Bloomberg Businessweek: a masterclass in magazine design

2011 was an amazing year for the weekly magazine Bloomberg Businessweek. As the story goes, the magazine was hours away from going to press (just how many hours is up for contention) when the news of Steve Jobs' death hit the news.{C}Not content to simply rejig its lead story, the Bloomberg Businessweek team scrapped the entire issue, and set to work pulling together a whole issue dedicated to Apple's visionary founder.

Masterclass in print design

The result was a masterclass in how print publishing can retain its relevance in the digital age, as Jobs' life was chronicled in impactful photography, with the cover relying on a simply cropped photo of Jobs on a metallic silver backdrop: the magazine was awarded a D&AD yellow pencil for this special issue.

The Richard Turley effect

More recently in May, Bloomberg Businessweek won an award for excellence at the National Magazine Awards and also picked up the award from the SPD (Society of Publication Designers) for magazine of the year. Much of the magazine's success over the last year has been attributed to the former Guardian G2 art director Richard Turley, who is repsonsible for reinventing the magazine since he joined for the redesign, which launched in April 2010.

Anarchic and fun

Since the relaunch, the design of Bloomberg Businessweek has gone from strength to strength, with the team producing stunning covers and interior pages that burst with vibrant typography, intelligent use of photography, and stunning illustrations that elevate the content to a new level. The confident, bold, and often fun approach to the magazine's art direction harks back to the anarchic glory days of print design, whilst taking full advantage of the newest design techniques and printing treatments.

We've included some of our favourite examples here, but you can access hundreds of examples of this fantastic magazine via its Flickr page.