The overhaul of Wired

Lauren Indvik of Mashable writes about the complete overhaul of Wired magazine, which rolled out its redesign with the June issue.

Indvik writes, “There was something about the previous version of Wired — the bright colors, bold fonts, perhaps the splashy photos and graphics — that made it feel distinctly like a magazine about science and technology for men. Not so with the new edition of Wired, which feels more like Wired meets T: The New York Times Style Magazine meets The New Yorker. With its modern, almost muted aesthetic, it feels more like a lifestyle magazine — and a rather sophisticated, thoughtful one at that.

“Wired‘s redesign began with an idea and a problem to solve, Claudia de Almeida, Wired‘s new ~~deputy~~ design director, recalled in a phone conversation with Mashable last week. ‘[We asked ourselves] what is technology, what kind of role does it play in our lives today, and how can that be communicated on the pages of Wired that people can connect to and that feels current?’

“‘From my point of view, technology is not only your computer on your desk anymore, it’s part of your life. It made sense to me to have a design that felt more accessible, that didn’t make you feel all the time that you’re just reading a tech magazine,’ de Almeida said. ‘It’s not only a magazine about technology, [it’s] also a magazine about people who make technology happen.’

“De Almeida said those views are communicated in the designs themselves. She pointed out the multidimensionality of several of the fonts. The ‘l’ in Alpha, a section about new ideas and early movers, also looks like the number 1. The thin lines that appear in that section are repeated in Gadget Lab, and the squares in the Alpha logo also appear in the cubist font of Ultra, a section centered on entertainment. De Almeida said she wanted a design that made the magazine appeal to both sexes, and not just to men.”