Neville Brody's Research Studios Creates New Font and Design Changes for The Times as Compact Format Continues to Attract Loyal Readership

LONDON, November 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading international design company Research Studios has completed the twelve-month task of designing a new compact typeface and introducing a number of design changes for The Times which will take effect from Monday November 20th. The changes will continue The Times tradition of setting the visual and typographical agenda.

The new typeface, called "Times Modern", encapsulates the paper's heritage while adapting to the demands of the new compact format. Like The Times' previous typeface, Times Classic, Times Modern has been designed as a bespoke type family. The Times is the only newspaper to create and use bespoke fonts, all other UK newspapers purchase ready-to-use fonts.

The project has been led by Ben Preston, Deputy Editor of The Times, in partnership with Neville Brody, formerly art director of The Face, and lead designer on Actuel, City Limits and Arena magazines. Brody also worked on the redesign of Times2 in 2005.

Collaborating with Neville is lead designer Jon Hill supported by Research Studios' Luke Prowse. Jon has worked on many large editorial projects, including the design of supplements for The Guardian, the redesign of Swiss newspaper Le Temps and UK business-to-business magazine Media Week. Twenty-three year old Prowse has created the new Times Modern headline font for the newspaper.

Over the past four years, The Times has seen unprecedented growth. The paper increased its year-on-year circulation for 22 consecutive months following the introduction of the compact in November 2003 and it is still increasing its full-rate sales, with 24 consecutive months of year-on-year growth, according to the most recent sales for October.

Robert Thomson, Editor of The Times comments:

"The Times has always kept the readers' needs at the heart of any design work and our designers have worked intelligently to introduce changes that we think help the reader navigate the paper more effectively. Ben and the Research Studios team have done a remarkable job in honouring our tradition and creating a look that will serve long into the future. Readers of The Times are visually astute and our changes have been implemented in order to meet their exacting requirements. "

Neville Brody, founder of Research Studios, comments:

"The Times had almost all of the tools it needed to create a dynamic, usable, clearly-articulated and familiar language from within its current vocabulary. What it lacked was a few catalytic elements and an evolved architecture (both page and section). Following its move from broadsheet size, the paper still carried some of the design language of the larger format. Essentially, the approach we adopted has been more architectural than decorative and more fundamental than surface. Visual elements and devices needed to be re-visited from the ground up and rationalised within a clear plan and layout."

Notes to the editors:

1) Design Team

The Times: Ben Preston, David Driver, Mike Prowse, Chris Davalle, Kathleen Wyatt Research Studios: Neville Brody, Jon Hill, Luke Prowse

2) About Research Studios

Research Studios was established in London in 1994 and now also has offices in Berlin, Paris and New York. The company is best known for its ability to create new visual languages for a variety of applications ranging from publishing to film. It also creates innovative packaging and website design for clients such as Kenzo, corporate identity for clients such as Homechoice, and on-screen graphics for clients such as Paramount Studios, makers of the Mission Impossible films.

3) The Times typeface has only changed on four other occasions since 1785

SOURCE Research Studios