a
moving target, but that is where de Vries finds the creative challenge. “What I think is exciting about Harvard Business Review is that
there's a chance to make these different aspects of a publication work
together. These are new territories, so there’s not really been a die
cast on how you have to do it. Nothing stays still and everything's
rolling along and constantly changing its requirements. There’s a real
experimental process to it. And that’s a great thing for a creative
designer to think about, ‘What do I want this process to be?’ It’s a
lovely creative design exercise to think of how things translate into
different media and make the most of them so it’s a pleasurable and
useful experience.” CA