Time for a change? Breaking the gridlock in the design of the New Yorker

Many of you are New Yorker readers, regularly or casually, and may feel that it is an unmoving rock in a sea of constant graphical change. But it is not without its critics and, recently, a two-part article was published in the online journal Voice: the AIGA Journal of Design from the American Institute of Graphic Arts website (we read about it in the the blog Emdashes) in which critic and scholar K. T. Meaney, formerly of the New York design firm Pentagram, suggests a) that the New Yorker could do with a makeover and b) ways that could be done.

The second part is particularly interesting since critics rarely go to this extent to illustrate and make concrete suggestions, many of which seem very sensible. Meaney, who is currently an adjunct professor at the College of Design at NC State University, says:

I believe that the New Yorker layout is comprehensively flawed and a revision is overdue. Any redesign is up against a begrudging audience of grammatically correct but graphically unconscious * standpatters (and design giants as well). So how do you persuade such obstinate admirers? The answer is, respectfully.