http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/ Archive of the design work of Stephen Coates, former art director of Eye, Blueprint magazines and responsible for redesigns of titles such as New Scientist and New Statesman. en Copyright 2008 Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:16:42 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss More on The Drawbridge here]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/the_drawbridge_has_been_select/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/the_drawbridge_has_been_select/ Magazines/newspapers Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:16:42 +0000 Crafts, the bi-monthly magazine published by the Crafts Council. The magazine's subtitle 'The magazine for contemporary craft' hints at the gap which the editorial manages to bridge between a contemporary practice which has more in common with art and design, and traditional handmade craft disciplines such as pottery, basket-weaving and so on. http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/crafts_acting_art_director_200/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/crafts_acting_art_director_200/ Magazines/newspapers Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:17:12 +0000 January 25th - February 23rd 2008, White Cube Mason's Yard]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/marc_quinn_evolution/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/marc_quinn_evolution/ Catalogues Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:01:28 +0000 Landscape format catalogue for White Cube show of the Canadian artist's monochrome work. Linen and paper-wrapped board covers. Printed duotone plus varnish by Trefolio in Verona. http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/jeff_wall_black_and_white_phot/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/jeff_wall_black_and_white_phot/ Catalogues Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:10:18 +0000 http://www.esbphotography.com]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/elisabeth_scheder_bieschin_web/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/elisabeth_scheder_bieschin_web/ Identity Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:30:27 +0000 White Cube gallery, Hoxton Square]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/doris_salcedo/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/doris_salcedo/ Catalogues Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:04:51 +0000 Text for an article about scale for an upcoming book on art direction edited by Steve Heller. The initial idea for The Drawbridge's format grew out of discussions with its publisher, Giuseppe Mascoli, and its editor, Bigna Pfenninger. Choosing a large broadsheet was an antidote to the conventions of the contemporary literary magazine. But we didn't only want to be bigger than our peer magazines; we also wanted to be broader in scope. So we carry writing from philosophers (Slavoj Zizek, Noam Chomsky), politicians (Gerry Adams, Hugo Chavez), historians (Eric Hobsbawm) as well contemporary fiction by authors ranging from Isabel Allende to Irvine Welsh. On the front page of our current issue we have a specially commissioned music score composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto. We wanted to engage the intelligent reader in the text but also make the paper a visual treat. From the outset we intended to give equal space and billing to image-makers and writers. Contributors are simply given the theme of the issue and asked to respond - the brief is no tighter than that. For illustrators especially, this is a great chance to express themselves on a bigger canvas than commercial commissions normally allow. Paul Davis and Millie Simpson, who work as Drawings Editor and Photography Editor respectively, should take the credit for getting in some brilliant images. We were very conscious that most contemporary newspapers were heading in the opposite direction, leaving the broadsheet format behind, which made it more attractive to us. Though it was in no way a reactionary move on our part. I had worked on a few newspaper redesigns where publishers were downsizing their papers, which drew my attention to their former larger scale. They had hardly ever used their size advantage unless there was a really big news story, so the opportuntity had usually been wasted. Only the advertisers used the format to their advantage and benefited from the impact of full-page imagery. In terms of layout The Drawbridge is quite a puzzle to put together and the constraints are different to standard newspaper layouts. Many of our texts, for instance, are short stories and cannot be cut in length. We try never to crop imagery and there are only two headline sizes to play with. So even though the pages are big, they are rather inflexible. Obviously in proportional terms the display typography will occupy less area on the page than with a smaller format, for example a 36pt headline on a broadsheet page as opposed to a 36pt headline on a A4 page. When you are designing on a screen at a reduced scale, you are tempted to enlarge the article headlines for greater impact. Yet, in fact, more restrained typography makes the scale of the illustrative material stand out more distinctly due to the contrast. The very meaning of the word 'graphic' is an effect resulting from contrasts: light and dark, thick and thin, big and small. Contrast is a fundamental visual tool. Illustration is a lot less flexible and more difficult to use at a bigger scale than photography is, because you have to allow for the size of the original. Illustrations have to be specifically commissioned for our double page spread slot (e.g. Paul Davis in issue 4). In photography the only original is reality. The majority of photographic imagery we use - no matter how big we reproduce it - is a reduction in scale of what it depicts. Take a look through any newspaper, and the same will be true. So you have a lot more scope in using contrasting scales with photography and I'd like to explore this further in future issues. The impact of our large format amongst both readers and contributors has been very positive. Of course it creates problems for distribution, some bookshops find it awkward, shelves don’t cater for oversize publications, but I think this is far outweighed by its distinctiveness and the loyalty of its increasing number of fans. SC, June 2008 Nominated in Design Week's 'Hot Fifty Hot Fifty People/Things Making a Difference in Design'. 29.02.08 "In this age of on-line blogs, it is refreshing to see an independent magazine that gives good copy on a mix of cultural and social issues and blends it with great art direction." More MagCulture comment Issue 4 reviewed in The Guardian 10.03.07: "While most newspapers have become more compact in recent years, The Drawbridge bucks the trend. A quarterly printed on a parchment whose girth commuters haven't encountered since Pooter was sauntering down the Holloway Road." More www.thedrawbridge.org.uk Paul Davis's brilliant centre spread drawing from issue 4 'The planets of un-failure' is now available as a limited-edition print. Click here to order]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/thedrawbridge_2006/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/thedrawbridge_2006/ Magazines/newspapers Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:00:19 +0000 Events program for the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt. 210 x 105 landscape format http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/judisches_museum_program/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/judisches_museum_program/ Identity Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:38:06 +0000 Hastings Museum]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/gary_hume_prints/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/gary_hume_prints/ Catalogues Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:36:26 +0000 Order a copy here Article by Dutch journalist, Han Hos: The rhythm of paragraphs The Drawbridge is the name of a quarterly newspaper. It's not so much a newspaper, but more a heavily illustrated periodical printed in full-colour. Most of the content is fiction but it also includes articles on art, politics and philosophy. The first issue appeared two years ago and the quarterly has already built up a formidable reputation. At the beginning of 2007, the first book appeared under the imprint of ''Drawbridge Books''. The book's designer is Stephen Coates, who is also The Drawbridge's Art Director. The publication is a short story called The Red Tenda of Bologna by John Berger, the socially engaged artist, critic, playwright, poet, essayist and filmmaker who won the Booker Prize in the early seventies. ''John Berger gave the story to our publisher Giuseppe Mascoli as a gift,'' explains Stephen coates, ''and we decided to produce it in book form to promote The Drawbridge, but also as a thank-you to Berger for his support of the paper.'' The book is published in both English and Italian. The Italian edition has already sold out, so that a reprint is necessary. The subtle story is about a man who, in the Italian city of Bologna, tries to revive the dim memories of an uncle who he was able to get on well with. In a the traditional Bolognese drapery store, he buys three metres of red fabric which is used in the city for awnings. It was after all, the colour which his uncle took particular liking to. Drawbridge's Drawings Editor Paul Davis was responsible for the illustrations in the book. ''His brilliant drawings provided some fixed points to the counterbalance Berger's musings on memory. The story is a kind of sleepwalk through the streets of Bologna, with various buildings and scenes evoking a man's childhood memories. The illustrations act as fragments of these memories, although they do not all relate directly to the text,'' Coates informs us. Coates made a conscious choice to begin each new paragraph, however short, on a new page. ''Berger had sometimes expressed a preference for retaining line spaces between paragraphs for a number of his Drawbridge articles. The effect of this slightly longer pause is to fracture the text into strings of single ideas, scene descriptions or sections of dialogue. With this idea in mind, I followed the discipline of using one paragraph per page, the length of the longest determining the size of the page and the total number of paragraphs deciding the extent of the book. One of the effects of this is to give dramatic emphasis to short paragraphs - for instance pages that contain only the words ''I nod'' or ''He mops his brow''. ]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/books/the_red_tenda_of_bologna_2007/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/books/the_red_tenda_of_bologna_2007/ Books Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:09:51 +0000 An identity for a publisher, a spin-off imprint from The Drawbridge which launches with a limited edition of a short story by John Berger. A simple rotation and merging of the initals DB produces a iconic gargoyle-like face. http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/drawbridge_books_2007/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/identity/drawbridge_books_2007/ Identity Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:17:27 +0000 Read the full review here ]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/books/the_theatre_of_the_face_2007/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/books/the_theatre_of_the_face_2007/ Books Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:07:36 +0000 MagCulture comment]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/so_london_2007/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/so_london_2007/ Magazines/newspapers Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:34:07 +0000 More on the show]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/anselm_kiefer_aperiatur_terra/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/catalogues/anselm_kiefer_aperiatur_terra/ Catalogues Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:54:18 +0000 Winner Best front Cover and Best Typography, UK Press Gazette Awards 2006; Current Affairs Magazine of the Year, 2006 from the British Society of Magazine Editors Interview with Jeremy Leslie for MagCulture Was the redesign a complete overhaul including editorial as well as design? The redesign brief contained several new editorial ideas. In response to that we also introduced some new organisation and structural innovations. The flat plan was a subject for much discussion and we made several dummies with different sequences to convince the team of the structural changes. Was there a distinct change in editorial direction or simply an updating of the same direction? The new editor John Kampfner had been in the job a few months before we were brought in. His ambition was to make the magazine 'a treat' both visually and editorially. He introduced a sharper satirical humour with new columnists such as Julian Clary, and a play called 'Neighbours from Hell'. While he wanted to retain many of the traditional elements that identifiy the magazine as a news weekly, and NS loyal readership were happy to see that their favourite writers and columnists such as John Pilger were retained, there is probably a greater mix of voices than before. Does the description left- or right-wing matter any more? We were very keen to get away from the 'angry' typography of red and black all caps headlines which seemed to represent a constituency that was less visually sophisticated. Upper and lower serif headings gave a calmer more considered feel and made the writing seem more authoritative. Why the increase in page size - an interesting bucking of the current trend toward smaller formats? It gives the impression that you are getting more content, though that wasn't the chief intention. We wanted to let the features breathe and allow for white space and strong display typography. The space and change of pace possible with a larger page size meant that more feature layout options would give the magazine a distinctly different feel. There a no conscious increase or decrease in the word-count What fonts are used? The serif font is Documenta from the Dutch Type Library - including a specially cut headline version used on covers - and Fresco Sans for support typography. Finally, is there one single thing you feel that underpins your design for the magazine? The cover is perhaps the most radical change in the magazine's design approach and signals an emphasis on strong stories and excellent writing (where NS can better compete with its immediate rivals) rather than a reliance on producing a sensational news image every week. ]]> http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/new_statesman_2006/ http://www.stephencoates.co.uk/magazines/new_statesman_2006/ Magazines/newspapers Tue, 05 Dec 2006 18:59:25 +0000