Newspapers are dying for a few reasons. Readers don't want to pay for yesterday's news, and advertisers follow them. Your iPhone, your laptop, is much more handy than New York Times on Sunday. And we should save trees in the end. So it's enough to bury any industry. So, should we rather ask, "Can anything save newspapers?"
Novine umiru iz nekoliko razloga. Čitatelji ne žele plaćati za jučerašnje vijesti, a oglašivači ih slijede. Vaš iPhone, vaš prijenosnik, puno je praktičniji od New York Times-a nedjeljom. I na kraju krajeva, moramo spasiti drveće. To je dovoljno da pokopa bilo koju industriju. Dakle, trebamo li bolje pitati, "Može li išta spasiti novine?"
There are several scenarios for the future newspaper. Some people say it should be free; it should be tabloid, or even smaller: A4; it should be local, run by communities, or niche, for some smaller groups like business -- but then it's not free; it's very expensive. It should be opinion-driven; less news, more views. And we'd rather read it during breakfast, because later we listen to radio in a car, check your mail at work and in the evening you watch TV. Sounds nice, but this can only buy time. Because in the long run, I think there is no reason, no practical reason for newspapers to survive.
Postoji nekoliko scenarija za budućnost novina. Neki kažu da bi trebale biti besplatne; trebale bi biti tabloid, ili čak manje: A4; trebale bi biti lokalne, vođene od strane zajednica, ili specijalizirane, za neke manje grupe poput biznisa -- ali tada nisu besplatne; nego vrlo skupe. Trebale bi se oslanjati na mišljenje; s manje vijesti, a više gledišta. I radije bi ih čitali za doručkom, zato što kasnije slušamo radio u autu, provjeravamo e-poštu na poslu i navečer gledamo televiziju. Zvuči dobro, no time se može samo dobiti na vremenu. Zato što u konačnici, mislim da nema razloga, praktičnog razloga da novine opstanu.
So what can we do? (Laughter) Let me tell you my story. 20 years ago, Bonnier, Swedish publisher, started to set newspapers in the former Soviet Bloc. After a few years, they had several newspapers in central and eastern Europe. They were run by an inexperienced staff, with no visual culture, no budgets for visuals -- in many places there were not even art directors. I decided to be -- to work for them as an art director. Before, I was an architect, and my grandmother asked me once, "What are you doing for a living?" I said, "I'm designing newspapers." "What? There's nothing to design there. It's just boring letters" (Laughter) And she was right. I was very frustrated, until one day.
Dakle, što možemo učiniti? (Smijeh) Ispričat ću vam svoju priču. Prije 20 godina, Bonnier, švedski izdavač, počeo je izdavati novine u bivšem Sovjetskom bloku. Nakon nekoliko godina imali su nekoliko novina u centralnoj i istočnoj Europi. Vodio ih je neiskusni kadar, bez vizualne kulture, bez proračuna za vizualne umjetnosti. Na puno mjesta nije bilo čak ni umjetničkih direktora. Odlučio sam postati -- raditi za njih kao umjetnički direktor. Prije sam bio arhitekt, i moja me baka jednom pitala, "Kako zarađuješ za život?" Rekao sam, "Ja dizajniram novine." "Što? Nema se tu što dizajnirati. To su samo dosadna slova" (Smijeh) I bila je u pravu. Bio sam vrlo frustriran, sve do jednog dana.
I came to London, and I've seen performance by Cirque du Soleil. And I had a revelation. I thought, "These guys took some creepy, run-down entertainment, and put it to the highest possible level of performance art." I thought "Oh my God, maybe I can do the same with these boring newspapers." And I did. We started to redesign them, one by one. The front page became our signature. It was my personal intimate channel to talk to the readers.
Došao sam u London, i vidio performans Cirque du Soleil-a. I sinulo mi je. Mislio sam, "Ovi ljudi su preuzeli grozan, istrošen oblik zabave, i podigli ga na najvišu moguću razinu izvedbene umjetnosti." Mislio sam "O,moj Bože, možda mogu učiniti isto s ovim dosadnim novinama." I učinio sam. Počeli smo ih redizajnirati, jedne po jedne. Naslovnica je postala naš potpis. To je bio moj osobni intimni kanal kojim sam govorio čitateljima.
I'm not going to tell you stories about teamwork or cooperation. My approach was very egotistic. I wanted my artistic statement, my interpretation of reality. I wanted to make posters, not newspapers. Not even magazines: posters. We were experimenting with type, with illustration, with photos. And we had fun. Soon it started to bring results. In Poland, our pages were named "Covers of the Year" three times in a row. Other examples you can see here are from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and central European countries.
Neću vam pričati priče o timskom radu i suradnji. Moj pristup je bio vrlo egoističan. Želio sam svoj umjetnički iskaz, svoju interpretaciju stvarnosti. Želio sam stvarati postere, a ne novine. Čak ni časopise: postere. Eksperimentirali smo sa slovima, s ilustracijom, s fotografijama. I zabavljali smo se. Uskoro je to počelo davati rezultate. U Poljskoj su naše stranice nazvali "Naslovnice godine" tri puta za redom. Druge primjere koje možete ovdje vidjeti su iz Latvije, Litve, Estonije -- zemalja Centralne Europe.
But it's not only about the front page. The secret is that we were treating the whole newspaper as one piece, as one composition -- like music. And music has a rhythm, has ups and downs. And design is responsible for this experience. Flipping through pages is readers experience, and I'm responsible for this experience. We treated two pages, both spreads, as a one page, because that's how readers perceive it.
No ne radi se samo o prednjoj strani. Tajna je u tome da smo tretirali cijele novine kao jedno djelo, kao jednu kompoziciju -- kao glazbu. I glazba ima ritam, ima uspone i padove. I dizajn je odgovoran za taj doživljaj. Okretanje stranica je čitalački doživljaj, i ja sam odgovoran za taj doživljaj. Tretirali smo dvije stranice kao jednu, zato što ih tako vide čitatelji.
You can see some Russian pages here which got many awards on biggest infographic competition in Spain. But the real award came from Society for Newspaper Design. Just a year after redesigning this newspaper in Poland, they name it the World's Best-Designed Newspaper. And two years later, the same award came to Estonia. Isn't amazing?
Ovdje možete vidjeti neke ruske stranice koje su dobile mnoge nagrade na najvećem natjecanju u infografici u Španjolskoj. No prava je nagrada došla od Društva za novinski dizajn. Samo godinu nakon redizajna ovih novina u Poljskoj, nazvali su ih Najbolje dizajnirane novine na svijetu. I dvije godine kasnije, ista je nagrada došla u Estoniju. Nije li to nevjerojatno?
What really makes it amazing: that the circulation of these newspapers were growing too. Just some examples: in Russia, plus 11 after one year, plus 29 after three years of the redesign. Same in Poland: plus 13, up to 35 percent raise of circulation after three years. You can see on a graph, after years of stagnation, the paper started to grow, just after redesign. But the real hit was in Bulgaria. And that is really amazing.
Ono što to stvarno čini nevjerojatnim: tiraža tih novina također je narasla. Samo nekoliko primjera: u Rusiji, plus 11 nakon jedne godine, plus 29 nakon tri godine redizajna. Isto u Poljskoj: plus 13, sve do 35 posto povećanje tiraže nakon tri godine. Možete vidjeti na grafikonu, nakon godina stagnacije, novine su počele rasti, odmah nakon redizajna. No pravi uspjeh dogodio se u Bugarskoj. I to je stvarno nevjerojatno.
Did design do this? Design was just a part of the process. And the process we made was not about changing the look, it was about improving the product completely. I took an architectural rule about function and form and translated it into newspaper content and design. And I put strategy at the top of it. So first you ask a big question: why we do it? What is the goal? Then we adjust the content accordingly. And then, usually after two months, we start designing. My bosses, in the beginning, were very surprised. Why am I asking all of these business questions, instead of just showing them pages? But soon they realized that this is the new role of designer: to be in this process from the very beginning to the very end.
Da li je to učinio dizajn? Dizajn je bio samo dio procesa. I proces koji smo napravili nije o promjeni izgleda, nego o poboljšanju proizvoda u potpunosti. Preuzeo sam zakon arhitekture o funkciji i formi i prenio ga u sadržaj i dizajn novina. I postavio sam strategiju na vrh svega. Dakle, prvo postavljate veliko pitanje: zašto to činimo? Koja je svrha? Zatim shodno tome prilagođavamo sadržaj. I onda, obično nakon dva mjeseca, počinjemo dizajnirati. Moji su šefovi na početku bili vrlo iznenađeni. Zašto postavljam sva ta poslovna pitanja, umjesto da im samo pokažem stranice? No ubrzo su shvatili da je to nova uloga dizajnera: da bude u tom procesu od samog početka do samog kraja.
So what is the lesson behind it? The first lesson is about that design can change not just your product. It can change your workflow -- actually, it can change everything in your company; it can turn your company upside down. It can even change you. And who's responsible? Designers. Give power to designers. (Applause) But the second is even more important. You can live in a small poor country, like me. You can work for a small company, in a boring branch. You can have no budgets, no people -- but still can put your work to the highest possible level. And everybody can do it. You just need inspiration, vision and determination. And you need to remember that to be good is not enough.
Dakle, koja se lekcija može naučiti iz svega? U prvoj se lekciji radi o tome da dizajn može promijeniti ne samo vaš proizvod. Može promijeniti vaš proces rada -- zapravo može promijeniti sve u vašoj kompaniji; može okrenuti vašu kompaniju naglavačke. Može čak promijeniti vas. I tko je odgovoran? Dizajneri. Dajte vlast dizajnerima. (Pljesak) No druga je lekcija čak važnija. Možete živjeti u maloj siromašnoj zemlji, kao ja. Možete raditi za malu kompaniju, u dosadnoj grani. Bez proračuna, ljudi -- no ipak možete podići svoj rad na najveću moguću razinu. I svi to mogu učiniti. Samo trebate inspiraciju, viziju i odlučnost. I morate zapamtiti da biti dobar nije dovoljno.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.