Jan 22, 2013

The New Look of the Saturday Evening Post

The debut of the redesign of The Saturday Evening Post is one of the (at least to my eyes) most remarkable visual turnarounds of a consumer magazine in recent memory. The magazine has been relaunched with much media fanfare to reach a newer, younger audience, and the graphic transformation of the cover is eye-popping. Creative director Andrzej Janerka has taken the old, stale, retro-fied cover design and transformed it into a look that is dynamic, forward-looking, and very illustration-strong.

Janerka, who has previously worked as design director at AARP magazine, has been the consulting creative director for the bi-monthly Philadelphia-based mag since 2011. He says he took on the job because “redesigning the oldest magazine in the country was a no-brainer for me. Who could not take a challenge like that?”

Drawing on some Post logos from the 1950s for inspiration, Janerka has put a new twist on the classic spirit of the original magazine, all with “a modern perspective” as he explains. The illustration style on the cover has been updated; the first redesigned issue features a great portrait of Shirley MacLaine by illustrator Jody Hewgill. “The covers will continue to be illustrated, but rather than attempt to copy the look and feel of the classic Norman Rockwell covers, we will maintain a contemporary approach,” says Janerka.

(Above): The Saturday Evening Post, January/February 2013. Creative director: Andrzej Janerka, illustration: Jody Hewgill.