When I got the call to redesign; ’Vi’ (We), Stockholm, it felt like an honour; since it’s a Swedish magazine classic.
The scope for the redesign project was to focus both on the digital and print platform. Today it is seen as an important case study in Swedish magazine industry in how to move a magazine to digital without losing it’s core values.
‘Vi’ was founded in 1913 and stands for something greater: humanism, humanity, culture and popular education.
The content brief was based on the idea of doing great journalism about people, culture and society, in visuals and text.
Vi has a strong popular culture heritage and that is one of the inspirations in the project.
Type & mood
The type mood for the project was to create an honest design with distinct type that stands the test for a magazine story in digital and print.
We looked for a humanistic type palette with a higher readability and found it in the serif typeface: Heldane, Klim Type Foundry and the sans serif; Marcin Antique, Feliciano Type.
A new contemporary colour system was based on nature colour metaphors; such as: sun-red, fire-orange, dusk-pink, mountain-blue, blooming-green and midnight-blue.
Visually I defined a visual concept to combine strong illustrations, the portrait and reportage photography Vi is so well know for but also to show more news documentary photography.
’Vi’ asked for a new format, and new ways in in structuring the content. To create a better magazine flow and contrast I defined a new grid, with a clear defined eye-liner, all-through the magazine.
The iconic logo was designed in 1936 by the Swedish illustrator Curt Peters, inspired by the Swedish funkis-era, with the idea of showing the physical dimensions of type, shadow and light.
In redesigning the magazine cover I wanted it to benefit more on the clear iconic logo.
The logo vs the cover visual should lead you in to the magazine. I showed the idea of the logo to move around depending on the visual.
I also worked on various updates of the logo, to create icons for digital and social media as well as leading the overall design.
The video shows the design process behind the magazine project ’Vi’.
