With the tweezers
Guest commentary The SonntagsZeitung's facelift is good for everyone. But Peter Rothenbühler thinks that the paper's redesign has run into de Weck's dead-end knife.
Guest commentary The SonntagsZeitung's facelift is good for everyone. But Peter Rothenbühler thinks that the paper's redesign has run into de Weck's dead-end knife.
The new layout of the SonntagsZeitung is not a stroke of genius. Nor does it have to be. The paper has always had a good look. And it would be ill-advised to attempt to top the fantastic design of the NZZ am Sonntag. Mission impossible, and the designers obviously went about their work with this in mind: almost a little hesitantly. I would call it design with tweezers. The result looks like "changer pour changer". Well, the six-column pagination is more reader-friendly. Otherwise, however, the lifting does not bring any significant improvements. The page structure remains the same (thank you!). What's new are a few short food sections and two or three new columnists (I'm looking forward to Markus Gisler).
When I sleepily picked up the SonntagsZeitung and read "new today" above the logo, I first thought: just like in Migros. And then: Let's hope so. It took me a while to realize: Aha, layout pimped! If you take a closer look, you'll notice that the color bars on the opening pages are the most striking. Similar to the English Quality Sunday papers. So it can't be wrong. Only the colors are a bit more pastel than in the Sunday Times, and the logo blue on page one has something hungry about it (I liked the richer version better).
What is annoying, however, is the orgy of capital letters in these tear bars. Hurts the eyes. Stupid fashion thing, contradicts all the rules of the art, needs to be reconsidered. Newspaper psychologists read highly political things out of the smallest changes: Why has the DE WECK name been reduced in size so massively, and even the photo of "RdW"? Is it rank or stupidity? DE WECK used to be a brand, and - boom - it came across as a logo. Today, the name is just a meagre headline.
My money is on stupidity. Because the new design of the column headings is also brainless in other respects: to stick with Roger de Weck. So you read undifferentiated: "De Weck, Wir laufen ins Sackmesser, Der Publizist Roger de Weck lebt in Zürich und Berlin, Er kam, sah und gehen ...". Surely the title "Wir laufen ins Sackmesser" does not belong to the good Roger de Weck, but directly to "Er kam, sah und ging", i.e. the beginning of the text. As we all know, readers read from top to bottom. And they want order!
But these are just details. Overall, the new SonntagsZeitung from Tamedia has become more elegant and attractive. Double readers can now tell the difference between the original and the "Me Too" product from Falkenstrasse much better (and on every page). Conclusion: the facelift is good for everyone.
> Peter Rothenbühler is editor-in-chief of Le Matin and Le Matin Dimanche.
The new layout of the SonntagsZeitung is not a stroke of genius. Nor does it have to be. The paper has always had a good look. And it would be ill-advised to attempt to top the fantastic design of the NZZ am Sonntag. Mission impossible, and the designers obviously went about their work with this in mind: almost a little hesitantly. I would call it design with tweezers. The result looks like "changer pour changer". Well, the six-column pagination is more reader-friendly. Otherwise, however, the lifting does not bring any significant improvements. The page structure remains the same (thank you!). What's new are a few short food sections and two or three new columnists (I'm looking forward to Markus Gisler).
When I sleepily picked up the SonntagsZeitung and read "new today" above the logo, I first thought: just like in Migros. And then: Let's hope so. It took me a while to realize: Aha, layout pimped! If you take a closer look, you'll notice that the color bars on the opening pages are the most striking. Similar to the English Quality Sunday papers. So it can't be wrong. Only the colors are a bit more pastel than in the Sunday Times, and the logo blue on page one has something hungry about it (I liked the richer version better).
What is annoying, however, is the orgy of capital letters in these tear bars. Hurts the eyes. Stupid fashion thing, contradicts all the rules of the art, needs to be reconsidered. Newspaper psychologists read highly political things out of the smallest changes: Why has the DE WECK name been reduced in size so massively, and even the photo of "RdW"? Is it rank or stupidity? DE WECK used to be a brand, and - boom - it came across as a logo. Today, the name is just a meagre headline.
My money is on stupidity. Because the new design of the column headings is also brainless in other respects: to stick with Roger de Weck. So you read undifferentiated: "De Weck, Wir laufen ins Sackmesser, Der Publizist Roger de Weck lebt in Zürich und Berlin, Er kam, sah und gehen ...". Surely the title "Wir laufen ins Sackmesser" does not belong to the good Roger de Weck, but directly to "Er kam, sah und ging", i.e. the beginning of the text. As we all know, readers read from top to bottom. And they want order!
But these are just details. Overall, the new SonntagsZeitung from Tamedia has become more elegant and attractive. Double readers can now tell the difference between the original and the "Me Too" product from Falkenstrasse much better (and on every page). Conclusion: the facelift is good for everyone.
> Peter Rothenbühler is editor-in-chief of Le Matin and Le Matin Dimanche.
