New look and typeface for FT

The Financial Times has revealed a new look for its printed edition and website, which includes a new font, Financier, and six column design.

In an interesting week for print, The Guardian launched a refresh of its look, with a completely redesigned weekend magazine led by one of our seven designers to worship, Alex Breuer.

In an increasingly digital world the redesigns clearly flag a printed future for both Guardian and Pink ‘Un, putting the paper front and centre.

Financial Times editor Linonel Barber said, “The redesigned FT remains our flagship product, a definitive morning briefing on world affairs, business, finance and politics.”

Part of the redesign is a new font, the serif Financier. Here are examples of body text and display text developed by Kris Sowersby of the New Zealand-based Klim Type Foundry. There is a second font, the sans-serif Metric, used for tables and graphics. 

In addition to the new typeface, the new look has some interesting features. For example, it comes in a 6-column grid and has been designed to be folded into quarters. Today’s edition includes a quirky guide on how to fold the redesigned paper to make reading it easier.

How to fold the FT 800x

Other new featurs include:

  • New colour graphics and data for the print and digital editions
  • Redesigned front page to better flag what’s inside
  • An index listing companies, sectors and people
  • Friday spotlight on people behind UK corporate news
  • Emerging themes and trends feature
  • Sport on Mondays to alternate between ‘Sporting View’ on the business and management of sport, and data-driven features on ‘the numbers behind the news’

Barber said, “The refreshed newspaper is an agenda-setting slice of the best of the FT. It complements FT.com and other channels, providing the definitive global perspective on what readers need to know each day. The new FT has visual impact and is easy to navigate, highlighting trends and providing original news, insight, analysis and context.”

Financial Times paid circulation has bucked the trend of many of its print rivals and thrived over the past decade, now at 677,000, the highest in the paper’s history. Many print titles have declined over the same period and even started to question whether to keep print alive. Mobile drives most of the content consumption for the paper, with almost half of overall digital traffic and 60% of subscriber consumption and 20% of new digital subscriptions.

The redesign comes with a brand campaign developed by Adam&EveDDB. with the endline  ‘It is what you know’.

FT design team:

Design: Kevin Wilson, head of design with deputy head of design Kari-Ruth Pedersen and  freelance design consultant Mark Leeds

Coordination: Tony Major linking designers and senior editors

Graphics: Christopher Campbell

Today’s redesigned front page:

FT_page_1_jpeg

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