MG Redesign made its initial visit this week to another Wick Communications paper, the Capital Journal in Pierre, South Dakota. MG partner Scott Goldman went to the Great White North (actually, it wasn't that white!) and began the redesign process with the staff of the Capital Journal. Launch is tentatively set for mid-April and is just one of many major changes taking place in the next few months at the paper — including moving to an AM cycle from PM, adding a second section with color every day, and in August, launching a 6th day of publication (still not certain if it's going to be Saturday or Sunday). At left is the beautiful state capital in Pierre. Stay tuned for looks at the CJ redesign as it progresses.

MG Redesign partner Scott Goldman put the final touches on the redesign of The Indianapolis Star last week with the arrival of new body copy Mercury Text (far left), from Hoefler & Frere-Jones. The new type features a larger point size but has maintained text length, even with the Star's reduction to a 48-inch web width. Reader reaction has been extremely light, which is a good thing when it comes to messing around with body copy.

Our next redesign project is scheduled to launch May 5 at the Frontiersman in Wasilla, Alaska. Matt Mansfield and Kevin Wendt of MG are leading the change efforts at the Wick Communications newspaper, which is about 45 miles north of Anchorage between the Matanuska and Susitna valleys in the state's fastest-growing area. The redesign includes a top-to-bottom examination of the paper's typography, navigation and sectioning in light of rapid circulation gains that have followed the population trends. Stay tuned for more after a visit in late February.

The Seahawks play the Steelers in today's Super Bowl, just in case you were wondering. More importantly, at least to followers of this blog, Geoff Pinnock reports that The Spokesman-Review has its special teams ready for the big game that's being played today in Detroit.

Pinnock will handle front page duties, with Ralph Walter at the mouse for the Super Bowl special section wrap. Both Pinnock and Walter are former sports designers who are delighted to have this game happening during the first week of their redesign.

These guys made a pretty stunning walk-up wrap (left) that is, we hope, just a glimpse of the way they can perform when it comes to today's game. Check back on Monday for pages from the section, courtesy of Mr. Pinnock.

MG partner Scott Goldman worked with The Spokesman-Review staff on developing multiple agate styles for use throughout the paper. Despite the reduction in page size, it was a great opportunity to increase legibility of agate styles from sports to business with the addition of new typefaces.

The old agate style (left) was Franklin Gothic condensed, at an astonishing 5.5-point size and 80 percent horizontal scaling. To be sure, everything would fit on one line — but who could read it? Stocks listings were very much the same — Helvetica 5.5 point, at 80 percent horizontal scaling.

To help with balancing content with legibility, we used different weights of the extremely versatile Whitney font from Hoefler & Frere-Jones.

New stocks pages highlight Whitney Condensed at 6.2 point on 6.5 leading (100 percent scaling), but we got an extra bonus with regard to legibility by testing the medium weight of the font, and found only a minimal change in character width. So we opted for the medium weight as an extra bump in readibility.
New sports agate wound up the same way. A final test showed a minimal change in width by going for the medium, and the contrast between the bold and medium is more than adequate, so our agate wound up at Whitney—Medium, 6.5 on 7 point.

The readability difference is quite dramatic, and we were still able to make the agate work in several different situations.