A Contemporary Look

Founded in Rome by Giancarlo Politi in 1967, Flash Art is one of the best-known contemporary art magazines in the world.

In 2017, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the magazine, it was request to develop a redesign project with the purpose of renovating the magazine’s image through a more dynamic and consistent graphic design.

The Design Process

The redesign project was conceived for both the Italian and international edition, and included both the layout design of the magazine and the redefinition of part of the editorial structure of the contents.

The project was approached in a methodical way, starting from the contents—from which to structure the layout—and, only later, taking into consideration the appearance of typographic and iconographic contents.

The Structural Grid

Considering the quantity and variety of the contents, before proceeding to the layout of the graphics, 16 different typographic grids were designed in order to find the one that offered the wider and more balanced range of solutions.

The importance of doing such a thorough work was to achieve maximum consistency and flexibility, in order to stimulate the interest of the readers page after page and issue after issue.

Depth and Dynamism

The prototype magazine that has been produced is characterised by the dynamic composition of the pages, that seem to be animated by overlapping texts and images.

This solution suggests the presence of multiple visual levels, each one characterised by its own rhythm and movement.

In this way, text blocks and images seem to slowly slide on the pages, evoking a perception of typography which is closer to that of the video screen than that of printed paper.

The Covers

The covers have been entirely redesigned by carefully calibrating each detail and by keeping only the essential elements in order to enhance images.

Standard covers are characterised by the image framed within a square—the iconic solution that is typical to Flash Art and that here becomes an exact square—while special covers, featuring a full-page image with stronger visual impact, have also been conceived.

Typography

Even if it was only a draft proposal, also the masthead was redesigned by changing letterforms and eliminating the space between the two words in order to reinforce the perception of the name as one element.

Serif typefaces that was typical to the magazine have been kept on the inside pages but completely dropped from the cover, in order to communicate a renewed and more contemporary image.

An Experimental Project

Through the new layout and complete reviewing of typography, the redesign project offers a wide overview of graphic variations, iconographical solutions, and typographical alternatives.

By dropping the static appearance that characterised it before, the magazine found a new identity oriented towards dynamism and experimentation, both conceived as a key interpretation of contemporary art.

The project was developed as a proposal in the context of a preliminary consultation for the magazine’s art direction, but never implemented.

—Nicola-Matteo Munari