<i>Libération</i>’s New Layout
The French paper Libération changed its layout on October 13th. I had not had the occasion to take a look at it, but on Friday, I just couldn’t resist: I had to buy it just to see…
Well, first thought, “here we go, another paper which tried to get a trendy look, website-like”, which, in my eyes, is a somewhat negative thought. Sans-serif fonts have invaded the pages (a bit too much for my humble tastes), Minion has been given up (I really love the ‘Q’, ‘j’ and ‘y’ in this typeface) and replaced by something thicker with an ugly ‘3’ and lots of fantasy typefaces. I am also going to miss Matrix Script which I had got used to…
Then I saw the headers and sighed… Le Monde has no reason to worry yet. The whole thingy looks like it’s been done to please the young reader – quite okay with me, except that it seems to me that I’m not in the target – and to keep an eye on the Internet. Well, just a slight detail: there’s no hyper-text link in a paper… But, hey, they managed to insert a review for a porn on DVD.
One good thing, though, the Gotham font, by the Hoefler Type Foundry, looks quite good in any size, especially the Gotham Condensed Book and Medium characters.
