Jacek Utko :报纸设计能拯救报业吗？

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http://dotsub.com/view/b6f3c4fc-caec-4f31-9d99-07e6eed1cdda
Jacek Utko :报纸设计能拯救报业吗？
报业面临空前濒危的状况有几个原因， 读者不愿意付费来阅读昨天发生的新闻，没有读者，广告商当然也不愿意买广告。 你的iPhone,笔记本电脑， 都远比拿着一份纽约时报周末版来读更为方便。 还有别忘了，如果我们不读报纸的话，还能拯救树木免于被砍伐， 这些已经足以将任何产业推向绝路了。 那么我们不禁要问，「有任何能拯救报业于水火之外的方法吗?」
对于报业的未来，我们听过一些说法。 有些人会说，报纸应该要是免费的， 或者是更摘要的，像是小于A4大小的小报式刋物。 报纸应该朝在地化发展，以社区为主体来经营发行。 又或者，未来的报纸应当主攻像商业族群这样的缝隙市场。 然而这样一来报纸就无法免费，而是非常昂贵的。 一份报纸应当有自己的观点导向， 少点新闻，多点对新闻的评论。 我们更希望报纸适于早餐时阅读， 因为之后我们就开始听车里的广播了， 然后在工作时你会检查你的电子邮件，下班之后你会看电视。 听起来很不错，但这些只是权宜之计。 因为就长远来看， 我看不出有什么实际的原因， 报纸在未来还能够继续生存。
所以，我们还能怎么办呢? (笑声) 让我来说说我的故事吧! 20年前，一位名叫Bonnier的瑞典出版商， 在前苏联地区办报。 几年之后，他们在中欧和东欧都发行了几份报纸。 这些报纸都由一位没什么经验的人来经营， 当时还没有所谓的视觉文化，当然也没有与视觉艺术相关的预算， 在许多地方甚至连美编指导都没有。 当时我决定为他们工作，担任美编指导的工作。 在这份工作之前，我是一名建筑师，我的祖母有次曾这么问我， 「你要靠什么生活呢?」 我回答我祖母说，「我设计报纸啊。」 我祖母说，「什么? 那只不过是一堆无聊的字母，哪有什么东西好设计的?」 (笑声) 不幸的是，我祖母的确是对的。当时我非常沮丧，直到有一天，
我去了伦敦，欣赏到太阳马戏团的表演。 我受到了启迪。我想， 「这些家伙把一些诡异的， 老旧的娱乐表演， 提升成了表演艺术所可能达到的最高层次了。」 于是我灵光一闪，「喔，天啊，或许我能在这些无聊至极的报纸上做相同的事呢!」 于是我就开始了，一份一份的重新设计他们。 我们报纸的头版变成了我们的特色。 而这也成了我个人和读者之间亲密对话的管道。
我不会跟你们说什么团队合作之类的故事， 我的手法是非常自我的， 我想要将自己的设计概念表达出来， 想要传达我对于真实世界的诠释， 我想设计的是海报，不是报纸， 甚至也不是杂志，就是海报。 我们试过使用不同的字体、 插画和照片等等，从中获得许多乐趣。 不久我们就看到了具体的成果。 在波兰，我们的报纸荣获 「年度最佳头版」连续三次之多。 在这里大家也可以看到来自 拉脱维亚、立陶宛、爱沙尼亚等 这些中欧地区国家的例子。
但是，这绝不只有「头版」这么简单。 秘诀是我们 将一份报纸视为一个整体， 如同音乐的交响乐章一般， 是有节奏的，有高低起伏的。 而一个好的报纸设设计就是要带给读者这些体验。 翻阅报纸就是读者的体验， 而我就是负责美化这个感官经验的人。 我们将展开的两个版面，视为一整个页面， 因为读者看到的就是这样。
大家现在看到的这些俄罗斯报纸的页面， 就曾在西班牙获得很多信息图像类最大的奖项。 而真正的大奖还是来自于国际专业报纸版面设计学会SND的奖项。 仅仅是在波兰重新设计的一年之后， 就被他们评为「世界最佳报纸设计」。 再隔两年， 同样的奖项由爱沙尼亚获得。 是不是很神奇呢?
不过真正令人惊讶的是，这些获奖的报纸的发行量 也增加了。 这里举一些实例和大家分享: 在俄罗斯，这份报纸经过重新设计的一年后，发行量提升了百分之11， 三年之后更增加到百分之29。 在波兰也相同，发行量增加了百分之13， 三年之后更增加百分之35的发行量。 可以看这个图， 经过长久的停滞之后，报纸的销量在 经过重新设计之后开始增长。 但最大的爆冲是在保加利亚。 这真的很令人惊讶。
是因为设计为这些报纸的销售带来这么大的转变吗? 设计只是过程中的一部份， 我们所做的不仅只是改变一份报纸的外观， 而是完全彻底的改善报纸本身的质感。 我借用了建筑中的「功能」与「型式」原则， 把这些概念融入到报纸的内容与设计中， 而在进行改造之前，拟定策略也很重要。 首先要问的大问题是，我们为什么要这么做，目标是什么? 然后我们同步调整需相应改变的内容。 通常在两个月之后，我们会开始进行设计。 我的老板们在刚开始时都很惊讶， 为什么我会问所有这些报纸方方面面的问题， 因为他们以为我会直接将设计完的作品直接展示给他们看。 但很快地他们就了解到，这是设计师所扮演的新角色， 设计师从规划初始到最终的过程都要全程参与。
所以我们可以从中学到什么呢? 第一个课题就是了解到设计不仅只是能改变你的产品， 设计还能改变工作流程，事实上，设计能改变你公司中既有的任何东西。 设计能完全反转你的公司; 甚至改变你本身。 而这些转变是谁的职责呢? 是设计师。 所以，请给予设计这样的职权吧! (掌声) 而第二个我们学到的课题可以说更为重要， 就是你可以像我一样，活在一个小而贫穷的国家里; 你可以在一家小公司 其中一间无聊的分公司上班。 你可以在没有预算和人力的状况下， 仍然可以呈现出最高水平的工作表现。 每个人都能做到这点。 你只是需要启发、愿景和决心。 还有你必需要记得，光只有「好」 是不够的。
謝謝大家。


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Jacek Utko asks, Can design save the newspaper?
Newspapers are dying for a few reasons. Readers don't want to pay for yesterday's news, and advertisers follow them. Your iPhone, your laptop, Is much more handy than New York Times on Sunday. And we should save trees in the end. So it's enough to bury any industry. So, should we rather ask, "Can anything save newspapers?"

There are several scenarios for the future newspaper. Some people say, it should be free; it should be tabloid, or even smaller: A4; it should be local, run by communities, or niche, for some smaller groups like business -- but then it's not free; it's very expensive. It should be opinion-driven; less news, more views. And we'd rather read it during breakfast, because later we listen to radio in a car, check your mail at work and in the evening you watch TV. Sounds nice, but this can only buy time. Because in the long run, I think there is no reason, no practical reason for newspapers to survive.

So what can we do? (Laughter) Let me tell you my story. 20 years ago, Bonnier, Swedish publisher, started to set newspapers in the former Soviet Bloc. After a few years, they had several newspapers in central and eastern Europe. The were run by an inexperienced staff, with no visual culture, no budgets for visual arts. In many places there were no even art directors. I decided to be -- to work for them as an art director. Before, I was an architect, and my grandmother asked me once, "What are you doing for a living?" I said, "I'm designing newspapers." "What? There's nothing to design there. It's just boring letters" (Laughter) And she was right. I was very frustrated, until one day.

I came to London, and I've seen performance by Cirque du Soleil. And I had a revelation. I thought, "These guys took some creepy, run down entertainment, and put it to the highest possible level of performance art." I thought "Oh my God, maybe I can do the same with these boring newspapers." And I did. We started to redesign them, one by one. The front page became our signature. It was my personal intimate channel to talk to the readers.

I'm not going to tell you stories about teamwork or cooperation. My approach was very egotistic. I wanted my artistic statement, my interpretation of reality. I wanted to make posters, not newspapers. Not even magazines: posters. We were experimenting with type, with illustration, with photos. And we had fun. Soon it started to bring results. In Poland, our pages were named "Covers of the Year" three times in a row. Other examples you can see here are from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia -- the Central European countries.

But it's not only about the front page. The secret is that we were treating the whole newspaper as one piece, as one composition -- like music. And music has a rythm, has ups and downs. And design is responsible for this experience. Flipping through pages is readers experience, and I'm responsible for this experience. We treated two pages, both spreads, as a one page, because that's how readers perceive it.

You can see some Russian pages here which got many awards on biggest infographic competition in Spain. But the real award came from Society for Newspaper Design. Just a year after redesigning this newspaper in Poland, they name it the World's Best Designed Newspaper. And two years later, the same award came to Estonia. Isn't amazing?

What really makes it amazing: that the circulation of these newspapers were growing too. Just some examples: in Russia, plus 11 after one year, plus 29 after three years of the redesign. Same in Poland: plus 13, up to 35 percent raise of circulation after three years. You can see on a graph, after years of stagnation, the paper started to grow, just after redesign. But the real hit was in Bulgaria. And that is really amazing.

Did design do this? Design was just a part of the process. And the process we made was not about changing the look, it was about improving the product completely. I took an architectural rule about function and form and translated it into newspaper content and design. And I put a strategy at the top of it. So first you ask a big question: why we do it? What is the goal? Then we adjust the content accordingly. And then, usually after two months, we start designing. My bosses, in the beginning, were very surprised. Why am I asking all of these business questions, instead of just showing them pages? But soon they realized that this is the new role of designer: to be in this process from the very beginning to the very end.

So what is the lesson behind it? The first lesson is about that design can change not just your product. It can change your workflow -- actually, it can change everything in your company; it can turn your company upside down. It can even change you. And who's responsible? Designers. Give power to designers. (Applause) But the second is even more important. You can live in a small poor country, like me. You can work for a small company, in a boring branch. You can have no budgets, no people -- but still can put your work to the highest possible level. And everybody can do it. You just need inspiration, vision and determination. And you need to remember that to be good is not enough.

Thank you.