Mark Porter

Things will be a bit quiet here for a couple of weeks as I take a holiday with the family. Back mid-june

Just got back from a couple of beautifully sunny days at the Crash news design seminar in Copenhagen. Its a really lovable city with a great design culture. I was talking at Arne Jacobsen’s Radisson SAS Royal Hotel, opened in 1960. Jacobsen designed everything down to the door handles; its been made over since then but the lobby is still pretty authentic, and its a great Danish design experience — lots of Egg and Swan chairs, Poul Henningsen lighting, and Vola taps. Read the rest of this entry »

When I give talks about the Guardian redesign I usually touch on the fact that a lot of our readers are in urban centres and use public transport, which was a strong factor in leading us to question the broadsheet format. Laura Holder of wsj.com has just sent me these pictures of an anonymous Wall Street Journal reader on the NY subway, which make the point more eloquently than words ever could

A trip back to the 60s last night, at Anne Braybon’s talk on the fabulous Man About Town (later About Town, later Town) magazine. Read the rest of this entry »

A series of student data visualisation exercises that turn a week’s Guardian text content into a variety of diagrammatic & typographic forms. Wednesday is my favourite. (Thanks Marc)

economist.com is previewing its new homepage. Nothing amazing here, but the picture trails at bottom right bear a striking resemblance to a feature of a well-known newspaper site (Via City of Sound)

Time Magazine held a competition to design the cover of the annual Top 100 People of the Year issue, with submissions from some very big names… Hard to believe that these were the winners. (Via magtastic)

I’m currently preparing a talk for the Crash 2008 news design seminar in Copenhagen later in the month, and I’m making a real effort to collect and synthesise my thoughts about what editorial design means in the digital world. These ideas have been evolving over the last year or so, and are constantly developing as I read and talk to some of the great designers around the world I’m lucky enough to meet and spend time with. Read the rest of this entry »

A great spread from Vanity Fair recalls a classic Milton Glaser illustration

Khoi Vinh, web design director at the New York Times, has been answering users’ questions in their “Talk to the Newsroom” slot. He has some nice things to say about me and my team, and gives a fascinating insight into his own views and philosophy, and his role at the Times. Well worth reading