SEGD, the Society for Environmental Graphic Design, has renamed and redesigned its award-winning magazine that showcases the best in graphic design for the built environment.
eg magazine was introduced in New York this month at the 2012 SEGD Conference, the organization’s multidisciplinary design event. London-based studio Holmes Wood conceived the new name, size, and format for the organization’s premiere publication, which has been in print since 2003 as segdDESIGN.
“After almost a decade in publication, the magazine badly needed a new design in sync with the sophisticated content that SEGD members have come to expect from it,” says Lucy Holmes, who led the Holmes Wood team.
The name eg stemmed from an early charrette in the Holmes Wood studio and simplifies the former name. eg not only refers to “environmental graphics,” but is also a graphically compelling, contemporized version of the Latin e.g. (example given). The name is contained in a distinctive bracket-shaped crop on the cover, and Holmes Wood created a palette of typefaces in varying weights so that the masthead changes with each issue.
A new, smaller size (8.25 x 10.5 inches) and switch to an uncoated paper stock adds to the energetic, contemporary new feel. Holmes Wood devised a grid based loosely on SEGD’s Pentagram-designed logo, colorful vertical bars that evoke signs or banners. The grid provides a flexible framework for creating varied layouts and emphasizing dramatic photography of environmental graphic design projects. The Holmes Wood team also devised a clean format for presenting project credits, introduced graphic devices that divide the content into distinct sections, and collaborated with the eg editorial staff to develop new columns and features.
The debut issue includes a cover story on Lance Wyman’s environmental graphics for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City and features on corporate environments in Australia, a new soccer museum in Amsterdam, an exhibition focused on Charles and Ray Eames, and the infamous Burning Man festival held in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
“We needed a fresh, exciting, and energetic new package for our magazine, and we couldn’t be more pleased with what Holmes Wood created for us,” says Pat Knapp, SEGD’s Director of Communications and editor of the magazine. “It has always been a highly valued benefit of membership in SEGD, and our members are very excited about their new magazine.”
eg is free to SEGD members, but subscriptions can be purchased by contacting [email protected]. A digital version of the magazine is available at http://issuu.com/segddesign/docs/eg_magazine_01. Holmes Wood’s video summarizing the redesign process is at http://youtu.be/mHYN1Ykhcog.
