Blurring the Center: The Sun.Star Redesign
Must art mirror philosophical shifts? Must it influence newspaper design? Actually, it already has. The present modular design adopted by newspapers worldwide is inspired by Piet Mondrian’s modern art.
Mondrian’s influence is everywhere in modern graphic design. However, the long reign of modernism in the 20th century is fading.
In this postmodern age there is strong distrust for grand narratives and for that matter, any worldview. So in designing the Sun.Star paper in the year 2007, one is left with the methods of deconstructive criticism.
Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction has expanded from purely literary criticism to contemporary philosophy influencing art, architecture and almost every facet of human activity.
Decentering design
Must there always be the center? The center has always been preferred to the periphery. It has always been considered superior to the marginal. Must it always be so?
This center-periphery contradiction is just among the many binary oppositions questioned by Derrida.
In art, where philosophical theses often reverberate, decentering found graphic expression.
There can be a design other than that which converges at the center as shown above. In many American and European newspapers the center is disappearing. In its stead are decentered designs of section heads, headlines, photo layouts etc.
Marginal or peripheral placements take importance over the center where traditionally the significant elements converge.
We cannot, however, totally eliminate the center alignment as can be noticed in the issues of Sun.Star. We have, however, limited it on certain pages that can stand alone like the front page.
Postmodern playfulness
Modern modular layout inspired by Mondrian remains the foremost influence in newspaper design. Yet the introduction of new features not consistent with rational, logical design is a sign of shifting directions.
Instead of typographic formality, Sun.Star’s new design takes on a postmodern twist.
Except for the front page which retains the font Impact, all headlines are in the normal serif font Charter. Section flags, on the other hand, use the san serif font Aksidenz.
Charter’s straightforwardness and seeming lack of flamboyance gives it both functional and elegant appearance like its modern predecessor Bodoni. And in the Sun.Star design, is utilized to hold the paper together.
Used in lower case for the section flags, Aksidenz has the informal effect that tones down the seriousness of the page. In the sports page, the letter O is replaced by a ball depending on the sport bannered by the section. This adds to the playfulness of the section flag evocative of the section’s content.
Serif is reminiscent of how newspapers traditionally look. Yet its combination with the design’s modular format, decentered layout and less formal section flags give the paper a postmodern touch.
Doing away with serifs would be parting completely with tradition. The serif is the last vestige of classical tradition we marry with the modern modular format. This eclecticism results in the present design.
Neither tabloid nor broadsheet
A recent trend—the compact— made quite a stir in the newspapering world. Neither a tabloid nor a broadsheet, it can be said to be a cross between the two. A compact can either be more tabloid or more broadsheet depending on the preference of the publisher.
Popularized by Mario Garcia, this design concept in a way, freed newspapers, including Sun.Star, from the limitation of being either a tabloid or broadsheet-like.
Basically, what Garcia proposed is radical and in tune with this postmodern time of crossovers and merging genres. He helped us redefine our traditional notions of what is and what is not a newspaper.
Sun.Star’s latest redesign is hard to classify using the old conventions as it is neither all-out tabloid nor broadsheet-inspired.
The redesign retains most of the principles adopted by Sun.Star in its previous design but with greater flexibility. Like before, the paper’s tabloid size allows for closer interaction with the reader as compared to the smug appearance of the broadsheet yet minus the sensationalism of big bold typography.
Adding to the tabloid and broadsheet mix is magazine design crossing over to newspapers, and with great results.
Design philosophy
Arbitrariness may be an initial characteristic of postmodernism. Seemingly pointless pastiche, cross influences and eclecticism may not mean anything at first. But postmodernism signifies an attempt at doing away with the dualism and dichotomy in western philosophy.
In my view, there ought to be no dichotomy. There is no conflict because there need not be. The subjective and the rational are not in conflict and that’s what the Sun.Star design stands for.
Derrida was right in denouncing western philosophy’s logocentrism.
However, deconstruction’s avoidance of offering any worldview (doing so would be contradicting itself) succeeds only in placing marginal perspectives in the same footing with that of the center which has long dominated human thought. Unintentionally, this results in several “truths,” several “realities.”
To some extent, this is a positive development as it ends western ethnocentrism.
My non-dualist view on the matter, for example, is characteristic of Filipino philosophy.
In the postmodern world, marginalized voices are getting attention and respect.
We have to get rid of worldviews, the deconstructionists would say. Yet, historicity can’t be ignored and neither can reality.
Identity
Ultimately, we return to the basic purpose of design––to help define the paper’s identity, its character and soul.
Going back to Derrida, the Sun.Star design is the form/signifier of the journalistic signified tradition. The decentered form only reflects the journalistic truth.
The serif retention signifies rootedness in tradition and historicity, the paper being part of the community. In the future, we may, however, eventually part completely from tradition and dissociate from the past. We hope to do this without losing sensitivity to the public’s taste.
The blurring of the center gives focus to the peripheral elements on a page. In Sun.Star, society’s marginalized and powerless find equal attention, fair and objective coverage with the centers of power. This is a global phenomenon with the world’s marginalized getting academic and artistic glare shifting focus from the traditional centers of power and culture.
Mondrian’s influence is everywhere in modern graphic design. However, the long reign of modernism in the 20th century is fading.
In this postmodern age there is strong distrust for grand narratives and for that matter, any worldview. So in designing the Sun.Star paper in the year 2007, one is left with the methods of deconstructive criticism.
Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction has expanded from purely literary criticism to contemporary philosophy influencing art, architecture and almost every facet of human activity.
Decentering design
Must there always be the center? The center has always been preferred to the periphery. It has always been considered superior to the marginal. Must it always be so?
This center-periphery contradiction is just among the many binary oppositions questioned by Derrida.
In art, where philosophical theses often reverberate, decentering found graphic expression.
There can be a design other than that which converges at the center as shown above. In many American and European newspapers the center is disappearing. In its stead are decentered designs of section heads, headlines, photo layouts etc.
Marginal or peripheral placements take importance over the center where traditionally the significant elements converge.
We cannot, however, totally eliminate the center alignment as can be noticed in the issues of Sun.Star. We have, however, limited it on certain pages that can stand alone like the front page.
Postmodern playfulness
Modern modular layout inspired by Mondrian remains the foremost influence in newspaper design. Yet the introduction of new features not consistent with rational, logical design is a sign of shifting directions.
Instead of typographic formality, Sun.Star’s new design takes on a postmodern twist.
Except for the front page which retains the font Impact, all headlines are in the normal serif font Charter. Section flags, on the other hand, use the san serif font Aksidenz.
Charter’s straightforwardness and seeming lack of flamboyance gives it both functional and elegant appearance like its modern predecessor Bodoni. And in the Sun.Star design, is utilized to hold the paper together.
Used in lower case for the section flags, Aksidenz has the informal effect that tones down the seriousness of the page. In the sports page, the letter O is replaced by a ball depending on the sport bannered by the section. This adds to the playfulness of the section flag evocative of the section’s content.
Serif is reminiscent of how newspapers traditionally look. Yet its combination with the design’s modular format, decentered layout and less formal section flags give the paper a postmodern touch.
Doing away with serifs would be parting completely with tradition. The serif is the last vestige of classical tradition we marry with the modern modular format. This eclecticism results in the present design.
Neither tabloid nor broadsheet
A recent trend—the compact— made quite a stir in the newspapering world. Neither a tabloid nor a broadsheet, it can be said to be a cross between the two. A compact can either be more tabloid or more broadsheet depending on the preference of the publisher.
Popularized by Mario Garcia, this design concept in a way, freed newspapers, including Sun.Star, from the limitation of being either a tabloid or broadsheet-like.
Basically, what Garcia proposed is radical and in tune with this postmodern time of crossovers and merging genres. He helped us redefine our traditional notions of what is and what is not a newspaper.
Sun.Star’s latest redesign is hard to classify using the old conventions as it is neither all-out tabloid nor broadsheet-inspired.
The redesign retains most of the principles adopted by Sun.Star in its previous design but with greater flexibility. Like before, the paper’s tabloid size allows for closer interaction with the reader as compared to the smug appearance of the broadsheet yet minus the sensationalism of big bold typography.
Adding to the tabloid and broadsheet mix is magazine design crossing over to newspapers, and with great results.
Design philosophy
Arbitrariness may be an initial characteristic of postmodernism. Seemingly pointless pastiche, cross influences and eclecticism may not mean anything at first. But postmodernism signifies an attempt at doing away with the dualism and dichotomy in western philosophy.
In my view, there ought to be no dichotomy. There is no conflict because there need not be. The subjective and the rational are not in conflict and that’s what the Sun.Star design stands for.
Derrida was right in denouncing western philosophy’s logocentrism.
However, deconstruction’s avoidance of offering any worldview (doing so would be contradicting itself) succeeds only in placing marginal perspectives in the same footing with that of the center which has long dominated human thought. Unintentionally, this results in several “truths,” several “realities.”
To some extent, this is a positive development as it ends western ethnocentrism.
My non-dualist view on the matter, for example, is characteristic of Filipino philosophy.
In the postmodern world, marginalized voices are getting attention and respect.
We have to get rid of worldviews, the deconstructionists would say. Yet, historicity can’t be ignored and neither can reality.
Identity
Ultimately, we return to the basic purpose of design––to help define the paper’s identity, its character and soul.
Going back to Derrida, the Sun.Star design is the form/signifier of the journalistic signified tradition. The decentered form only reflects the journalistic truth.
The serif retention signifies rootedness in tradition and historicity, the paper being part of the community. In the future, we may, however, eventually part completely from tradition and dissociate from the past. We hope to do this without losing sensitivity to the public’s taste.
The blurring of the center gives focus to the peripheral elements on a page. In Sun.Star, society’s marginalized and powerless find equal attention, fair and objective coverage with the centers of power. This is a global phenomenon with the world’s marginalized getting academic and artistic glare shifting focus from the traditional centers of power and culture.
posted by jun velez at 9:04 PM
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