Other listings magazines are available 

28 December 2004 tbs.pm/495

The Radio Times gets a new look.

Radio Times © BBC Worldwide Ltd

It’s hard to say that the last design of the Radio Times masthead was a failure. Certainly it wasn’t as recognisable on the shelf as its long-lived curly predecessor, but that design itself now looks a step backwards from the mastheads of the 1950s (especially the Abram Games design which is still a thing of beauty today).

The Gill Sans implementation on the masthead was in keeping with the BBC’s own move to that wonderful font, but the shadowing – frequently a white shadow from white lettering on to a light cover – meant that it didn’t stand out against the rest of the herd on the shelves.

Of course, that’s less of an imperative for the RT. Generally you’re an RT reader because you want something the other listings magazines don’t have (high quality paper, for instance) or you prefer something a bit, well, upmarket and not soap opera obsessive.

But the magazine still needs to be seen for regular readers to buy it. And the new masthead – just a change of typeface, really – does appear to grab the attention more. It also takes the magazine a bit further upmarket in looks, having dipped with the predecessor.

A thumbs up from this designer to the designer of the new masthead.

I’ll still only buy the Christmas double edition, though.

A Transdiffusion Presentation

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Liverpool, Thursday 28 March 2024