As promised, I am posting images from SYNTAX’s redesign project of the Jordan Times. I am preparing full documentation of this project, which will be publish here and on our company site.
For now, here are some images comparing the old and new design, as well as photos taken on at an impossibly late hour on the night of the launch (we went home at 5 am that day :) ).
The positive feedback from readers, friends and colleagues continues. I published some of it already in a previous post.

The Jordan Times: Before and After the SYNTAX redesign

Last edition before redesign Front page of the brand new Jordan Times

The redesign explained

The Jordan Times opinion pages

Printing plates.. ready to roll! Color not quite right yet!
Salam discusses things with the printing press boss Hot off the press!
Ahmad Humeid with Editor Samir Barhoum

Read these related posts on 360east:

  • No related posts

Posted

in

, , ,

by

Tags:

Comments

7 responses to “The Jordan Times redesign comes to life”

  1. MMM Avatar
    MMM

    WOW, I just love it…
    And believe me I’m not being nice here, I truly truly love it.
    I think it looks better, neater, more attractive and more professional. It’s also friendlier to the reader’s eyes.
    Bravo.
    As usual, Syntax ROCKS!

  2. Subzero Blue Avatar
    Subzero Blue

    Newspaper Design
    Just the other day, I was thinking about how badly designed some newspapers were and how they were unfriendly and unattractive to readers. The main problems that just shouted out loud at me were the following: Too many different fonts,…

  3. Eman Avatar
    Eman

    THIS IS BEAUTIFUL, Congratulations on a job PERFECTLY done.

  4. Ed Reno Avatar
    Ed Reno

    Wonderful job, Ahmad. Clean, colorful, and modern—or would that be postmodern?! Be sure to send me the issue which carries the headline on November 3, 2004:

    BUSH DEFEATED: HEADS BACK TO CRAWFORD ON A ONE WAY TICKET

  5. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Ahmad Humeid and the editor of The Jordan Times:

    Well, you have succeeded in turning a newspaper into a magazine. Bravo. Apparently, you did not have journalists actually involved in the design here. Only a broken managerial structure would allow you to use brown for the front page header. This is a newspaper. It has been black since long before time began. There is a reason for that.
    This is not a ‘zine but a newspaper. It should not be regarded as a place for a “design exercise.” I am sure Ahmad and crew would have used black up top but it would have broken up the “color scheme.” There is no doubt that The Jordan Times needed a redesign. Many papers do. USA Today went a route similar to you but found that its readers expect a more serious tone. They dropped a great deal of the ‘zine flavor early on, maintaining full color with lots of pictures and graphics. Even that design and that newspaper are not regarded as truly serious by many. It remains the number one selling newspaper in America. But maybe you have noticed, that is not saying a whole lot, is it? Look to the UK for examples. Syntax must be much akin to the Bush White House: dissenting opinion is scorned.
    A newspaper does not need to be “friendly.” It is a very serious thing. Some consider journalism, and by extension a newspaper, to be a cornerstone of democracy. Color is okay but not when it defeats the modus operandi. A newspaper is supposed to convey serious information in a manner that engenders trust in the reader. Would you want to design a constitution if you had the chance? I am betting it would be in color.
    In one fell swoop you have made The Jordan Times seem like a hobbyist activity. It is there for “entertainment” now and not “information” “opinion” and “argument.” This is a classic mistake where design has overwhelmed content. Perhaps this is what the newspaper deserves. But it is sad none-the-less.
    The reason it is clear there is a management issue at the paper is simple. No clear thinking journalist would have allowed a design to overwhelm the content with “style.” This may have passed through the fluctuating standards of the Middle East, where nouveu style sits side-by-side with the nouveu riche and their golden sofas and five foot green paintings emblazoned with “Allah,” but the rest of the world knows color and “navigation” are not what makes a newspaper great. It is its content.
    Here, you all as a group have created a beautiful model but neglected her soul. I think King Abdullah had higher hopes for you all. Shame on you and shame on the management of The Jordan Times for letting this get so far away from them.
    Designers, I know what you are thinking: “I’m not in charge of content.” That is right. That is where management comes in and says you are overstepping your bounds and forcing content to meet design. That is wrong. I would be willing to bet that you have set limitations on stories and photos based upon your design of the paper.
    When did design set the editorial nature of a newspaper? Yes, there is a happy medium where design, function and editorial control enjoy a happy space. But here the designers have hijacked the newspaper. I am really sorry to see it. Jordan deserves better.

    Regards,

    Ed.
    UK

  6. Ahmad Humeid Avatar
    Ahmad Humeid

    Well Ed. That’s quite a rant there. I don’t know how you came to your conclusion (or Final Judgment) that we “overwhelmed” the content in our design. Have you read the newspaper before and after the redesign and were able to conclude this?? In fact, I personally happen to be a believer that good content is the basis of good design. But I can’t see why good content cannot be presented in a user friendly fashion. That’s like saying that everything serious should look grim.
    The use of the brown/rose color in the masthead can be seen as a drastic departure from the “norms”. But in this day of improved newspaper printing I can’t see why an identity of a newspaper can’t move away from black.
    We took a newspaper that had a jumbled structure and almost no typographic standards and made it easier to read and more logically organized. In fact we have advocated more local coverage, more coverage of the arts and culture and more opinion (not less).
    Look elsewhere if you want to see emblazoned designs done for the “nouveu riche”. I also hope you learn to express your opinions without resorting condescending and rather impolite rants.

  7. Ed Avatar
    Ed

    Well Ahmad I do apologize for the rant. I hope that points tucked neatly within are not missed. I have been a reader of the Jordan Times for years, an avid reader, both before and after the change. I am well familiar with many facets of the paper, more than you will ever know. And though you may regard this too as ‘rant-ful,’ I must endeavor a reply.
    You point out in your reply some problems that you, as a designer, saw clearly in The Jordan Times. And I do believe it is your place to see such things as that is your forte. I do not believe all the blame within my “rant” was placed at your feet.
    The truth of the matter is The Jordan Times had some serious problems editorially and content-wise before the face lift. They were searching for a savior. The fact that you were given such free reign simply underlines the fact that journalists no longer are at the helm of the paper. That is certainly not your fault.
    But the resultant explosion in style and self-congratulations that followed have only served to hide continuing problems at the paper, well evidenced in what it continues to do and not do. A previous ed-in-chief was shipped out to save lost souls elsewhere before his task was done. Unfortunately, those he left stranded did not know which way to paddle. Instead, one way or the other, you came to them. They embraced you like a drowning man.
    Now I fear a newspaper that has the capacity to really serve as a voice in the Middle East to readers not versed in Arabic, a newspaper that has been granted the leeway by King Abd Allah to cover issues in a more objective and open manner than its Arabic brethren, has been whitewashed and granted a new facade, allowing it to hide again — for awhile — from the changes it needs.
    You see, when a newspaper gets redesigned two things should be occurring. Number one, the paper needs to be healthy and fully functioning. Even if the layout is crap or the sections do not follow in a logical fashion people will read it if it has good content. It is at this point that the paper is just asking to have a designer come in and help them refine their presentation, to put a better face and perhaps give a clearer character to the paper. Designers right down the line often fail to recognize that even though they can make it look good, they can ‘brand’ it and perhaps increase sales for awhile, they are not the arbiters of content. The insides have to be fixed first. Slick packaging may work on many levels, but at the end of the day, this is a newspaper. It is the news, how it is written and edited that matters. I have read great papers that were created with a photocopy machine and an ink pen. They were ugly but that was not that important – they were about information and my trust in that information and insight.
    The Jordan Times was not in this place, as many who have followed its evolution know.
    Two, the content and content creators need to be up to the standards of the design. You are no doubt a fine designer in your own right. I am familiar with a number of things you have done. But here it is clear, from just a single glance that the designer was beyond those creating the content. You overwhelmed them with your love of color and “clear navigation” and your feeling that you just might know a thing or two about journalism. The self-congratulations that followed certainly did not help you see what you had wrought.
    Do not think for one instant that you, as a designer, can come in and whip up the standards of a newspaper with some color and clear navigation. You are not a journalist. You are the designer. My point, as I said before, is that there needed to be at least one of “them” — those pesky journalists — at the helm to help keep content and style in check, balanced and respectful of the monumental, indeed historical changes that are going all around this newspaper’s conception (e.g. Iraq and Palestine).
    The shame is that there was no one there to get this across to you and your team, to keep you in check. And your abilities are such that most in the region cite you as some kind of wizard when we both know that is not the case. You are more than a good designer. This is true. But you will never be a great designer until you recognize boundaries and the standards of that you are working with – understand the medium before you.
    If you are the first to put your foot in the sand, have at it. But if you are redesigning something, something that has some real importance – particularly something that has an historical impact like a newspaper – know your limits. Do not reinvent the wheel. If you want to be great, be able to step back and say, “You know, you guys aren’t ready for what I’ve got in mind.”
    Recognize within yourself that what you are doing oversteps the bounds of the profession you have chosen. It may not be possible to do the “job” you have before you. You may have to wait and the day may never come when you can make it the way you like it. But that is okay. Your job as a designer is not to be the focus or to say “look here is my way and my way is right.” Put the focus on what is inside may mean we see less of you and the colors that have come to distinguish your company’s work. I think that gets lost sometimes in the things I have seen you do. That is simply my opinion for what it is worth. Hopefully that will happen less and less.
    I’m afraid what I have seen here is simply a colored ‘zine, who’s journalistic standards have sunken to such lows that only the color of the masthead can hide its shame. Your suggestion that you emphasized “more local content” really does not cut it, after all, you are not the editor, right? You would not think to suggest changes to the content of something you were designing would you, making it fit your idea of what it should be instead of letting it be what it is? A real ‘ed’ needs to serve as savior, not a designer. Sorry, but that is the truth of it.