Road to Dwell Redesign Paved with Good Intentions

As the New Year’s Resolution season approaches, Dwell is planning to trim down and go green, and that’s only part of the makeover. The seven-year-old magazine’s redesign–encompassing a content update, new layout, smaller trim size, and switch to recycled paper–will premiere in the February 2008 issue. The changes, developed by Editor-in-Chief Sam Grawe and Design Director Kyle Blue, were created “to better organize and define the magazine, with the goal of making the content both accessible and motivational to the reader.” As for the graphic changes, look for a new cover design with a larger logo, full bleed imagery, and new typefaces.

New departments include “Theme Attic,” in which artists, designers, and architects will be asked to interpret the issue theme, and “Process,” which will provide readers with a behind-the-scenes look at how things in homes are made. As for the existing sections that will get a spruce-up: an updated “Off the Grid” section will go into more depth about the systems that drive sustainable homes, and “My House” will be written from the first-person perspective of the homeowner undertaking a building project. Among the most radical changes will be the tweaked “In the Modern World” section, which will take the form of a newspaper within the magazine.

Meanwhile, publisher Michela O’Connor Abrams estimates that the change to recycled content paper, further use of soy-based inks, and a smaller (8.375″) format, will save about 930 trees per issue. It’s a sustainably designed approach to writing about sustainable design!

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