History shown the door at The Advertiser

Has anyone noticed that the masthead on The Advertiser has changed? I certainly did. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m studying document design and seem to be permanently assessing a document’s ‘worthiness’, but no one else in my household noticed it or thought it was particularly interesting once I brought it to their attention…

Then, an article appeared in the Australian on Sept 11, discussing The Advertiser’s ‘fresh new look.’ Apparently the old masthead had been part of The Advertiser for 150 years, since the newspaper was founded. The editor of the paper, Mel Mansell, learnt that the masthead did not conform to any known type face or recognised family of type whilst trying to research its origins. It’s is highly likely that it was hand drawn.

So the very old masthead was disposed of to make way for a new one set in Minion Pro font. The paper is aiming for a ‘cleaner and more modern look’ with a typeface that ‘was less intricate and more attractive, but retained strength and authority.’ Hmmm… I just think it looks boring.

To me, that old masthead is part of what makes up South Australia. It’s as much a part of our heritage as the iconic frog cake or Farmer’s Union Iced Coffee (but with less calories). I could be accused of being particularly resistant to change, but I think the new masthead looks just like every other paper, there is nothing distinctive about it. And the mysterious story behind the old typeface should remain a fundamental part of the paper’s history.

Mansell admits that changing the masthead is a big risk. Also altered is the body text of the paper. It’s now set in Poynter OS Text Two which was ‘created specifically for newspapers in the US’. This change has increased the point size from 8.1 to 8.8, causing the characters to appear taller on the page ‘increasing the white space for the same number of characters published.’ Now this is a design alteration I can get behind.

Additional white space increases the readability of the text (Reep 2006, p.157) and is certainly a valuable commodity in a newspaper, where all that body text can overwhelm readers. My point though, is why couldn’t they combine the new body font with the old masthead? It would certainly produce a strong contrast, which is a huge part of creating an engaging document and creating visual interest (Williams 2004, p.63).

As well as adding to the paper’s visual design, keeping the old masthead would have retained a great sense of tradition and history at The Advertiser. It seems a shame that those hand crafted letters, drawn up by someone well over a century ago, have been cast aside in the name of modernity.

Article: Advertiser's fresh new look
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/72/The_advertiser_masthead.png/280px-The_advertiser_masthead.png
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/

References:
Reep, D 2006, Technical writing: principles, strategies and readings, 6th edn, Pearson Longman, New York.
Williams, R 2004, The non-designer’s design book, 2nd edn, Peachpit Press, Berkley, CA.