CR Blog
The new look BJP
Magazine / Newspaper, Photography
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 9 March 2010, 14:44 Permalink Comments (19)
The British Journal of Photography relaunched last week with an extensive redesign. It's much improved but does it rise to the editor's own challenge of becoming a beautiful photographic magazine?
The relaunch issue is the BJP's 7,774th edition – the magazine started as a monthly title in 1854, changing to a weekly in 1864. 146 years later it reverts to its original monthly format. One reason given for the recent change is that its readers are apparently now more likely to seek out news stories on bjp-online.com, while longer features and analysis still find a more favourable home in print.
The relaunch pushes some new sections within the magazine, including Projects (above) – where series of works are displayed and discussed – and Portfolio, which examines the output of a single photographer. And over its considerable 100 pages, it's clear that the magazine has plenty to say: the content is extensive, with features on established photographers giving way to shorter pieces on new work and reviews.
The cover of the new issue features an arresting image by Reed + Rader, cover lines that work well as a list of contents, while a bold headline supports the main image as the lead story. But it does seem to suffer from a wealth of information fighting for space.
The BJP probably has one of the longest titles out there – 27 characters no less, hence the usual initialism. Coupled with taglines "A Different Take" and "The world's longest-running photography magazine, established 1854", another cover line, all in the upper fifth portion of the cover, it does make for a masthead that feels a little cramped.
The cover, as so many magazines do presently, echoes some of the key stylings that designer and art director Jop van Bennekom has created for titles such as Re- and Fantastic Man. The design of the short-lived Pictured magazine from a few years ago, perhaps also suggested a direction that the new BJP might take (its previous incarnation is shown below).
The BJP before the redesign
Under the creative direction of the BJP's art editor, Mick Moore, a selection of new fonts have also been brought in for the redesign: headings are set in Farnham Display from Font Bureau (currently also used by CR); body text in Skolar from TypeTogether (above – note the ligatures at 'ct' and 'st'); while nibs, captions and panels use the sans serif face, Gotham Narrow, from Hoefler & Frere-Jones.
Interestingly, in his column editor Simon Bainbridge makes the point that "Architects and graphic designers have beautiful magazines to read, so why not professional photographers?"
It's a question that we've raised numerous times in the office ourselves. Despite the preponderance of fantastic photographic work out there, why are there so few devoted photography magazines that have risen to the challenge of being beautiful?
In line with Bainbridge's own questioning, the new issue of the BJP doffs its cap to a selection of magazines that already do photography really well: Amusement, Russian Esquire, Candy, Garden & Gun, Rouleur and The New York Times Magazine (with pages from Ryan McGinley's series of Winter Olympics pictures shown from the latter).
It's a timely feature and alludes to the kind of company that the BJP sees itself amongst, even if the best efforts of van Bennekom are perhaps conspicuously absent.
Looking through the new issue, however, it's clear that the redesign has refreshed the purpose and intent of one of the world's longest running creative titles. It's equally as impressive to see it assert the power of the printed photograph in such turbluent times for publishing.
The British Journal of Photography is on sale the first Wednesday of every month, priced at £6.99. More at bjp-online.com.
19 Comments
I've got my copy of the first edition of BJP's revamp in front of me. I was thrilled to see a redesign and surprised that it had become a monthly. I thought it would become a bi weekly mag. It's a big change for its core customer.
I have a habit of buying monthly photography magazines when I want to keep hold of the mag. With the previous BJP I would see it as an instant fix, read it, scribble on it, cut it up, and then bin it.
I'm not sure if I'll buy the monthly mag on a regular basis. I'd feel bad about binning it afterwards!
I'm not tuned into the 'beautiful' photography line. Beautiful magazine, yes. I'd expect the beautiful photo mag to plunge into imagery and not news, perhaps that can go at the end of the mag. Some of the ads that appear in the BJP are badly designed and bring the mag down with them eg. the Photovoice, Morgan Richardson and Clikpic ads.
I'm forgetting the old design already but I think there is more white space than there used to be. More pages and more space will be a good move. New advertisers will be crucial. The same companies have been advertising in the BJP for a long time.
Maybe BJP will take a cue from Aperture magazines presentation.
If oversize images of new cameras disappear and are replaced by photographers' work that's a good thing.
BJP has given itself more time to find inspiring photographic work to put in its monthly, as well as consider the finer art of typo and images working together. Most photographers appreciate the ideas and concepts behind other photographers works. Change is a good thing for the BJP.
Bit schitzo but that's what I think!
Bip
2010-03-09 20:27:54
As a monthly, do they anticipate improving (perhaps beginning?) distribution in the USA? Or is the UK-centric news angle likely to scupper that? I'm a Brit abroad, and would love to be able to pick up a copy at my local magazine store in NY.
2010-03-09 21:43:18
Foam Magazine is a photography magazine that is quite beautifully designed.
http://www.foammagazine.nl
2010-03-09 23:09:09
think your being really unfair comparing to butt or fantastic man, doesnt look anything like them. and thats not a criticism of the design of the magazine, just doesnt look anything like those other magazines. looks more like something from the simon esterson / mark porter continum. i think
2010-03-09 23:43:28
BJP should be available in the USA from May, we're in negotiations with the distributors, and should have a list of cities and stores covered in the next few weeks.
Olivier Laurent
BJP's news editor
2010-03-10 10:12:14
@ grunge
It was really the cover that we meant with the van Bennekom reference not the whole magazine (and in particular Fantastic Man, we didn't mention Butt). The text has been tweaked to make that clear.
PatrickBurgoyne
2010-03-10 10:15:00
Looks great
2010-03-10 12:59:20
Ben says it's news is UK-centric. Let me assure him that from the perspective of Edinburgh it's London-centric. But perhaps now that it's a monthly it's content might shift and it might be worth purchasing again after a 10 year layoff. Let's see.
2010-03-10 14:04:19
Hmmm..i shall be interested to see how this looks - but i would be surprised if the content has changed much. BJP has always been parochial - much like the photo scene here!
2010-03-10 16:47:46
Yea, looks great.
2010-03-11 08:56:05
I think the revamp is brilliant. The design within is superb and I shall read the magazine as avidly I do with other Arts magazines.
2010-03-11 09:12:15
Really quite funky, reminds me of the old magazines that lie around my Nan's house, but with a contemporary modern twist. I like.
2010-03-12 07:23:01
Simply put, its a huge improvement over the old format. I'm sure they will do more to refine the look moving forward. I especially like the fonts.
I think they did the right thing reverting to monthly (only took 146 years) because it will have more appeal to oversees readers, and therefore people will hopefully see the London photography community as less parochial (although, I agree that it is.)
2010-03-12 14:29:04
The interior looks really good. Sweet typographic detailing and balanced, thoughtful layouts. So why has the masthead ended up as a bit of letterspacing hell?
2010-03-12 15:08:41
Excellent magazine. I haven't visited its website yet so I will take a look.
2010-03-13 00:35:14
From the spreads and cover shown here it looks really conservative to me, it looks a bit like CR too.
2010-03-13 20:57:30
it will be a presente for my friend, excellent!!
2010-03-15 11:41:49
This looks absolutely gorgeous. I might just have to subscribe now that it's monthly.
2010-03-19 16:10:08
has given itself more time to find inspiring photographic work to put in its monthly
2010-07-24 02:46:15
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