New Work: ‘02138’

02138 was the luxury lifestyle magazine of the Harvard elite, sent exclusively to the school’s top 50,000 alumni (out of 320,000 Harvard alums worldwide—yes, you can go to Harvard and still be considered not good enough). Sadly, the magazine folded on Black Friday, the same day Radar died, just as the first issue of our redesign was set to go to press. Working closely with the editors, Luke Hayman and his team had developed a design that tweaked the culture of Harvard just as it embraced it.

Now the publishers have posted the entire final “lost” issue online, and 02138’s exclusivity is shared with the world. Enjoy the privilege!

Click here for the 02138 December 2008 issue.

A look inside our shortest-lived redesign after the jump.

02138 took its name from Harvard’s zip code but had no official affiliation with the university. It was intended to target what was seen as an exclusive community of highly educated, influential and wealthy readers—a coveted demographic for advertisers. In its original format it aspired to the glossiness of Vanity Fair or Town & Country, but the design was indistinctive and with a limited budget, the magazine was often forced to use pickup photography. The overall effect was oddly impersonal for a magazine based on shared experience.

In 2008 the title was purchased by Manhattan Media, and the new editors aimed for a tone that was more irreverent, knowing and ironic, humorously tweaking the idea that Harvard is an exclusive club and that its graduates rule the world. (One in four US presidents have been Harvard grads, including our president-elect.)

Hayman’s redesign helps keep the tone playful and witty throughout. The team looked at 1960s magazines like Town and Look for inspiration, and typography and graphic elements of the new 02138 are traditional—to make it, literally, “old school”—but in a way that plays off Harvard’s perceived stuffy, clubby and elitist attitude. The redesign makes use of commissioned illustration and photography, where relevant, but isn’t above using clip art for spots. (For the lost issue, vintage ads plug the holes where paid advertising would have been.)

The front of book is called “The H-Bomb,” with its title set in Albertus. Regular features in the section include “This Month in Alan Dershowitz,” for the prolific lawyer-author-commentator, and a gift guide uses fine art photography to appear more arty and less obvious than the usual service-feature gift guides found in magazines. The first issue of the relaunch focused on “The Harvard 100,” what had become an annual feature of the magazine. The redesign sprinkles the list with US Weekly-esque bits like “Who Wore It Best?” and “They’re Just Like Us!” Smutty jokes are used as spacers.

There are serious long-form pieces, like a look at the Harvard-educated team that created Iraq’s constitution, a process diagrammed in an information graphic, and a profile of Michelle Obama that opens with an elegant spread. “The Examiner” section contained reviews of books, movies and restaurants; it was intended to be general interest, looking at the world outside Harvard. Though for the first restaurant review, the editors could not resist sending humorist Mike Albo to the Harvard Club, in all its paneled, taxidermic glory.

The new logo is set in Monotype Engravers. The Monotype Modern family is used for text and headers, and Clarendon and Albertus are used as display fonts. Bureau Grotesk is used for the dirty jokes.

Regrettably, the redesign will never properly graduate.

Project Team: Luke Hayman, Shigeto Akiyama.