For some people, nothing is daunting. They’re the ones you see on TV commercials plowing through rivers of mud
on mountain bikes and hanging from the sides of rugged cliffs.
Blue
was created for these adventurers—or those
who aspire to be them.
The travel magazine’s design never rests, yet, since its birth in 1997,
Blue
has learned to balance its daring design
with the need to be legible and accessible to readers. The result is a controlled chaos of sorts, a boundless explo-
ration without getting lost in the forest.
WHY IT WORKS:
Pages are exhilarating, edgy, and alive with color. Around every corner is an unexpected perspective; every space is
assigned an unconventional purpose. Layouts play off images rather than merely incorporating them. Like its read-
ers,
Blue
is constantly pushing the limits.
Blue
The Adventurer’s Travel Magazine
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above This cover combined a blurred skiing shot and
icy blue boxes. A tiny, dark photograph of trucks would
blend into the background if not for the boxed arrow
directing attention its way.
above Hobo artist Dan Price adds a folksy, cartoonish
slant with his hand-lettered designs. He designed the
cover for the magazine’s third anniversary issue.
above
Blue’s
is about freedom and exploration. The
photograph on its first cover suggested readers should
dive in without seeing what’s ahead—an unconven-
tional approach for a travel magazine. The cover
prompted sales 200 percent higher than average
launches.
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42
above Assembling pho-
tographs of very different
subjects and in varying
styles builds off-balance,
stunning montages, such
as in this article on Cuba.
above Photographs
aren’t always the dis-
tant, technically perfect
achievements they are
in other magazines.
Sometimes out of focus,
motion-blurred, grainy,
or dark, they portray a
realistic, imperfect view
of adventure.
right There’s no dull
moments in layouts like
this one for a focus on
Alaska. Photos run to-
gether and overlap, boxes
contain bits of text, and
empty spaces become
cells of color that project
the article’s mood.
Blue’s
philosophy is that space, despite what science
fiction fans believe, is not necessarily the final fron-
tier—there are plenty of adventures to be had right
here on our own planet. A metaphor for “blue sky, blue
sea, blue planet,”
Blue
aims to inspire its already am-
bitious readers with tales of thrilling expeditions into
barely chartered territories.
The magazine targets 19- to 35-year-old readers who
aren’t interested in the mainstream options that were
available to previous generations. When they travel,
they’re less likely to choose a French getaway with the
finest champagne and the most luxurious hotel, says
publisher and editor in chief Amy Schrier.
Instead, they’re more aware of their access to remote
locations and choose to get there in less conventional
ways—hiking, biking, kayaking, and camping their way
through Malaysia or Peru instead of riding tour buses
and staying at inns recommended by the guidebooks.
Design plays a critical role in speaking to these read-
ers. “If you look at other titles in the travel category,
you see them in traditional columns of type with rigid
photography,” says Schrier. Pages are usually white
and clean, and photographs depict blue skies, friendly
environments, exquisitely prepared feasts, and charm-
ing, peaceful settings. This formula has little to do with
the way
Blue’s
readers view their own adventures.
“We wanted to bring the travel experience to life,”
Schrier says. “The pages had to recreate the intensity
and freedom of traveling.”
The Adventure Generation
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For example, Skinner may pick up a shape in a photo-
graph and repeat it graphically, as in a story on the
Egyptian pyramids that overlaps perpendicular trian-
gles and multiple photos of the architectural wonders
in the desert. Photographs are repeated, cropped for a
different perspective, or sliced into pieces and spread
intermittently among other images. A single color in a
photograph, such as the green of a surfboard in an
otherwise white and brown surfing shot, is picked up
and used in boxes and banners throughout the rest of
the layout.
At
Blue’s
inception, defiance of convention was a bit
more extreme. Type was tiny and ran over images, which
made it hard to read. Even page numbers were elimi-
nated. The magazine earned a reputation for illegibility.
In response to reader feedback, more recent issues are
subversive and energetic while still making sense.
“It’s a tough problem to solve, keeping it from being
too boring,” Skinner says. “Everyone is trying to be so
simple. I don’t think it is
Blue’s
place to jump on the
simple bandwagon due to its subject matter.
Blue
is
about energy, exploration, mystery, and fun.”
Transmitting the vicarious thrill of adventure travel
through design is a twofold process. “On one hand, we
have to convey the frenzy of travel,” says Schrier. “On
the other, we try to provide a crystal-clear, fresh view,
a clean window to the world.”
At first glance, the frenetic vision seems to be upper-
most. Layouts are packed with stacked photographs,
overlapping boxes, changing typefaces, and experi-
mental dingbats. Varying shades of color fill empty
areas, eliminating romantic notions of white space.
The pages buzz with a nonchalant energy and the
awareness that rules, in travel, design, and life, are
meant to be broken.
Blue
has never used a grid. “Every page is a hand-
done page,” says Schrier. Design ideas begin at a meet-
ing between Schrier and art director Christa Skinner,
who designs about 90 percent of the pages herself. By
starting from scratch, Skinner can run with ideas in-
spired by the stories and artwork. “It slows me down,
but also allows for more flexibility and surprises in the
layout,” she says.
top left Photos also get up close and personal, as in
this layout for an article on a rainforest tribe.
top right In an unusual approach to fashion shoots,
this layout shows models of sports gear in action.
left Once again, unusually cropped photos are
sprinkled across a layout for a constantly changing
perspective.
Flexible, Frenetic Layout
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below Without a grid,
art director Christa Skin-
ner can surprise herself
with sudden ideas. She
begins with the photo-
graphs and builds lay-
outs around them.
right Another fashion
layout shows the clothes
in action.
closeup of a mud-splattered mountain bike. When a
colorful ocean floor or gorgeous sunset is given promi-
nence on a page, it isn’t allowed to steal the spotlight.
A series of tiny action shots or whimsical graphic ding-
bats may be laid over it.
Text frequently is layered over photos too. Pages mix a
variety of typefaces and colors; Skinner likes to experi-
ment with many fonts, often within single layouts. Oc-
casionally, headlines, captions, callouts, and even body
text is contained in boxes or long strips filled with col-
ors, which suggests the photos have been labeled.
Pages hum with activity while emphasizing important
text, which keeps the pages readable.
One way
Blue
solves the readability problem is with its
habitual use of boxes. Text boxes, often laid over photo-
graphs or each other, stack together to make up entire
articles. They’re useful as captions, as labels for maps,
or even as a way to break up paragraphs in stories.
The box technique emerged naturally as a way to com-
municate to the Internet generation, says Schrier. “We’ve
been compared to a Web site, but we did it instinctively.”
“It’s a good way to get text and a lot of color on a
page,” says Skinner. “I began doing it early on and
have continued as part of the
Blue
look.”
Boxes are stacked with photos of all sizes to create a
sort of montage. The magazine doesn’t buy into the
idyllic idea of letting stunning, blown-up images speak
for themselves; there are too many other things to see.
A scenic mountaintop view may border a grungy
Boxed Text for Legibility
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In the midst of the controlled chaos,
Blue
also tries to
provide moments of lucidity. The magazine’s window
on the world is its photography, from panoramic land-
scapes to in-the-trenches action shots. Photographs
never fail to offer an unusual perspective: the under-
side of a school of fish or the bottom of a surfer’s up-
turned board, a runner’s legs, the shadows of people
on the wall of a cave.
Interestingly, while the images are beautiful in their
own way, they are rarely the technically perfect photos
so prominent in other travel magazines. They’re often
grainy, sometimes dark and out of focus; occasionally,
they’re even magnified for intentional blurriness. But
they may run alongside crisp and richly colorful photos
that more conventional magazines would covet, ex-
hibiting the magazine’s wide range.
The technique helps the magazine look gritty and in
the moment, a realistic approach to depicting trips that
aren’t always clean, pleasant, and uneventful. The
photography reflects travel that is rugged and high-im-
pact while allowing for moments of deep breaths and
exquisite clarity.
Rugged, Realistic Photography
above A single eye peers
from the shadows in this
black-and-white layout
for an article on Kosovo.
Graphic Design That Works
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