Form in service of substance

No. 108 — JUNE 12, 2025

Form in service of substance

Hello everyone,

This week, we’re taking a look at the graphic design choices available to media outlets. At launch, is it better to prioritize a great logo or a strong first article? Can rigor and sincerity be reconciled in design? How can we avoid uniformity without falling into caricature?

To answer these questions, we’re bringing you a joint interview with two designers: Christelle Perrin (MédianesPays magazine) and Thomas Steffen (Le Monde). Both advocate for design that’s accessible, clear, political, and always in the service of the readership.

Also in this issue: an invitation to our traditional summer party, ideas for resisting the Bolloré empire, the erosion of privacy online, and a big hug to our newsstand vendors.

Enjoy the read,

MARINE SLAVITCH, JOURNALIST AT MÉDIANES

The Strategy

Ideas for Your Media

Do you feel like all media outlets look the same? That’s often true, and it’s not always by chance: dominant design conventions, identical designers, and neutral templates associated with professionalism. And when we want to do something different, we sometimes think it has to look “thrown together” to be authentic. Yet an identity can be strong, accessible, and engaging all at once.

Why is it interesting?

Because graphic identity is an editorial tool. It influences how a media outlet is perceived, recognized, and taken seriously. A clear and well-thought-out graphic style guide can thus amplify the impact of its articles. For socially conscious media outlets, focusing on substance without neglecting form is also a way of asserting that one can be accessible, structured, and radical all at once.

The Quote

“Just because we publish a left-wing magazine doesn’t mean we have to shy away from graphic rigor. The pitfall would be to believe that showing our limited resources is a sign of commitment or authenticity.” — Thomas Steffen, head of the digital design teams at *Le Monde*.

Why not?

Design is a shared language. We already know, intuitively, that a headline should be larger than the rest or that an image should be legible. This common sense has been co-opted by a professional clique that defines the so-called “good taste.” Taking back control is a political act. Create based on your own practices, but above all, start with your audiences. What codes speak to them? What references do they share? Good design doesn’t have to be expensive or neutral; it must truly speak to the people you want to reach.

Over in Médianes

event

Join us for the summer party!Médianes Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes our need to take a breather and get together. So we’ll see you in early July for our traditional summer party. It’ll be a fun, friendly gathering where you can meet and chat over drinks with members of the team andMédianes our network. It’s also a chance to discuss our respective projects and our hopes for the future.

So let's meet on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at the Belleville Sauvage bar (5 rue Denoyez, Paris 20th arrondissement), starting at 7 p.m. Sign up now.

Christelle Perrin — Médianes, the Studio

On Our Radar

What We're Reading Right Now

Boycott the Empire

PAULINE LE GALL / LES INROCKUPTIBLES

How can we reclaim power in the face of Bolloré’s stranglehold on publishing, television, and distribution? While some respond with boycotts, others warn of their limitations: they’re risky for authors and can sometimes be counterproductive. Everyone, however, agrees on the urgent need to devise other forms of resistance.

⟶ Through the “Déborder Bolloré” project, about 100 independent publishing houses are joining forces to explore the future of books and propose sustainable solutions. Read our interview.

The Digital Archives Crisis

MICHAEL WATERS / THE ATLANTIC

Archivists are fighting to preserve the privacy of our online lives: ephemeral messages, Discord chats, phone notes. This vast amount of data makes their job difficult, especially when they try to sort through email inboxes cluttered with marketing messages. Some even fear a “digital dark age,” where private moments vanish before they can be understood.

⟶ The internet also undermines the legacy of journalism. Exposed to technical glitches, political pressures, and financial pressures, years of work can vanish without a trace. In this context, archiving becomes an act of resistance.

On medianes.org

It's homemade

Web Design: The Art of Doing More with Less

OWEN HUCHON / MIDFIELDERS

The size of web pages has tripled in ten years. In the face of this digital inflation and its environmental consequences, some websites are adopting a radically minimalist approach. These “low-tech” rather than “high-tech” approaches enhance the accessibility and independence of the Internet.

In Brief

THAT WAY, YOU'LL KNOW

1. Fisheye, Télérama, Contexte: These media outlets are hiring. Check out their job openings.

2. This tool lets you organize your tabs into folders to make it easier to search the web.

3. The “Émotions” podcast (Louie Media) is coming to life: its episodes are now available as videos, featuring immersive motion graphics. It’s a smart move to diversify its distribution and stand out visually.

4. A fine example of transparency at Mosaïque. Within a few days, two artists refused to allow their interviews to be published in the magazine. The team has put a stop to this: from now on, all content produced will be published.

5. Editor’s Pick: It’s the nerds’ revenge! Climax magazine, available at newsstands, declares its love for them by flooding their Google reviews with photos of readers holding copies of the magazine.

See you on June 26!

for the next edition

Thank you for your messages, which have helped us enrich this newsletter. We’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome the teams at Challenges, Le Monde, and Kiblind, as well as everyone who has recently joined us.

See you on June 26. Until then, take care of yourselves and your media.

This newsletter was prepared by Marine Slavitch, in collaboration with the team at Médianes.

Médianes

We are a nonprofit media organization and a strategy, marketing, and design studio dedicated to independent journalism.