DANIEL TAUB
Staff Reporter
What would your newspaper look like if it were designed by the same people who made your car?
Readers of the Los Angeles Times may soon find out. The newspaper has taken the unusual step of hiring Nissan Design International Inc., the studio that designs automobiles for Carson-based Nissan North America Inc., to come up with a redesign of the paper.
La Jolla-based Nissan Design International is known not only for designing the Altima sedan and Quest minivan, but for golf clubs, stereo speakers and preschool furniture. Nissan’s troubled U.S. car-marketing operations have been looking to the La Jolla designers to help revitalize the company.
What the shop is not known for is redesigning newspapers.
Jerry Hirshberg, president of Nissan Design International, acknowledged the group has never before designed a newspaper or other publication but points out that it had never created a yacht or golf club before it first designed them.
“I think it was the fresh point of view for which we were called,” he said. “Usually we’re called when somebody wants to take a fresh look. The principles of design are the principles of design. Just as with architecture, whether you’re building an outhouse or a church, there are certain principles, and that’s what we do.”
Mike Lange, director of communications for the Los Angeles Times, also said the newspaper hired Nissan because it is looking for fresh ideas.
“It’s an interactive process,” Lange said. “We’re looking to get a lot of different ideas, a lot of different perspectives, and as much creativity into the process as possible. Ultimately the redesign decisions and implementation are going to be done by the Los Angeles Times.”
Nissan is one of three outside consultants the Times is using for its redesign, which is expected to be in place by mid-2000.
The newspaper also is consulting with Roger Black, owner of an independent design firm in New York, who has coordinated redesigns for Esquire, the San Francisco Examiner, Advertising Age and other publications. The third firm is San Francisco-based Landor Associates, which specializes in brand development and marketing.
“What will come out the other end remains to be seen,” Lange said. “We’re too early in the process to say what will change and what won’t change. But we’re looking at everything the whole newspaper reading experience.”
Cynthia Rawitch, chair of the journalism department at Cal State Northridge, said she would be interested to see what Nissan comes up with.
The Times “may very well be thinking outside the traditional box which is that newspapers have always looked a certain way,” she said. “No matter how radical the design changes tend to be, they still look like newspapers. Maybe the Times is looking at attracting new readers by making it look radically different.”
But Rawitch said she is concerned that the redesign may be focused more on brand identification and appearance in a bid to boost circulation, with journalistic quality being pushed aside.
“I wouldn’t dismiss (Nissan’s redesign) out of hand,” she said, “but I also wonder whether packaging is going to be more important than content.
