Haymarket Media Group, now in its 50th year in business, emerged as the big winner at this year’s Press Gazette Magazine Design Awards.
Haymarket Network – the group’s customer publishing division – picked up four awards in the design categories, and Haymarket’s classical music monthly, Gramophone, picked up best exclusive in the journalism categories, and Jon Butterworth was named designer of year. Butterworth, who was nominated for four categories, is the designer for Haymarket’s British Army recruitment magazine, Camouflage. The title also won best-designed customer magazine front cover.
Although he received nominations in previous years, this is the first time Butterworth has picked up an award. He started on the title four years ago, and said that he enjoyed being able to make it his own.
Photography
Related
A key factor behind the title’s success has been excellent use of photography, but Butterworth did say that there had been some hurdles.
‘The biggest challenge is getting past the army. We decide these big ideas and the army are a bit scared by it. We can’t show too much of the weapons, but it’s more about the adventure and the lifestyle the soldiers have,’he said.
Art editor Jo Spreadborough collected the best customer magazine award for Haymarket Network’s Design Council Magazine.
Content from our partners
She said the magazine was actually more a B2B title than a customer magazine, despite being produced for a client. ‘It’s more B2B because of who it’s going out to – to a lot of businesses with design influences.’
Spreadborough praised creative director Mark Farrow for his work on the title. He, she said, influenced and helped her hugely.
Spreadborough said the team worked to create a title that broke the mould of what a customer magazine should look like. ‘We were working for a prestigious client in the Design Council and it was a very different proposition for Haymarket. It has stretched our imagination, which will stand us in great stead for the future.”
Haymarket Network’s final award went to Tim Scott of .32 – a sailing title for the Americas Cup – which won best-designed features spread.
Esquire
David McKendrick won best design/redesign for his work on the Esquire relaunch for Natmags. Esquire editor Jeremy Langmead poached McKendrick from his former title, Wallpaper*, where McKendrick was previously head designer of the IPC design lifestyle title.
Talking about the redesign of Esquire, McKendrick said that he and Langmead ‘started from scratch, we threw out everything from the size of the magazine to the typefaces. We realised we had to change our market.”
McKendrick previously worked as a graphic designer for six years before moving into the magazines market. He said that experience had been a plus in looking at the magazine from a design angle.
Describing McKendrick’s work, the judges cited it as: ‘A redesign whose elegant simplicity aims to reposition the title – this is an excellent example of keeping the baby and throwing out the bath water.”
The design awards were judged by David Hillman, Simon Esterson, Jeremy Leslie and Michael Crozier.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
