IL newspaper magazine N. 120, 2020 restyling

Francesca Occhionero wrote about her restyling of IL magazine:

When I was asked to redesign the logo for IL by IlSole24ore (the main Italian financial newspaper) and its whole graphic layout, there were two facts to take into account:

1. I used to be a reader of the magazine in my university years and I was a fan of Francesco Franchi’s infographic mania.
2. I built my career around fashion magazines, L’Uomo Vogue first and L’Officiel Hommes afterwards, so I was raised in the school of image supremacy.

IL magazine already possessed a glorious graphic history and I didn’t want to compete in the same field. My aim was to design an elegant package for beautiful visuals where the reader could find himself at ease month by month. I didn’t want anything cool, trendy or over designed but I wanted the pages to look light, easy to read and surrounded by white space to frame brilliant texts by prestigious writers. The goal was to create somewhat of a fashion almanac for gentlemen supported by engaging content. I also developed a cultural appendix with a bookish, relatively tridimensional treatment where illustrations by Requiescat – a talent I discovered on Instagram – characterize each section, all in black and white.

Therefore, my idea was to first streamline the logo itself which is why it is two very essential lines – both primitive and sleek simultaneously – with the option to get playful with the use of a vivid color palette. I additionally removed the under title “il maschile” as I don’t believe a magazine should have a gender, based on my personal experience as a buyer. For the first cover, I pushed a picture by South African photographer Kent Andreasen; he is a magician of analog and his reportages are so powerful and vibrant that they can make a page sing. I am finding myself to still be in love with magazines, despite all and despite the current times, as you can argue.

I was supported in the execution of the project by Flavia Lunardi of Sezione Grafica, who had already helped me on an Art Basel new business initiative a few months before. She can turn my dreams into typography, as I often say.

It’s always hard to give birth to a concept and then let it go, I have been the art director of L’Officiel Hommes Italia and Paris and I was taking care of literally every detail, even technical, until the moment we would launch the print. In this case, the editorial team has taken over and it’s quite a surprise to discover each time how they will utilize this tool and make it their own.

In Occhionero’s redesign, Brunel and Caslon Ionic (both available from Commercial Classics) are used throughout, from headlines and lead paragraphs to body text. Brunel was used in the optical sizes Brunel Poster, Brunel Hairline, and Brunel Text. Captions, page navigation, and other short text are set in New Rail Alphabet (A2 Type) and the recently released Iki Mono (CAST).