Die Zeit in News Gothic¶
221 words on Magazines
A nice thing about Germans big – as in humongous, as in impossible to read with people sitting anywhere near you – weekly newspaper Die Zeit is that they have a really nice layout. It was introduced around ten years ago. And it manages to be very orderly, neat and no-nonsense while remaining spacious and friendly at the same time.
Last year – when they reintroduced their magazine supplement – I was wondering what happened to their sense of good style. The magazine started out like a real mess. It really looked like the advertising medium it is designed to be. Over time they managed to improve that to a level where it’s not entirely consistent or even brilliant but at least it’s tolerable now.
It looks like they moved their design ‘experts’ on to the paper’s main section by now. When opening this week’s issue something felt wrong. A closer look – and then a double check to the previous issues – revealed that they dumbed their layout down a little more. Extra lines, bigger page numbers, less subtlety. And they replaced their typeyface for subtitles, Thesis TheSans Bold, with a thinner News Gothic which makes things feel less comfortable. Altogether a shame, I think.
Now which of these – admittedly rather limited snippets – do you like better?
