Blueprint magazine celebrates 30 years with a new look


The relaunch of Blueprint sees the magazine go bimonthly with a bold new design and more than double the editorial content.


1983

Launched in 1983 by Peter Murray and Deyan Sudjic (with financial backing from major UK design world figures including Terence Conran and Richard Rogers) Blueprint - one of the world's best-loved architecture and design magazines - will celebrate its 30th birthday this year. To coincide with this milestone the magazine has unveiled a bold new look, and has changed from a monthly to a bimonthly publication.

In a sense the new format is bucking the trend for editorial to be made available free and in digital form. The relaunch issue runs to 280 pages, with specially commissioned photography given plenty of room to breathe, in-depth articles by the likes of journalist Owen Hatherley and author Philip Pullman, and high-quality paper-stock making the publication feel more permanent than most magazines.

1985

Johnny Tucker, who took over as editor of Blueprint in 2011, says: 'Blueprint's 30th anniversary is a key moment in the history of this magazine, which was started by Deyan Sudjic and Peter Murray, who now head up the Design Museum and New London Architecture respectively.

1988

'We thought this was not only the perfect time to celebrate Blueprint's illustrious past, but also to move it on to its next phase, with a complete redesign. Blueprint has always been an opinionated magazine that invites its readers to engage with it; now, at some 280 pages every other month, it demands some quality time.

'Blueprint has evolved into a premium magazine that's both beautiful and, in time-honoured Blueprint fashion, acerbic and challenging. It's the place to hear the voices of world architecture - with this issue alone featuring six Pritzker-prize winners - and design, with contributions from the likes of Thomas Heatherwick, Paul Smith, Marc Newson, Terence Conran and Philippe Starck.'

1997

Over the years, the look and feel of Blueprint has changed with the times, but a common thread runs through - both in terms of design and editorial vision.

1999

2006

Overseen by current art director Wes Mitchell, the latest redesign (pictured below) is bold and clean and brings Blueprint up to date while also making subtle references to its 30-year history.

Mitchell says: 'Six years since it was last redesigned, this latest incarnation sees the magazine becoming a premium architecture, design and art publication that maintains Blueprint's unique identity and everything it stands for.

2013

'The new masthead font, Reduct, designed by Dylan Kendle of the design collective Tomato is a twist on the classic stencil font of Blueprint's origin. A different approach was taken by adding the issue number to highlight our longevity and by taking it across the width of the cover as a nod to the original design.

'Working closely with Ewan Buck and Ian Hart on the masthead and design, I took the three main sections and through a number of devices, including an increase in paper weight, with both matt and silk stocks, differentiated the new "fast forward", "play" and "review" sections of the magazine. Two fonts are now used throughout, Gotham and Publico, in varying weights and hierarchies allowing us to change the pace and feel with clear definition for each section.

'To help delineate the increase in editorial content - some 200 pages of pure editorial in each issue - we introduced bold section dividers doubling as contents pages as clear markers. And the much larger feature section ("play") allows us to make the most of the fantastic imagery, much of it commissioned by us, and to give it room to breathe and come alive.

'This 30th anniversary issue also includes an archive section that brings together the old covers with the cover star telling us now about those times. It's a fantastic showcase of the evolution of Blueprint.'

The new blueprint magazine will be officially launched at a special event held at designjunction on 17 September; a party to celebrate the magazine's 30th birthday will take place in October.

Click here to subscribe to Blueprint.


 








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