Circular 17 - The Typographic Circle Magazine

Circular is the members magazine for the Typographic Circle, a UK-based group who produce regular events featuring designers talking about their work. The magazine is designed by Pentagram partner Domenic Lippa and appears rather irregularly but is always worth a look for the care and attention paid to its design and production.




''The latest issue of Circular, the magazine of the Typographic Circle, is out now. The ninth consecutive issue designed by Domenic Lippa and his team, it is the first to dispense completely with editorial typography.

Lippa has had a long standing relationship with the Typographic Circle, serving on the committee for many years and also as its chair. Unlike some other organisations, the Typographic Circle prides itself on providing a platform for a number of voices rather than promoting a single view. This means that the task of designing a magazine for all these disparate voices can prove hard. For this reason, Lippa has always wanted to create an issue containing no typography, allowing the work to speak for itself.

However this decision presents unique problems in how to convey information. The solution was to include all the necessary printed information on a slipcase, leaving the rest of the magazine type free. The magazine cover, printed in luminous magenta, contains nothing but a silver circle without even the issue number or logo, and the back section contains thumbnails of all of the spreads to ease navigation.''

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2011/10/new-work-circular-17.php






With the issue having no editorial typography within the magazine, rather just keeping the relevant information on the slipcase gives for a clean uncluttered design. Due to the number of voices from the multiple designers using the magazine as a platform, the choice of just using images of their work to speak for itself works really well. However for the supplements that I am designing for, they each are for individuals so will not have to compete with other designers for the audience attention within the same 'special book'. This means the information of the person being featured should be included, as the aim of it is to give the audience more information about them.

 Circular 17 issue cover, left, and slipcase, right.

Issue covers in various stocks of Colorplan paper. The issue was produced in 8 colours.

Slipcase in various stocks of Colorplan.