One of India’s most respected English-language dailies, The Hindu, has returned to its classic design, created by Garcia Media in 2005. Mario Garcia writes about the background to an "unorthodox move".

It was in July of this year that I read that The Hindu had abandoned the classic design we at Garcia Media had created in 2005 for that English-language daily, and adopted one suggested by a new editor, who had hired his own design director.

Truly, this was not a surprise.  Eight years have passed since we created that look for The Hindu, and, in today’s media environment, that is a long time (many newspapers change their look & feel every three years or so—-it was more like 20 years not too long ago!).

As I turned to The Hindu that appeared November 6, it was refreshing to see that it was identical to what our Garcia Media designer Jan Kny and I had created.  The style guide and templates had been dusted off from a three-month stay in the attic and fully applied again.

Emails and messages started pouring in from India from people interested in newspaper design, friends and acquaintances. The questions were pretty much the same:

What do you think of your design returning to The Hindu?

Why did they revert to the classic look only three months after the redesign?

I decided not to answer these queries individually. Instead, I have established a dialog with N. Ram, the former Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, and N.Murali**, the former Managing Director of the family-owned company that publishes The Hindu, as well as N. Ravi, the present Editor-in-Chief, to get the complete the story.. The first two were the project leaders when we created the original design of The Hindu.

For the first time: non family members as editors

After a period of unrest and upheaval as a result of difference of opinions among the family members with ownership of The Hindu, it was decided to “professionalize” the operation—hiring non family members as editors.  Following a brief period under this set up, the family members took control of the newspaper again, reinstating the so-called “classic” look.

So, on October 21, N. Ram, chairman of Kasturi & Sons Limited, the company that publishes The Hindu, issued the following statement via Twitter:

Note that The Hindu (printed newspaper) is returning to Mario Garcia’s pure design “contemporary classical”. Pastiche & mishmash are out.

A classic design returns

“It’s great to be able to reconnect on design—the great ‘contemporary classical design’ you did for The Hindu (alongside the other pure designs you did for our other publications) some years ago,“ N. Ram, said.  “It’s great to have you back at The Hindu through the return of your pure design after an embarrassing period of eclectic, free-for-all experimentation, which brought ‘clutter and chaos’ (and mishmash) to the pages and was, net, an eye-sore (fortunately, it lasted only a couple of years).

“The changeover to your original design is also a metaphor for the journalistic values for which The Hindu was renowned, returning to the iconic newspaper,“ says N. Murali, co-chairman of the company that publishes The Hindu.

Why return to the previous “classic” design?

The Hindu of November 6, 2013 had a page 1 announcement titled “Return to pure design” from Editor-in-Chief N. Ravi.

In the spirit of getting the complete story in a fair way, I asked N. Ravi, editor in chief of The Hindu, about the decision to return to the classic design concept of 2005.

“The decision to return to the pure, classic look that you had brought to The Hindu was easy and obvious and has given us all immense satisfaction. Your pure design had served us admirably since it was adopted in 2005 and had won wide appreciation from readers.  In the last two years, there had been a gradual but noticeable departure from the design and four months ago, new elements and colours that were totally out of line with the concepts and look that you had introduced were introduced.  In the result, the pages looked mangled and chaotic and the newspaper had lost its distinctive character.  The mix of colours introduced was far removed from your palette and made the pages garish.  Designers and page layout editors did not have definite design templates to work on and it became a free for all.  Navigating the content became very difficult, and instead of maintaining the content-related hierarchy on the pages, stories that offered more play for design elements dominated. It was after a hard look at this distortion of the design that we decided to restore your pure design.

What was the readers’ reaction?

“As for the reactions of readers, many had complained before the restoration of your design that The Hindu had lost its distinctive character and was beginning to look like the other newspapers around. After the change, there has been a general and widespread appreciation, with one long time reader saying that it was once again The Hindu that he had admired and enjoyed. The neat, classic look with a well-defined hierarchy and easy navigation as well as the use of your distinctive, classic colour palette are the specific features that have won appreciation.“

I don’t recall any previous instances where a design was resurrected. As I look at the classic look for The Hindu, I think it still applies, a testament to a design strategy that did not emphasize trendy elements. 

I have always maintained that the true test of editorial design is its sustainability and longevity. 

In fashion, Balenciaga and Coco Chanel dresses are as elegant today as they were when created. 

The same applies to newspapers, as this episode from The Hindu reminds us.

Right: The Hindu: look of the editorial page after it was restored to original, more classic look

On our homepage: The Hindu: the classic design created in 2005 is back

Reproduced from The Mario Blog with permission