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?People will finally pay for digital content?

Face off Jeremy Leslie, creative director, magCulture.

At a time, when the print media is losing its sheen and digital applications for iPhone, iPad or Android based phones/tablets are taking over the printed word, it is design which can plays a vital role in reviving readers? interest, believes London based editorial designer Jeremy Leslie.

Leslie, who has more than 25 years of experience in editorial design, and has written two books Issues and magCulture, runs his own studio called magCulture in London and divides his time between designing, consulting, writing, blogging on magCulture, apart from curating content. His new book The Modern Magazine published by Laurence King will be released later this year. He says that while publishing companies will be forced to close down many magazines in the near future, the step will benefit the ones that survive as companies will have to up the ante in case of content as well as design. Also, a new phase is expected to dawn with publishing companies gearing up to work with different screens and finally consumers paying for digital content. Leslie, who was in India recently in connection with the Kyoorius Design Awards, in a conversation with FE BrandWagon?s Anushree Bhattacharyya, talks about the role of design and the future of publishing. Edited excerpts:

How is designing for a consumer product different from designing for a newspaper/magazine?

Editorial design that includes magazines and newspapers allows one to work with great content, words and images, something that I really enjoy doing. I also love the role of a designer?that is to create a page that will help magazines and newspapers communicate the written words and images. Design is another layer that provides structure as well as character to newspapers and magazines. It helps the reader understand the content in a much better way.

How is the design process different in case of an application for a tab or an iPhone vis-a-vis print media?

While there are similarities, there are some specific technical differences. Some publishers have simply tried to transfer what they do in print into an app. While doing this, they have forgotten one of the most important rules of designing ?on print the light reflects back into your eyes, it has a certain effect, whereas an app is back-lit and has a very different effect, so the pages for an app have to be designed in a very different way.

Also, in case of an app there is always limited space, whereas it is the opposite in case of a newspaper or a magazine. With no dearth of space in a magazine or a newspaper a designer gets a lot of space to play with and it is easier to make two pages look different from each other. On a screen it is about a quarter of a spread that a designer gets to work on, and so there is very little space to play around with the elements of design. Speaking purely from the perspective of design, a digital screen provides less scope, but through the use of elements such as pictures, videos you can compensate for that. One has to find a fine balance between a newspaper/magazine and its app.

India is still trying to find its way in the digital world. What are the factors publishers should keep in mind while making the shift from paper to app?

Most of the time people tend to create an iPad app simply because everyone else has an iPad app. Publishers think that if they take all the content and just put them all into an app for iPad, readers will love it. But the two are actually very different and an app plays a stronger role only when print edition takes full advantage of print and the app takes the full advantage of digital. In the past, a publishing company could afford to follow one model as far as the design of its newspaper/magazine was concerned. Now it has become much more complicated thanks to the presence of various kinds of screens. For instance, a newspaper might be very verbose, but then the app might be more headline-driven or picture-lead. At the end of the day, the app has to fulfill a need that the newspaper has not been able to or cannot do.

What are the most common mistakes made by newspapers/magazine publishers when they jump onto the web or create an app?

One of the basic mistakes made by publishing companies is that they tend to add tons of videos and pictures. They assume that they can completely reinvent the product on the web by adding loads of different stuff. But at the end of the day, the file size becomes very large making it difficult for the reader to download it thereby leaving the reader frustrated. So publishers need to very carefully while selecting the videos or the pictures they would like to upload on the website or the app. Some of the best apps are the simplest ones that provide a very calm user experience in contrast to a website/newspaper which is always buzzing with activity.

Much has been said about print being dead; so what role does print play in the lives of people?

Print is in transition because of the introduction of the web and various digital apps. During the 2000s the West had too many newspapers and magazines and it eventually reached a stage that a lot of publishing companies were producing so many newspapers/magazines and were making so much of money from advertising that they thought they could carry on like this forever. But sadly the scene changed and we saw magazines/ newspapers closing down. This was also good as it allowed the rest to grow and become stronger. There will always be a place for print but it will just be one part in a world full of complicated things.

You have been part of the jury panel in the Kyoorius Design Awards. What is the opinion you have formed about Indian talent?

I came here with very little knowledge about India or Indian design. Secondly, the issue with any award?s judging process is that the work shown does not provide a complete picture, as we are made to go through a select set of design work. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the standard of the work that I have seen so far. I am impressed by the kind of work that Indian talent is doing in design. I can see the influence of Western as well as Indian culture.

What are the kinds of trends that are emerging in design, especially in the space you work?

Everyone in the publishing industry is now looking to work with different types of screens. So whether it is a phone or a tablet or even print, publishers are trying to find out what is the best role each form plays in a reader?s life, and accordingly mould them. From everything looking more or less the same or generic, we will move to a time where we will see a lot of specialisation coming in. Finally, the next big wave of change that is expected to come is that people will pay for digital content.

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First published on: 27-08-2013 at 06:14 IST
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