Autumn 2019
News cycle
Italian designer Francesco Franchi brings magazine finesse to the world of daily newspapers
Francesco Franchi is a graphic designer, but his business card says ‘journalist’. He has won numerous graphics awards, but he is managing editor (and deputy creative director) of a daily newspaper, La Repubblica. So, which is his true identity? The fact is it is all true – his work sits at a crossroads, between content creation and its visual representation, through a process that makes its core meaning visible. While his work may not take a traditional written approach, his constant focus is to find the best way to transform the message of every piece into clear and meaningful visual content. All of this comes about through integrating graphics, typography and photography, in an ongoing process involving journalists, editors, photographic editors and illustrators.
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Art directed by Francesco Franchi and Angelo Rinaldi, Live is a monthly health and science newsprint supplement published with La Repubblica and the group’s regional newspapers. Dramatic double-page spread infographics (both created by Matteo Riva) with precisely designed integrations of type and graphics continue Franchi’s approach to content and page design pioneered at IL magazine.
Top. Photograph by James Mollison.
Paolo Ferrarini, professor and editor, Rome
Read the full version in Eye no. 99 vol. 25, 2019
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.