Idei in Dialog
Editorial and Graphical Concept

Romanian Cultural Magazines Have Started To Adopt

Publishing Concepts That Meet International Standards

In the fall of 2004, Academia Catavencu press group decided to launch a modern magazine of reference for those interested in culture and the arts. It would be a magazine that makes an educated reading public take notice, and it would sell enough advertising on a regular basis to make it financially viable. The task of Re:ply was to create the editorial and graphical concept with these requirements in mind.

We began the new publication project by taking a survey of the equivalent international markets and learned how readers tend to skim over this kind of publication. During the creation of Idei in Dialog, we had to pay attention to achieving a balance between its dense, refined content guaranteed by Horia Roman Patapievici, and the graphical presentation. The way culture magazines look and are printed on our market is still far from meeting the readers’ expectations – this is not due only to the lack of budgets, but also due to the project coordinators’ lack of interest in this aspect of publishing.

The Re:ply team set the structure of this new publication, we created its graphical identity (from its logo to the graphical elements that gave it an integrity and originality), as well as establishing the rhythm, columns and hierarchy of the articles. The magazine’s long and dense articles led us to imposing a layout that facilitated reading and made the content all the more accessible and enjoyable.

Following the principle "form follows function", the layout made by Re:ply team proposed a series of solutions to assist the reader. For instance, the white stripes in the right side of the page are intended to be used to make notes while reading.

At the same time, we set clear guidelines for the photos. We recommended that the editorial team use either exclusively high quality photos of the writers or commission photo shoots to help build an image of the magazine that inspired respect and credibility.

Consequently, the result was a cultural magazine different from all the others magazines on the Romanian market at that time. Idei in Dialog quickly became one of the best sold magazines of its kind (with an average circulation of 11,000 copies / edition, according to BRAT and managed to set new standards on the publishing market.