"Notice anything?" asked the New York Times a few months ago, in an enigmatic subhead the morning its slightly revised typefaces first appeared in print. Your Yale Alumni Magazine has made some changes too, but there's no point in our trying to be enigmatic. With new typefaces, new formats, and a new logo, our makeover is hard to miss.
There are two reasons for the change. One is cosmetic; we've been hearing from readers who find the magazine difficult to read, and we wanted to make the entire layout clearer and more open. Our designer, Abbott Miller of the firm Pentagram, opened up white space on nearly every page to make the layout less predictable and more inviting. He chose two readable and graceful typefaces (Kievit, by Mike Abbink, and Miller -- no relation to Abbott -- by Matthew Carter). He also created a standard headline style for feature articles, to give us more internal consistency.
The other reason we redesigned is that we needed places to put some additions to our content. The magazine's features and its editorial approach remain the same: as our statement of purpose says, we strive to "evoke Yale as it was in the past, portray Yale in all its complexity today, and thoughtfully probe the opportunities and challenges confronting Yale in the future." But we've added several departments that will allow us to cover Yale more fully and to open a window on alumni life. For instance:
Q&A: Rick Levin. Our tongue-in-cheek title for this department is "Ask Rick." And we will; we'll hold a bimonthly conversation with Yale's president -- this one features the budget deficit -- and report it to you. We welcome suggestions for questions.
Findings. This section of short pieces on new research gives us the space to report more thoroughly on the intellectual work of the university.
Arts & Culture, We used to review books by alumni and, occasionally, profile alumni authors. Now, we'll also review movies, visual arts, dance, theater, and music by alumni, and we'll profile alumni working in arts of all kinds.
Where They Are Now. Here, we'll offer two short Q&As with alumni. Over time, we plan to introduce you to the wide, wonderful, and endlessly varied spectrum of your fellow alums.
Alumni Notes. Any browser of the class notes can tell you that the secretaries and their correspondents are highly entertaining writers. We have added pullquotes (short excerpts in larger type) to showcase the Old Blue talent.
Scene on Campus. Yale is nothing if not visually interesting. We will feature one piece of it here in every issue.
And finally, a word about our new logo. The magazine's logo has fluctuated wildly over our 112 years, hitting every high and low of typeface fashion. (See Last Look) We've sought to represent Yale and its alumni in a style as clear, dignified, and timeless as possible. One of the aspects I like best about this incarnation is that it feels both new and old; it is entirely contemporary, yet it's a direct descendant of the white-on-blue felt banners that have decorated undergraduates' rooms and been hoisted at football games for decades. For a magazine charged with covering Yale's past, present, and future, there's nothing more fitting. 