An Exploration of Editorial Design’s Response to New Technology By Natasha Ray BA Visual Communication 2012 Word Count: 4187
Intro duction
This essay will explore whether traditional print-based design will have to change due to the rising popularity of screen-based technology for everyday use. The focus for this essay will be
three film
review magazines which will be used as
case studies. Two of the three magazines have used a mixture of screen and print design whereas the third magazine is purely online. These three case
compared and analysed using research into the uses studies will be
of new technology, the magazines themselves and
technological determinism and McLuhan’s theory of hot and cold mediums various methodologies such as
, with a focus on how recent screen-based technology will likely change editorial design as a whole in the near-future. (McLuhan, 1997)
advancement of technology has always meant a change for print-based design. Codex’s The
(an early form of book) were becoming popular by 100AD, over-taking scrolls to communicate text. Over the years, these books became objects of decoration and religious education for the very rich. Images were used to illustrate the text. These books were very different from the very first codexes in design. The first codex that we know of (known as The Codex Sinaiticus dating from around 350AD) laid it’s text in four equal columns of forty-eight lines.
Medieval books were using illuminated borders and decorative
Is Print a Dying Form? calligraphy with large drop-caps. These were the first print objects to use illustration as a secondary source of information. (Waterhouse, 2010)
By 1470, William Caxton had arrived in London from France with the first movable type printing press. This created commercial opportunities to mass-produce in English (when French was the leading language), reaching across all classes and gaining a diverse audience in the UK. This created another change in design. The layout was one column, left-aligned with images over the width of the page up to the margin. Paper also became available with
techniques learnt from China and books became cheap and quick to print, bound and distribute. (Ibid) By the 1500’s, the first regarded fashion magazine was created by Swiss painter, Josse Amman who published plates on women’s fashion
The first modern magazine, The Gentleman’s of the time.
apparent in magazines, where the dominant model involves framing textual material by means of a hierarchy of titles: section heading, main heading and subheadings.’
Magazine, was published in England in 1731 by Edward Cave. Over the years, many more magazines were published and advertisements were introduced. Colour, widely used by the 1800’s, changed design once again, as newspapers used it to their advantage to illustrate news and articles. (Mag Forum, n.d)
Vandendorpe (2009) states that ‘[w]ith the advent of newspapers and the masscirculation press, [...] the formatting of text became even more tabular. [...] [T] ext was now presented in the form of visual blocks that complemented and responded to each other [...] This is especially
Since this time, some magazines may have become more experimental, but the majority of them still use this tabular text layout. This is not just because of tradition dating back to papyrus scrolls, but because they are based on the physiology of the eye (Ibid). This layout of reading can be dated back to the early origins of the Latin alphabet which was derived from the Ancient Greek alphabet. In its modern form today, this alphabet (and therefore, the layout) is the most widely used in the world, especially throughout the Western sphere. (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d)
Due to its global popularity, the internet
and accompanying web services are clearly laid out in the direction of the Latin alphabet. In the past ten years technology has become omnipresent in our daily routines. Ever
the wireless internet became a staple in the way since
we communicate and share information, there have been companies and new pieces of software
making it easier to fit seamlessly into our lives.
Since 2000, information has become concise and varied in its forms. By 2005, blogging (an online space for individuals to voice opinions and personal thoughts) had ‘really started to have an impact on mainstream culture, not least [because of] researc[h] suggesting that a new blog was born every second.’ (The Guardian.co.uk, 21 Dec 2009)
The iPhone was released in 2007 by Apple, giving users ‘something we hadn’t seen before.’ (The Guardian.co.uk, 23 Dec 2009)
It had no buttons, but instead, was a pure touch-screen mobile, allowing versatility in entertainment and personal planning. This was when the touchscreen (and Apple Inc itself) became a symbol of the technology to come. Touch-screen technology has quickly developed, with other phone companies creating Android software that allows other makes of phone to recreate the applications of the
These phones have become iPhone.
computers in their own right,
using application software to construct a similar experience of using a regular internetconnected desktop computer or laptop. This is also encouraged with a built-in touch QUARK keyboard.
magazines have pdf or similar files which allow double page spreads, similar to a print-based magazine.
Further evolution of this technology included the iPad, a tablet created by Apple Inc, which uses the same functionality as an iPhone in style and application software, but is larger in size and with no phone purposes. This means it is easier to view media including e-books, films, music and internet. There are now many brands of tablet across the market.
will this change the tradition of print with the arrival of the screen-based tablet? So far, digital However,
Tablets and smart phones, however, have screens too small for a double-paged spread to be viewed easily by the audience without the added inconvenience of ‘zoom’. Does this mean the magazine’s traditional design staple of the double-page spread will become defunct in the light of advancing technology?
To understand the new digital age that society has entered, a number of theories and methodologies have become popular, with some focusing on how society and its interactions and reactions affect technology and vice versa. The first theory this essay will use to understand the recent evolution of design, is technological determinism. May (2003) explains that ‘Technological determinists think (to varying degrees) that technological advances happen automatically; they see a logic to technological developments which is beyond our influence. Technological advances sweep all before them, leaving us struggling to accommodate or understand their implications’ (pg 2). In other words,
technological determinism is
Theory & Method ologies the idea that it is technology that determines how society grows and acts,
but that sometimes, technology can expand too fast for society to catch up comfortably. May (with the help of Roy Williams) explains this further, by stating ‘[Technological development] is the idea that the discovery of the printing press necessarily led to the Enlightenment, that telegraphy led to the Industrial Revolution and the Internet has led to an information age. [...] Williams recognises [this]; ‘The basic assumption of technological determinism is that a new technologya printing press or a
communications satellite‘emerges’ from technical study and experiment. It then changes the society or sector into which it has ‘emerged’. ‘We’ adapt to it because it is the new modern way.’ (Williams, 1985: 129)’ (Ibid, pg 175). This theory can explain the advancements magazines now have to appeal to and work with. Due to the Apple and Android software that has emerged in the past five years, society adapts to it and either consciously, or un-consciously, changes the way it communicates with itself. This means
the magazine format must change the way it communicates that
as well, otherwise it
will be seen as a defunct information portal that will not be able to compete with the new software. As Renard (2006) concludes ‘In reality it is the distribution of information that matters, not the tools used to deliver it. All technologies and tools are eventually replaced or at least superseded by newer and more efficient technology [...] We must no longer consider ourselves as
just print publishers, journalists and media professionals. We are information distributors’ (pg 22). McLuhan’s theory (1997), however, focuses on
the individual meanings different media can convey, depending on whether it’s a ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ medium. McLuhan
states that ‘[...][I]n operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium- that is, of any extension of ourselvesresult from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology’ (pg 7). He explains that ‘Hot media are [...]
low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience’ and he further describes that ‘A cool medium like hieroglyphic or ideogrammic written characters has very different effects from the hot and explosive medium of the phonetic alphabet. The alphabet, when pushed to a high degree of abstract visual intensity, became typography’ (Ibid,
A ‘hot’ medium has its own energy and an audience pg 23)
.
doesn’t need to participate with it very much, such as
a book or magazine. A ‘cold’ medium needs more interaction from the audience, such as an iPhone application or iPad. It’s important to note this theory as most new technology would be seen as a ‘cold’ medium. Society has accepted these new mediums into their lives and design must use this to an advantage if it’s to successfully merge and change with the digital age.
Empire Magazine
The first case study this essay will be using is Empire Magazine. Empire is the world’s biggestselling film magazine (Bauermedia.co.uk, 2009) with a monthly issue published
They are a wellestablished print-based magazine who has, in the past few years, ventured into screen-based circulation. in Britain.
fig. 1
They have an iPhone app (a piece of application software allowing a
programme to be used, often with the internet, on the iPhone in the same style as a traditional computer), Empire Movie Guide, (fig.1) that doesn’t come in magazine format. It’s a review archive that is aimed at those ‘standing in line at the cinema [...] wondering what on Earth to watch’ (Empireonline. com, n.d) and costs £2.99 to download. It’s marketed as separate to the magazine itself but is still a part of the over-arching brand of Empire. This application, using McLuhan’s theory (1997), would be seen as a ‘cold’ medium. Vandendorpe (2009) declares that ‘In the digital culture that is being established in front of our eyes, a new form of reading
is emerging: gleaning, clicking, zapping, skimming; it is both visual and tabular. [...] [I]t focuses on finding answers to questions [...]’. Empire has tapped into this with the Empire Movie Guide. Cotton (2002) has a similar finding, stating that; ‘[C]ontent in new media terms generally means old media context (movies, music, books, magazines etc), re-purposed by the process of digitization and interactive enhancements to become ‘new content’.’
old content becomes new content because of the new way to As Cotton explains,
access it. The content (the reviews) are not ‘new’ in the Empire Movie Guide as they would have previously been published in the Empire magazine, but audiences will still pay for the app due to its ease of finding information and its 24 hour access. If this theory is correct across the board, any printed magazine can condense regularly updated information from their own archives to create new, brand-endorsed, audience-led applications where an individual feels they are only accessing the content they need at that specific time. Taking the semiotic framing from the content relieves it of its previous connotations of an article or themed issue. Kress (2010) voices some concerns about this ‘discrimination’ of content. He states that ‘[...] [I]n communication, several modes are always used together, in modal ensembles, designed so that each mode has a
specific task and function. Such ensembles are based on designs, that is, on selections and arrangements of resources for making a specific message about a particular issue for a particular audience’ (pg 28). This ‘particular audience’ is Kress’ major concern, citing that ‘A world of constant accessibility and availability is also a world of constant surveillance [...] [It is] at the same time the
spread is still there but it is the text that has become movable as it has become the secondary source of information to still and moving image. (Ibid) Interaction is a key aspect of screen-based technology which Empire has used to its full advantage with its iPad edition.
loss of one major force for social cohesion, that of knowledge, information, values shared by all members of a group’ (Ibid pg 29). Due to the old content losing its original semantic meanings of its place within the magazine, slimming down the knowledge into its pure form of information, it becomes available for adaption within a smaller circle of individuals without the accurate modes of meaning. Empire has also created an iPad edition of their magazine (fig.2) which ‘combines Empire’s world-class editorial with embedded trailers, exclusive footage and interactive articles’
fig. 2
. Their video trailer showcases the interactivity to its (Empireonline.com, 2010)
What was once columns of body text in the magazine have now become scroll boxes on the iPad. Still images fullest.
of films have now become embedded links to film trailers. The double-page
Kress (2003, pg 5.) states that ‘The change in media, largely from book to screen [and] the change from the traditional print-based media to the new information and communication technologies, will intensify [the] effects [...] [T]he new media [...] make[s] it easy to use a multiplicity of modes, and in particular the mode of image- still or movingas well as other modes, such as music and sound effects for instance. They change, through their affordances, the potentials for representational and communicational action by their users; this is the notion of ‘interactivity’.’
Since screen-based has become popular, audiences are becoming used to ‘interactivity’. Text is no longer a singular entity. Screen-based text has a constant feed of new information which makes that information less ‘important’. Winston (1998) explains that ‘[I] nformation Technology commoditises information, draining it of semantic content. Encoded electronically and treated as being without meaning,
messages become far more malleable than they were traditionally (sic)’ Kress (2003) adds that ‘It is no longer possible to think about literacy in isolation from [...] social, technological and economic factors [...] These are, on the one hand, the broad move from the now centurieslong dominance of writing to the new dominance of the image and, on the other hand, the move from the dominance of the medium of the book to the dominance of the medium of the screen’. Unlike the other two case studies that will be discussed in this essay, Empire still earns most of their money from its screen-based ventures. From comparing research, this is because of its strong circulation that the magazine has from
As the audience already trusts its print-based text.
the brand, individuals are willing to pay for the screenbased texts. It’s
important to note this as it shows that if printbased brands are strong enough before shifting focus onto screen, its fan base will follow. Overall, Empire has used its established audience to expand from its traditional-designed printbased magazine to create additions to the brand with iphone apps and a new design within the ipad edition. Traditional text takes a back seat to interactivity (Kress, 2003) and audience participation. Imagery has become the most important information available on screen. Kress (2003, pg 1.) sums this up with the statement ‘The world told is a different world to the world shown’.
Little White Lies Little White Lies is ‘a bi-monthly, independent movie magazine that features cutting edge writing, illustration and photography to get under the skin of cinema’ (Little White Lies: About, n.d.). The first issue was produced in February 2005 in-house by The Church of London. Little White Lies has
a small print-run (which is
growing) but a large online following, the opposite of Empire
Magazine. Little White Lies does not just review blockbusters, but also independent films, in a way most popular film magazines do not. The magazine’s rationale is clearly set out on their website; ‘Because movies don’t exist in a vacuum, we venture beyond the boundaries of the big screen, exploring the worlds of music, art, politics and pop culture to inform and illuminate the medium we love’ (Ibid.).
Their website holds a digital archive of all published magazines, available to view for free, using issuu.com (a website that allows users to showcase their traditionally printed work, such as books, journals and magazines, as an interactive pdf that works like an e-book) and its software embedded in its website (fig 3). This software allows the magazine to be viewed comfortably on any laptop, tablet or smartphone,
fig. 3
but does not have the full interactive features that Empire Magazine’s iPad edition
there are hyperlinks embedded in the text that can send the viewer to a website or film trailer. has. Instead,
However, this means most of the design is
unchanging from print to screen. Cotton (2002) sees this as a logical step into the digital medium without affecting the design and content; ‘Why ship weighty books and cumbersome video tapes in their physical embodiment at great expense when you can just ship the real ‘content’ [...] for no cost, directly over the web/net?’ (pg 222). Little White Lies uses this to its full advantage. Although the magazine is free online, their printrun is consistently sold out and re-editions are often just as quickly bought (Little White Lies: Digital Archive, n.d.). This is a realworld example of Cotton’s view that ‘[...] these new e-books won’t replace these collections, just provide a 21st-century,
functionally superior equivalent. As McLuhan said, no new media will ever replace older media, they just subsume them. Post e-books, our book collecting will likely be far more concerned with the aesthetic and tactile qualities of the book itself, the book as artefact rather than repository of text’ (2002, pg 223.). Little White Lies has also created an iPhone application that works
very similar to Empire’s. This application (fig 4) gives the individual ‘the latest film reviews [...] and find out what recommended releases are showing near you by searching for your nearest independent cinema’ (iTunes.apple.com, 2011). Unlike Empire Magazine, Little White Lies do give their audience new content that is unavailable from their magazine and website. Their application allows the individual to search for cinemas
nearby (fig 5) by using Google Maps embedded into the application. By using Google Maps, Little White Lies have created a new connection between mediums and this has allowed Little White Lies to be associated with information that, although linked in the magazine, now has a direct correlation. The information in this application, however, is broad, but not deep. Just like Empire’s app,
the reviews have been removed from their semantic context, which is
Lies spends a whole issue concentrating on one film as the inspiration. Renard (2006) sees this as the future, stating that ‘The future of publishing is the ability to access any and all information there is, all the time, quickly and reliably’ (pg 22). Maeda (2000), however, states a warning; ‘The digital medium is unbound in time and in space. A rectangle can be instructed to move every second for eternity. Futhermore, it can be commanded to move of
even more important in this case as Little White
fig. 4
fig. 5
the viewing canvas on to infinity. To draw effectively on such a material requires not only a new set of tools but a new kind of mind’ (pg 93). Just like Empire, Little White Lies uses their application as a secondary source of 24 hour information, a part of their brand but not a substitution for their magazine.
Filmic
fig. 6
Filmic is a purely online British film magazine. Compared to Empire Magazine and Little White Lies, Filmic has an extremely small subscription of 9 followers and an overall count of 2238 document views (issuu.com, 2012). Filmic is ‘an ongoing film endeavour, fuelled by Orange Wednesdays and other cheap cinema offers’ trying to bring ‘an eclectic mix of old, new and independent films, reviews
and previews by the clever and opinionated Adam Musgrave and design by Hayley Moore’ (Ibid). This is a similar rationale to Little White Lies, where they focus on more than just the blockbusters that Empire Magazine advertises. This essay uses Filmic as a case study as an example of the new production of magazines. Filmic does not have regular issues but publishes them when the creators have time to write and design them. This is reminiscent of ‘zines’ (independent magazines often photocopied, hand-bound and hand-distributed), although now in a digital
Digital ‘zines’ create format.
a foreground for individual’s views, expressions and design, while costing virtually nothing. With the
expansion of technology, digital ‘zines’ are the next step in interacting with the media around us. Instead of a simple comment left on a blog, these digital ‘zines’ explore new ways to critic and inform different audiences. Vandendorpe (2009) states that ‘It is obvious that the static world of printed matter cannot meet the needs of a society in which a large proportion of the workforce is employed in producing or processing information’ (pg 161.). This is important to note as digital ‘zines’ can be reedited and distributed across different mediums (such as tablets and smartphones). Kress (2003) describes this as ‘hypertextuality’,
technological advances in print rather than the social connotations that Marshall states. Filmic’s design, as they use the same embedded software as Little White Lies, is unchanged from print’s dimensions (fig explaining that ‘[T]he user can ‘write back’ to the producer of a text with no difficulty [...] and it permits the user to enter into an entirely new relation with all other texts- the notion of hypertextuality’ (pg 5.). If we were to see digital ‘zines’ as a response to the culture around us then they would be the extreme example of ‘hypertextuality’ and interactivity. Marshall (2004) views this explosion of individual publications similar to Filmic from a different side, explaining that ‘New forms of communication are only partially determined by their technology and are shaped from social and cultural conditions, and from the various manners in which cultural expression, and intentions are conveyed’ (pg 1.). This is directly opposing the theory of technological determinism, as Marshall is stating that it is society that changes expression rather than new technology. However,
They have no hyperlinks or embedded trailers so are not necessarily using the digital medium to its fullest. However, 6).
Renard (2006) says that ‘In the 1970s magazines were still setting type using hot lead. In the early 1980s large-run magazines were still printing using letterpress. (An interesting side note: Just twenty-five years ago the magazine industry was using the same technologyletterpress- that Gutenberg invented five hundred years ago.) In the 1990s we learned to make digital plates, which resulted in speeds and accuracy never before thought possible. Now in the twentyfirst century we have streamlined and adapted into an entirely new phase of the publishing/printing industry. We are exploring new and more effective ways of distributing information’ (pg 22.). Renard concentrates on the
unlike Empire Magazine and Little White Lies, Filmic are not using their publications to create profit. Much like the printed ‘zines’ from years before, Filmic uses the technology that allows cheap distribution for their views.
Con clusion
In conclusion, the advancing technology of the digital age that we now live in, will only affect design in aspects of interactivity. From
the case studies, we can see that it depends greatly on where a magazine earns its audience. Empire Magazine has a solid fan-base with its printed edition, and their iPad edition is an extension of the interactivity. Empire Magazine has used this edition to its fullest, by using scroll boxes, links and embedded trailers.
As technology expands, film magazines will use e-paper to extend the width of their audience with the exciting ability to embed further information that can round out
their articles. As
the cost of printing is abolished, we will find numbers of independent digital ‘zines’, much like Filmic with varying audience sizes and issue regularity. There will be magazines like Little White Lies as well, with a large internet-based following with a small print subscription. Print will always be available, but it will become less about the information it gives, and more about the style it creates. Cotton (2002) concedes that ‘Of course we all know it’s not as simple as this- we know that people love books [...] they like collecting objects [...] People are collectors, they like the physical evidence of their culture, they like the beauty and diversity of printed books, the convenience and style of magazines [...]’ (pg 222.). As Kress (2003) concludes, ‘Just as the medium of the book, in its reciprocal relations with writing, shaped that mode and what that mode could do, so the new relations of
the medium of screen and with the mode of writing will shape all aspects of the form of writing. This is beginning to happen already, and it will reshape the possibilities of the arrangements of knowledge, information and ideas’ (pg 20.).
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