reveries - mario garcia - the wall street journal

NOVEMBER 2002

"I escaped communism," begins Mario Garcia. "My parents sent me to America right after the Castro revolution. Now, I am involved with the ultimate icon of capitalism -- The Wall Street Journal."

Mario Garcia is involved all right -- as the chief architect of the first major redesign of The Wall Street Journal in 77 years. That's quite a trip, quite a trajectory. Mario arrived in the U.S. when he was just 14 years old. He went from starring as a TV child actor in Cuba to enrolling as a ninth-grade student and working as a busboy at a restaurant within 72 hours of his arrival.

Welcome to America!

In the beginning, Mario couldn't speak a word of English, so continuing his acting career was out of the question. But as soon as he learned the language he found new expression as a writer. So he joined his high school, and later his college, newspapers. As much as Mario liked writing, he quickly grew even more fascinated by the way people read a newspaper.

He began to work at the Miami News, the afternoon paper. He really cut his teeth there. "How people looked at newspapers, how their eyes moved and so on was an early fascination that turned into a career," says Mario. He went on to teach at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communication, where ultimately he succeeded the legendary Edmund Arnold as head of the newspaper design department.

Newspapers were never "designed." Newspapers were laid out. Magazines were designed; newspapers were not.

Eventually, he went back to Florida. But by then he was combining a career that included teaching newspaper design, researching, and writing about the subject, and practicing it -- by redesigning newspapers himself.

That basically is how the whole thing happened. At first -- for twenty years, actually -- it was just Mario Garcia as a solo number. The firm, Garcia Media, began in earnest only about six years ago. His son, the other Mario, picked up on the Web design business and now the firm designs not only newspapers, but corporate materials and magazines. In addition to the Tampa, Florida, headquarters, they have offices in Argentina, and in Germany -- 27 people in all.

And now, 41 years, eight books and 450 newspaper redesigns later, Mario Garcia has his feet firmly planted at center stage, in the spotlight.

How did The Wall Street Journal land on your doorstep?

Well, it was a very interesting way of getting a job! I first redesigned their European edition in the year 2000, The Wall Street Journal Europe. I did that because I had done The Wall Street Journal equivalent in Germany, The Handelsblatt. The German editors conferred with the American editors and said, "oh, we had very good results with Garcia and his team, why don't you try them?"

Why did the Journal decide to redesign the paper?

First of all, because of the acquisition of color. They now have color presses that can include more color. To me, that is the key issue here. Not only are they adding color to the content, but they want to produce more advertising in color as well. So their new presses are now set up across the country to print in color.

Some might say that using the color is going to somehow compromise the gravitas of the paper.

That is one of the great myths. There is a whole generation of readers -- particularly those between 30 and 45 years old -- who do not equate color with being less serious. The New York Times -- one of the most serious papers in the world -- went to color in the last two to three years.

You would have to find a very old reader who would equate color with a less-than-serious paper or who would see color as taking away from the gravitas of a paper. The 25-to-35 year-olds don't remember life without color television, so they don't attach black-and-white to a more serious paper. All the focus groups show that.

What are the key objectives of the redesign?

First of all, to provide a better quality newspaper and to enhance the content. The second objective was obviously to attract a whole new generation of readers; color will do that. Third, The Wall Street Journal has always had a fantastic navigational tool -- the "What's News" column on the front page. That, to me, was a precursor of the scrolling bar into the Internet. You can read all of the headlines there and scroll up and down. Can you imagine that being enhanced?

I remember the days when you wouldn't hear the term, "art director" at a newspaper. They’d call them graphics editors -- anything that was more manly and more macho!

Those are the main objectives, and obviously with more color you will attract more advertisers who would like color positions. So, in a nutshell -- better navigation, enhancement of the content, the use of more color to enhance the visual appeal of the paper, as well as attract more advertisers. All of those are grand objectives to make a paper that is already so good, even better.

What exactly is the relationship between the paper's content and its design? Does the content change in any way?

No, not at all. The design does not dictate the content. We had to work with the story structures that they have and then dress up the pages and create the page architecture and so on. The design gives readers a cleaner typeface -- a familiar typeface -- but cleaned up and more stylized. There is more white space, and an overall refined look to the paper that was not there before. It is airier and nicer to get through.

How do the online and the offline designs influence one another?

You cannot deny the influence of the Internet and how people navigate through a Web site. When they come to print, they really are impatient and they expect that kind of movement -- moving back and forth. So you have on the front page a navigation tool that takes you into all of the stories that you most often read. It is a navigation tool that recognizes that people do not read newspapers in one sitting. You might start a story at breakfast, continue it at lunch and finish it before bedtime. The navigation helps you do that more easily.

Also, you might visit the Web site, get enticed by something you see there, but you don't have the time to read it just then, so you pick it up in the paper later on. I find myself doing that. The successful papers are going to live in this multi-media environment where one hand washes the other. You will have a tremendous number of readers who will read you online and in print.

I remember going to seminars where someone would say, "we just hired an art director type, where do we sit her or him?" -- like these people were contagious!

Where exactly did you begin with the redesign? In the case of The Wall Street Journal it must have been a little intimidating.

Sort of like painting the Sistine Chapel! We began with story structures. The whole idea is that a good design enhances the story telling process. So we began there -- how to best tell the story. When you open a page of the paper, immediately being able to tell which story they want you to read first, that "this" story is more important than "that" one.

That was a major task of our work -- to separate the hierarchy of stories. To differentiate the important lead stories, secondary stories, feature stories, briefs, and columns -- separating them into categories. And just by a glance -- without even using the terminology -- you would know what each is.

So that was the beginning -- and a beginning that lasted many months. You have to realize that this is also a project where we had the tragic events of 9/11 right at our doorstep. We had to move. The World Financial Center is one of the buildings that didn't collapse, but the inside was rendered useless, not to be inhabited. So we moved out of those offices to South Brunswick, New Jersey, and to other offices throughout the city. This came to us when we were in the final push of the redesign and we had to regroup and reorganize, as the Boy Scouts say.

How was it working with the staff at the Journal? Did you meet much resistance there to the idea of a redesign?

Not really. By the time I arrived they had already seen what we had done with their European and Asian editions. This was one of the most talented, energetic and smart groups of people that I've ever worked with.

I worked very closely with two people, Joanne Lipman, the project director and the managing editor. She is the star of the project. Then Joe Dizney, who is the art director, the in-house art director. The three of us formed a team. We marched like little soldiers together all along, and it was a great experience.

What do you think is most surprising about the new look of The Wall Street Journal?

The most obvious surprise is color on the front page. But once you realize how restrained and elegant it is -- after two days you will blink and never remember the black-and-white version. The colors are subtle, so it will be a short-lived sort of shock.

What do you hope that readers will love the most about the new look?

I am hoping that they will realize that this is still their dear, beloved, comfy, cozy Wall Street Journal that they've seen forever. But boy, just like if suddenly Grandma is still there, but some of the wrinkles are gone and she looks radiant and somebody gave her a shot in the arm and said, "well, Grandma you now have twenty-five more years to live."

That is the feeling. This is Grandma, with all her knowledge and all her experience -- the Grandma that is your teddy bear. That would be the analogy. We want to have the experience of Grandma, but a younger Grandma, without pains and aches and no wrinkles.

People are very visual. They enter a newspaper through a headline. The headline's typeface makes a difference, and the color and whatever stock you use is very important.

Where does your inspiration come from? How much of it is from outside the world of publications, newspapers, and the like?

The inspiration comes from sources that, sometimes, you don't even know where they are from. But I am trained as a journalist and I listen to what editors say. I attend those early briefings with editors, cling to their every word, and the words lead me to my early sketches. An editor's description of how he or she wants a section to look is all I need. I don't ever arrive with preconceived ideas.

But I also do what I call "visual archeology." A paper this rich in history you have to go into the attic; you have to go into the old trunk. You cannot abandon the past. I hold on to the past with one hand and move on from there.

The Wall Street Journal's attic is full of treasures -- for a paper that was not "designed" there were a lot of wonderful visual artifacts. It was just like walking into an antique store. You see a table here, a lamp there, and suddenly you bring them into a room, and even if you put a Picasso on the other side of the room, it all comes together.

So you reached beyond The Wall Street Journal that we all know and love today to a more distant past?

Yes. The 30s and 40s. Yes, definitely.

What kinds of things did you find that were valuable from that era?

I found, for example, how they boxed things, how they used the typography. How they used little diamonds. They have all these little diamonds that appear here and there. All of those have been resurrected and cleaned up -- things like that.

You're not going to find the engine to fly the plane in the attic, but what you're going to find are little treasures hidden in there. You just bring them back. At the end of the day, that's what will make these readers say, "this is still Grandma; this is still the paper I love and respect." It's the little, subtle touches.

What is the ideal shelf life of a new design? And then how do you keep it fresh over time?

Web sites have really changed the whole idea of shelf life. Newspapers used to redesign themselves every ten or fifteen years, if that. Magazines redesigned every three years. Web sites redesign themselves every four to six months. Part of the reason for that is that people visit a Web site sometimes three times a day.

A daily newspaper has a shelf life of twenty-four hours before you sell the same edition again. Web sites are revisited more often, and this is beginning to also change the perception of print. Magazines are adopting changes sooner than every three years. Newspapers will probably go down to five years, instead of 10 or 15. I'm beginning to see that pattern already, and that's one of the influences of the Internet, for sure.

I am convinced that the newspaper of the future will have every page in color. The Wall Street Journal redesign is one serious step in that direction.

Are there significant differences between newspaper designs here in the U.S. versus newspapers around the world?

For a young country, we're less adventurous. Right now you have some of the best-designed newspapers in the world in Latin America. Some are in Europe. Spain has some of the best-designed newspapers in the world -- I mean, more adventurous overall than the rest. America is slower to adapt to change in newspapers. Newspaper editors are very afraid of what readers are going to say.

Here in America there is less of an ability to experiment than in some places. But I am involved with projects where there is real experimentation -- the color in The Wall Street Journal and the transformation to a tabloid in The San Francisco Examiner. Maybe the winds are blowing stronger from coast to coast -- from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate!

What can you tell us about the redesign of The San Francisco Examiner?

On the weekend of May 17th, The San Francisco Examiner will become the first big American newspaper that makes the transformation from a broadsheet to a tabloid in a big metro city.

Why are they doing that?

To attract younger readers, to really fight in a competitive environment like the Bay area. That was a William Randolph Hearst newspaper forever. It was sold to the Florence Fang family, a Chinese-American family. This is a fascinating story. It's one of the most fascinating stories taking place right now in American journalism.

How do you avoid throwing out the baby with the bathwater when you go from a broadsheet to a tabloid?

It's difficult, but the Examiner always was the "shouting" paper, so it was easier to make that transition to a tabloid. They always wanted to be a tabloid. It's like the grown-up who wanted to be a child and suddenly somebody says, "okay, well, now you're 8 years old again."

The Examiner always wanted to be sort of for the underdog. That's been going on for years. So now they will have the right packaging for it. But, oh boy, in the visual archeology, some of the old things we found! They've had this eagle on their nameplate forever, the good American eagle. So you cling to some of these things.

Would you ever consider applying your design talents to other types of products besides publications?

I would love that. I think I would start with kitchens, for no specific reason. All design gives you a perspective of space and distance -- that's what design is all about -- space and distance. Whether it's a car or a kitchen or a toy or an airplane -- you have certain aesthetic lines to deal with but you also have space, distance, and perception. I think it would be fun.

What gives the editor a heart attack doesn't give the reader a common cold. I've experienced that -- I want that on my tombstone!

Do you bring people with diverse design backgrounds into your team?

My team is a very youngish team. They are people who were primarily advertising design types and magazine designers. I tried to mix them and put them on this Wall Street Journal team. I had designers from Argentina and Germany as well as Americans -- all mixed in to bring in a global perspective.

Sometimes all they do is put another set of eyes on the table and say, "this looks good, but I would do this" and -- bingo -- in two seconds you have another idea to try. I believe in team effort. When people say, "you've done 450 newspapers," I say, "in collaboration with," because that's part of the secret. I don't work by myself in a studio. I may be the chief architect, but, boy, I work very closely with the people around me. If somebody has a better idea, we all shine.

Very exciting times for you, but probably a little nerve wracking too.

Yes. We have a great deal of interest in this. The Wall Street Journal is the last of the American icons to go into color. So this is really a turning point, a rite of passage.