Express of Washington, D.C., redesigns
Express — the free youth-oriented tabloid published by the Washington Post, launched a redesign Monday, Ernie Smith tells us.
Ernie writes:
We’ve made a lot of changes to the overall look that emphasizes bold design in a way that the paper really didn’t before.
The covers, for example, are now in a magazine style, closer to Link, Red Eye, TBT and other publications – past and present – like us. Reflecting the newsy nature of the District, our cover stories will mainly focus on hard news over soft – so no entertainment, and probably not sports right away.
Here’s a closer look at the new front:
Ernie continues:
This is a huge change for us. Before, our covers were very templated – usually with a photo in the center and a rail that consistently styled. Now, we have a lot more wiggle room.
Interestingly, Monday’s redesign kicked off with an interesting promotional ad that wrapped around the edition. Below left is the day’s “front page,” that actually appeared on page — despite what the numbering said (note a promo across the top to page “3″). Below right is the promo page.
Ernie continues:
Express‘ format is different from most other papers I’ve worked at in that section editors, not designers, do much of the basic layout. The layout style reflects this – heavily gridded, no bastard measures for most stories, infrequent use of reversed type, so on and so forth.
A before-and-after look at the national news page:
A closer look at the new national page:
Now is probably a good time to tell you that the pages Ernie sent us are missing the ads. Hence, the white spaces.
The font changes, according to Ernie:
Old News headlines: Knockout
New News headlines: FlamaOld Features headlines: Miller
New Features headlines: Farnham (which I like a ton better, BTW)Old Decks/Body Type: Miller
New Decks/Body Type: Fenway (that’s right, we changed our body type)Our “utility” font of sorts, the slab-serif, is Popular, which is still kinda new – we added it after a page shrinkage seven or eight months ago.
Here’s the new cover story page:
A before-and-after look at the sports page:
A closer look at the new sports page:
Again, Ernie:
When I was brought on in February, I was the first designer the paper had that focused strictly on the news section design (rather than entertainment or features). Much of the work I’ve done so far involves “punching up” smaller designs or helping with larger packages, with focus mostly on news and sports pages. The big change for me with the covers is that I’ll be designing a daily cover package which will allow for a bit more freedom in design approach than things we’ve done in the news sections in the past.
Other features to note: Our entertainment pages are now much more colorful, and we’ve introduced a new Web-centric page called “The Feed,” which presents cool stuff that we’ve found all over the web (much of it on our @ExpressFeed Twitter account).
We simplified overly complicated pages (EyeOpeners, specifically) and added extra layers to things that could use more dynamic approaches (our TV page).
We should probably note that the pages Ernie sent us are all missing the ads. As you can probably guess.
A closer look at the new Eye Openers page:
Ernie, again:
The redesign was handled in-house by art director Scott McCarthy, with input from everyone in the newsroom. He did great work.
A before-and-after look at the Lookout page, near the back of the paper:
A closer look at the new Lookout page:
Ernie concludes:
The bulk of the comments so far have been regarding the cut in comics, from six to two.
By the way, you can download PDFs of any edition of Express, any day, here.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I’ve been watching the covers since the launch and I like the direction. Far more personality and pop.
December 10th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Do you think consumers actually notice a difference with these? I’m all for redesigning to make products better for the reader, but seriously this looks the same.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
I think it does look much the same, Anonymous. (Mind if I call I call you Anon?) But then again, I don’t think Express set out to fix a broken product.
Express works pretty well and it’s been wildly successful in the year or so it’s been in existence.
If you just scroll through these jpegs, then sure enough, you don’t see much of a change. But did you read Ernie’s commentary? Express is changing the way they package stories on page one — very important in a free youth/commuter tabloid. They’ve also changed the way they play visuals throughout the paper. They’ve added some features and punched up a few others.
Not earthshaking stuff. But nice changes. For a product that wasn’t exactly broken to begin with.
Sometimes, you’re ripping everything up, replacing engine parts and body work and spackling like crazy with bondo. And other times, you’re waxing and polishing and touching up a little here and there. This particular project was more of the latter.
If I were the art director, in fact, I’d hope that readers did NOT notice a big change in their paper. I’d hope that the product serves those readers better but that the reader wasn’t necessarily overwhelmed with change. I’d hope they get more entertainment/utility/value out of their paper now but perhaps don’t quite know why or even realize it.
Instead, I’d hope the reader notices this story or that story and finds themselves absorbed in those stories.
Because the BEST news design supports the content. Period.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for the commentary Charles. I’ll point out two things:
1. Express has actually been publishing since 2003. It’s unlike a lot of pubs I’ve worked at because it’s very established in its market. It’s also quite profitable for the Post.
2. It’s not extreme, but considering the large rise in the design and editorial workload, it certainly feels like we’re putting a lot more effort into it. If anyone knows me in terms of my design philosophy, I’m very much a throw-stuff-at-it-to-see-what-sticks kinda guy. (Hell, look at my blog.) Express isn’t that paper, nor does it desire to be that. It’s a newsy publication. It’s similar in approach, but completely different to, Red Eye or Link or TBT or any of the others. But it works. Why break that?
I’m largely with Charles in this regard.