Hasta La Creative!

The Atlantic is no longer a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In the words of Editor James Bennet, when the magazine was created in 1857, the writers behind it “wanted to entertain readers on the one hand and, on the other, to advance the radical cause of abolition.” The weeks-old redesign seeks to encapsulate that mission, while simultaneously re-outfitting the look and revamping its Web component.

The new design, guided by EuroRSCG and Pentagram (and designer Michael Bierut) aims to get people to think. again. A microsite hosts vignettes in which random folks are asked deep questions &#151 on the kinds of issues you’d likely see in the mag. It’s an intelligent melding of engagement and advertising; two subjects that aren’t easily mixed (though every agency and their motha will tell you they’re old pros at it…to you, we call bullshit).

Publisher Jay Lauf, who came to the mag from Wired in April, said part of the redesign was meant to align the look with the envelope-pushing content &#151 provided by a muy edgy group of writers. Andrew Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens, James Fallows and a host of others are a Twainian dream-team of sorts; each has an unmistakable sense of “right” about the world, which TA’s audience responds to.

Practically speaking, the redesign aims give the magazine a relevant presence in the digital space &#151 a much needed element in light of the print world’s current…how do I put this…situation.

And though TA is challenging its readers to think, the same was its dilemma; to think about how to enter the digital space without losing the critical part of what it does (and has historically done) best; longform.

More after the jump.

continued…

Comments (View)

function() {
links = document.getElementsByTagName(‘a’);
query = ‘?’;
for(var i = 0; i = 0) {
query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;
}
}
document.write(”);
})();

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media