…RIP CMYK

Words Alyn Griffiths..The current generation of young creatives would struggle to remember life without online magazines and blogs such as Dezeen, ArchDaily and Designboom drip-feeding them news and imagery of the latest products and buildings before the paint on them has even dried. Any questions over the credibility of online journalism or the viability of operating a digital design publication as a profitable enterprise are gradually being answered by innovative individuals with the passion and ability to share inspirational and novel projects with a global audience of millions – something that traditional print magazines can only dream of.

For practising architects and designers, students or anyone else with an interest in creative disciplines, the possibility to source coverage of the latest buildings and products outside of the pages of venerable journals and publications, such as Building Design, Architectural Digest, I.D. and Domus, has been revolutionary.

It took time for the perception of digital media to evolve and for online resources to develop a reputation for quality journalism but gradually, as architects and designers began to entrust images and details of their latest projects to websites who could upload them immediately, legacy publications were left trailing in their wake.

“People’s acceptance of ways of consuming content online has changed,” explains Marcus Fairs, who founded online design news website Dezeen in 2006 after being fired from his position at Icon magazine. “When I told people I was thinking of starting Dezeen they said the internet wasn’t as pleasant or profound as paper media, that it would never work.” Dezeen now attracts more than one million unique visitors every month.

We decided to focus on online as the fastest, most immediate and most adaptable source of news for our readers.”As visual disciplines, architecture and design are particularly compatible with the format of online publication, which holds several distinct advantages over print media. The story of a great building or product can often be told through images alone, and the only real restriction as to what can be published online is the patience of the reader. “With print media you had to make decisions about what images you would use and how to crop and present them, but with the infinite storage capacity of the web you can publish anything and everything,” states Marcus Fairs. Publishing design content online also has practical advantages for readers, such as the possibility to link articles to related content from previous features or other websites.”The ability to link allows you to build in a different kind of depth,” explains Fairs.

”With conventional publications, once you’d read them they went in the archive or the bin. Now you put a story up and a so-called rival can link to it within 30 seconds so the kudos of being first is diluted. It’s led to less confrontational journalism” says Fairs.

Linking to external sites enables readers to follow the latest developments in design, wherever they are taking place, and discover inspirational ideas from unexpected sources.

Good design has a global appeal, as demonstrated by the readership of Dezeen, which follows the pattern of internet penetration, although with a bias towards English-speaking countries. Recently Fairs has noticed an increase in the number of projects being submitted to Dezeen from Asia, and particularly Japan. “We’ve started to overcome the sort of language barriers that existed in the past,” he believes.

The announcement on the Design Week website that the magazine would no longer be landing on readers’ doormats every Thursday provoked a backlash of disgruntled comments, such as those claiming “I won’t be half as inclined to browse endless web pages for inspiration” and “it will become another bookmark that would never be visited”. However, Angus Montgomery believes these dissenting voices are in the minority. “Design titles are incredibly fortunate to have a readership that is web literate, very forward-thinking and willing to embrace change.”

For the publishers, the main hurdle to be overcome is not acceptance of the new format but the unwillingness of readers to pay for it. Being unable to rely on revenue from sales and subscriptions means they are required to be more imaginative in the ways in which they generate income. “The written and image driven content that is the core of Dezeen is free and really acts as a loss leader,” explains Marcus Fairs. “The key thing is to put up an endless stream of fascinating and compelling content to attract an audience, and once you have the audience you can think of ways to monetise that, through advertising or other things.”

Former I.D. magazine editors Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov have managed to create such a brand with their website SightUnseen, which they founded after I.D.was shuttered in 2009. Working from their homes in New York City and utilising their extensive contacts and experience,the pair offer readers a behind-the-scenes look at the design industry, with visits to designers’studios and homes and content written and photographed for them by inspirational creatives from around the world. “We wanted to do something that was about more than news,” explains Jill Singer.The voyeuristic nature of the content and the unusual vantage point that it offers on the creative industries appeals to designers, but also to a general lifestyle audience with whom the pair are now exploring new ways in which to interact, such as events curation, publishing their own book and selling jewellery by designers they like. “People look at what we do as a curatorial thing,” claims Singer. “They like our point of view and who we choose to cover and that can translate into many different areas.”

In some cases, editorial content can take on a more subsidiary but no less significant role in online brand building. When architects Nils Becker and Tobias Lutz decided to launch a website in 2003, providing fellow architects

“We wanted to do something that was more than news.”
Jill Singer SightUnseen

and interior designers with a comprehensive and curated database of outstanding contemporary products, they recognised that including a section of trend-based articles on the site would help to engage visitors and enhance their profile as an intelligent and independent resource. “We don’t make money from the editorial content but it is important for the brand,” explains Nils Becker.

Controlling what is published while still keeping up with the demand for more open and cooperative content will be one of the main challenges for digital design publications in the coming years, as the evolution of hardware and software continues to enable increased flexibility and interaction within online media.

Those publishers who are able to provide commentary on the current state of architecture and design in a form that is credible, useful and beautiful will establish brands that allow them to expand into new areas of service provision, offering a creative and receptive audience the chance to explore new digital and physical experiences.”I often describe building a community around a blog as being a bit like the Wild West,” proclaims Marcus Fairs. “It’s anarchic and quite dangerous but we will build a civilisation there, we will figure out what’s accept- able and what’s not and then maybe it will become normal.” The signs so far are clearly positive as pioneering publishers forge new frontiers in digital media that look set to redefine the ways in which we consume and engage with design.