Gulf News is a publication in constant evolution. And the switch to the Berliner format has been an extraordinary opportunity to rethink our entire graphics system: from typography and colour to the underlying grids and layout philosophy.
The newspaper in your hands now is more visually exciting, better organized and easier to navigate and read. It is a modern newspaper with a guiding philosophy of sophisticated simplicity.
Layout The first thing you may notice is that Gulf News has become more visual.
Pictures are bigger and there is more variety in the basic design. We have also rededicated ourselves to looking for innovative ways to tell stories that inform and surprise.
At the same time all the elements of the page are better organised, with more space between them for a cleaner presentation.
In the design process, we have learned that Berliner pages are read as left and right pairs instead of as individual pages.
We thus treat a spread as a single unit and avoid having elements on the left compete with those on the right.
Another area in which we have improved is in our placement of advertisements.
We have created modules that provide for a more harmonious relationship between editorial and commercial content, clearly indicating the boundaries of each.
In general, we use only two families of typefaces, both featuring a full range of styles with which we can achieve consistency without sacrificing variety.
Glosa, the main typeface of Gulf News, was designed especially for publications.
At small sizes it is remarkably easy to read while remaining full of personality. When used in headlines; it is elegant, modern and delicate.
It was created by the Portuguese type designer Dino dos Santos, who worked with us to produce various styles that are exclusive to Gulf News.
Salvo Sans is a highly expressive and friendly typeface with many styles—from light to black and from regular to extra condensed—used throughout the newspaper.
Like Glosa, it is very readable for text large and small. Designed by the Font Bureau’s Cyrus Highsmith for magazines, Gulf News emphasizes Salvo Sans in the Sport and tabloid! sections.
But it is also a distinctive element of the weekend edition’s identity.
For the text of the Classifieds section, we selected Retina, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones for the stock pages of The Wall Street Journal. Retina is recognized worldwide for its superb legibility at very small sizes.
Colour
At Gulf News, we believe that colour is a language unto itself, used to communicate, create emphasis and guide readers through different sections.
The Berliner format requires careful use of colour but also allows surprise and impact when appropriate.
We took care in creating a colour palette that allows for functional presentation and
vibrant display alike.
