1988: David Hillman redesigns The Guardian

As The Guardian changes from Berliner to tabloid format, here are some photographs I took of David Hillman and Michael McNay at the Guardian days before the launch of the redesign in 1988. The offices in the photographs (complete with Supawaxa machine and ancient vdus) were used for training layout subs in the new page layout styles.

The sheet pinned by the vdu in frame 1 listed the basic make-up rules, which included:

1 Keep it simple.

 2 Don’t be afraid of splitting the page vertically. It’s a positive virtue. …

4 The grid splits the page into 12 horizontal sections. Using the grid means the paper gains in lucidity by looking planned across the whole spread of pages.





Paul Luna, ‘A newspaper for the nineties’, Blueprint 46 (April 1988), 54–56.