27 November 2013
The only gray thing about this book is the cover. For the rest, Designing News. Changing the World of Editorial Design and Information Graphics is a whirlwind (of information, images, infographics) capable of involving even the most indifferent readers in a debate on the future of journalism. Francesco Franchi (multi award-winning art director of IL, the supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore) plots the course toward a new model of journalism, based on quality and harmony between images and contents, accuracy and continual updating. And in doing so has produced a volume filled with authoritative views and essays (by, among others, Mark Porter, Daniele Codega, Richard Turley and Christian Schwartz). Page after page, it analyzes dozens of publications, revealing their inner workings, errors and strongpoints. The colossi of information live alongside independent and radical magazines and “mooks” (magazine-books devoted to the rediscovery of “slow journalism”). For the author, the solution cannot be limited to redesign, but requires a comprehensive reassessment, with graphic designers, journalists and publishers tacling the problem together (Franchi imagines the emergence of an “editorial-experience designer”). Rather than a project, a paean to good reading and its supporters. Published by Gestalten.
