I wasn’t terribly fond of the last redesign of the WP, so I wasn’t expecting much. Overall, I am fairly pleased, however, with the changes to one of my favorite newspapers.
Sunday (old) and Tuesday (new)
Washington Post redesign
The nameplate is a little larger and cleaner looking with the weather moved from the ear to the folio line. Much better. The headline face is cleaner and more interesting visually. There is also an improved use of deck heads for the scanners. Feature heads are centered and italic. News heads remain flush left.
As I had hoped, the body type got a lot of attention, with a larger x-height and a cleaner cut: the old type looks a bit muddy by comparison. I do think it could use a bit more linespacing. I think it is condensed a bit too much, but it really doesn’t seem as squeezed as the old face. Samples at the redesign guide, linked to below.
The Post folks took the opportunity to move a few features around and do some tweaking on their web site as well. I don’t like their columnist sigs, and those little head shots look like WSJ rip-offs, which is too bad. Originality is a better path, even if the WSJ is doing well and looks good, both of which are true.
All in all, I like what the Post did in what is really a minor redesign. I like the typographic changes and they have made it cleaner and lighter without losing the Post personality. The main downer is the WSJ copying.
Here is their PDF that explains the changes. It is worth looking over if you are interested in newspaper design.
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I like the vibrant color used by the Washington Post. One reason I think some stray away from newspaper is the fact that it just isn’t eye-appealing. Readers get bored easily and need something that is attention-grabbing.
I also like the redesign in that I think it gives it a slightly sleeker look but does not change the overall essence of the paper. Some papers can not seem to get it right. For instance when the T-U redesigned Skirt! it may have lost a lot of readers because they transformed it into something unrecognizable.
I can see the positivity in WP’s redesign … the weather’s relocation, like you mentioned, and whatnot.
However, I feel like steering away from the overpowering, central graphic was a bad call. I think a central photo, if powerful and masterfully created enough, has serious power when it comes to drawing in readers. I suppose the WP doesn’t rely too much on passerby for readership, though. Maybe it’s not a huge concern for them.