Quote, unquote: the Globe and Mail's "grubby" redesign

The Globe redesign’s a bit of a mess – what happens when designers are given too much latitude, I’d say…
Generally, it’s much too fussy: too many rules, the type is too cramped and everything is crammed in – would be better if the stories were well written but, as usual, the Globe writing style is more verbose than elegant (unlike, say, The Guardian which has marvelous, quirky, writers).

I think they tried to hard to be cutting edge, without thinking about their readers. The original prototypes were worse – they changed the masthead to something that would NOT have printed on the new press.

Biggest problem, in my humble op, is that the paper now looks grubby – that was what we were trying to get away from in 1990 . . .
Ah, well, the readers will get used to it . . . what option is there – the Tubby’s (National Post) as crap as ever and the Star is beyond the pale.

-- Tony Sutton, of News Design Associates (who handled the elegant Globe redesign in 1990), quoted on the Toronto Freelance Editors and Writers discussion group about the latest version.