Photos: Ray Ally
Last week the new look China Daily newspaper landed on my doorstep. Launched on March 1st to coincide with the opening of China’s National Peoples Congress in Beijing. The newspaper has made many new changes in editorial and content as well as implementing a bold new design.
China Daily is the official Chinese government English language newspaper launched in 1981. It has a circulation of over 300,000 and reaches 150 countries. The redesign makes a modern statement and refreshes the previous outdated and traditional image.
The most obvious feature is the new masthead. Replacing the old fashioned and crude serif font with a bolder, modern Futura sans serif font. The Chinese characters 中国日报 (Zhōngguó Rìbào), previously in red, have been reduced in size and play a secondary role beneath the English name. It reminds me a little of the Guardian, but that’s not a bad thing, as the redesigned Guardian did win the Newspaper Design of the Year in 2006 and 2008.
A new font has been specially designed for the newspaper, based on a traditional typeface, but given a modern feel to improve readability. Interestingly The Times in London, was the first newspaper to commission its own typeface back in 1931. Designed by Stanley Morrison, the font Times New Roman became an industry standard for newspapers and books around the world.
The layout of information inside the China Daily has been given a cleaner look, with more use of white space. This creates a more interesting and visually appealing page layout. Although this may sound theoretical to those not in the design industry, you can clearly see the difference when you compare the old design to the new one.
The new design looks good, is easier to read and is a huge improvement on the previous design. Although the new look brings China Daily into the 21st century, it won’t win any awards for its design and layout. As it still has a long way to go before it can sit alongside the innovative designs of the world class, Guardian or New York Times.
Surprising, at the recent Society of Newspaper Design Awards in 2009, the world’s best designed newspapers were from Moscow, Athens Paço De Arcos, Mexico City and Berlin. Take a look at the site and you’ll see how the best in the world do it. Combining modern design and layout, with powerful visual photography and illustration to communicate a story’s message.
China Daily has come a long way, but as the saying goes; “Even the journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step”. I think the newspaper has made a giant leap into the future, but still has many steps to take in becoming a truly world class newspaper.
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The new designs do look a bit like the Guardian but nowhere near as good. But definitely its a lot better than the old one!