image · 2023
Forma
The magazine that makes other magazines look safe.
A complete redesign of Forma, Italy's leading design and culture quarterly, including type system, grid, and a new approach to image-text relationships.
The brief
The type system
We built the typographic system around two contrasting forces: a custom display face derived from Italian rationalist lettering of the 1930s, and a contemporary text face selected for exceptional performance at 8pt on uncoated stock. The display face has 47 ligatures. We wrote the spec for which ones to use, and which to suppress.
Grid as argument
The layout grid is not a 12-column grid. It's a modular system derived from the proportions of a Fibonacci spiral, with bleed areas calculated to hold a full-page image at three different scales simultaneously. The grid is an argument about how information should flow through physical space.
Outcome
The redesign launched with Issue 88 and sold out its first print run in four days — the first time that had happened in Forma's history. Subscriptions increased 34% in the following six months. The type system has since been licensed to two other European design publications.