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How leftist magazines exploit slick editorial design for the mainstream newsstand


Hey there, and welcome to the Eye on Design Thursday newsletter where we take a closer look at one big story and highlight a few things that make it an exciting read.
 
How leftist magazines lampoon mainstream mags while stealing their visual appeal

The Leftist Magazines Exploiting Slick Editorial Design for the Mainstream Newsstand

Jacobin is one of a number of magazines that looks to reclaim the derisive and sensationalized terms in which American socialists have been described over the decades. Rather than hedge its own radicalism in an attempt to appease its naysayers and the curious-but-cautious, Jacobin unabashedly goes there, with righteous solemnity, or interjections of tongue-in-cheek humor—or a bit of both. And it owes its success in doing so, in large part, to its design.

Leftist publications vying for a general readership face some very specific design challenges. Their creative direction must aesthetically separate them not only from the magazines of the right and center like The Atlantic, but also from liberal standard bearers such as the New YorkerFor radical publications like Jacobin, The Baffler, and Current Affairs, design has become an opportunity to have a similar appeal and heft as other titles on a newsstand, but without compromising their political position.

“Why should leftists have to choose between visual content that’s honest and impassioned and sober political analysis?”

While the three magazines are ideologically aligned, they differ in their aesthetic treatment of their relationship to mainstream audiences as leftist publications. But what best distinguishes them from their centrist counterparts is the ability to recognize and embrace the inherent politicization of design. As Jacobin creative director, Remeike Forbes, rightly states: “No image is truly neutral, and attempting to dissolve a visual identity in the acid bath of high modernism isn’t a design solution.”
 

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