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A Bad Trip - critique of Budget Travel magazine redesign

Ina Saltz

Byline: Critique by Ina Saltz, principal, Saltz Design

I just can't get past my disappointment that the redesign - described in the editor's letter as "a work in progress" - didn't start with the cover. Budget Travel's dated covers just scream "'80s." The photography is second-rate and singularly uninviting, especially for a travel magazine. (Having the word "Budget" in the title doesn't entitle it to look cheap or tacky.)

The logo - squashed almost beyond recognition - joins the two words in a most awkward way, creating a typographic monstrosity of a counterspace. In fact, all of the cover type is too large, too crowded, and too multicolored. What this magazine needed most was a major cover makeover.

TYPOGRAPHY & GRAPHICS

This is not a full redesign. The front-of-book was revamped and the TOC tweaked. The body copy is unchanged, but the sections of the magazine that have been overhauled use new display type: A fresher slab serif replaced the very dated Impact.

On the second page of the TOC, instead of the bland "Columns and Departments" we get three, multi story, front-of-book sections - "Wonderful World" (love that name!), "Picking the Place," and "Cutting the Cost." The first section, "Wonderful World," is a great improvement over the former repetitively paced columns. Shorter items, a mix of text type, a feeling of fun, and a clean, modular design are all appealing and provide more entry points for the reader. Budget Travel is clearly taking its cues from its high-end travel mag brethren, which have been doing this for years.

The latter two "new" sections have large photo-display openers, but they really only repackage the same columns they replaced. Oddly, the column heads (in a smallish, lightweight sans serif) seem more subdued in their new incarnation. Another unwelcome change: The subheads within the body text are so slight that they can hardly be seen, but the pre-redesign subheads stood out nicely, providing good breaks within the body text.

ACCESSIBILITY

The repackaging of the columns into "Picking the Place" and "Cutting the Cost" might be more welcoming if a welter of fractional ads didn't disrupt these sections. Budget Travel does a good job of providing entry points with plenty of "number" columns (e.g., "Canada's 15 Biggest Bargains"). But without seeing how this partial redesign will translate into its feature well, it is difficult to say whether overall accessibility will improve. One serious problem is the intrusion of ad gatefolds and special advertising sections in the magazine's editorial wells, which dilute the impact and continuity of its major pieces.

SUMMARY

This partial makeover is a perfect example of why you shouldn't redesign in a piecemeal manner. It's a little like building additions to a house that already has a distinct architectural structure: How, then, do you make it appear organically whole and cohesively conceived? Why not wait until all the pieces are in place and can be proportionally fine-tuned as a unit before launching a redesign? There is a reason why most redesigns are done in this way! However, given the changes made to the front of the book, let's hope for better Budget Travel ahead.

MAGSTATS

Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel

Company: Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc. Editor: Arthur Frommer Publisher: Nancy Telliho Creative director: Pegi Goodman Mission: To present readers with a more organized, user-friendly format.

FACE-LIFTS COMING

BusinessWeek

McGraw-Hill. Last year's tweaks to the back-of-the-book didn't stop the ad erosion, so a thorough overhaul is said to be in the works. Fall.

Art & Auction

LTB Art Limited. New owners are going contemporary with an oversized trim and modern format. June.

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