The Week Reinvents Iconic Red Bar Masthead to Deliver a New Brand World Experience

Global news title The Week has unveiled a series of striking new visual identity assets to create a more holistic and memorable brand world experience across its digital touchpoints.

Developed by global design consultancy Elmwood, the new brand assets were designed to help The Week connect more deeply with readers, with a modern yet classic approach that reflects the publication’s balanced editorial style, and amplifies its tagline, 'enjoy a different view'.

The new additions see The Week’s primary design asset - its iconic red masthead - elevated as a centre point for powerful storytelling. It has evolved into a flexible, easy-to-use design system that brings the magazine’s voice to life in a myriad of fresh and distinctive ways. 

The red bar can be transformed into a speech bubble, for example, creating a quick tactical accent. Or it can be used to convey clarity and emphasis in complex passages of running copy. 

Elmwood also worked with renowned Tokyo-based illustrator Luis Mendo to show how The Week’s red bar can introduce gentle wit, along with a sense of warmth. Mendo’s free yet simple black line illustrations are a stylistic foil to The Week’s more detailed, painterly cover caricatures, adding a feeling of inclusivity that will engage with readers.

For example, in the new illustrations, The Week’s red bar becomes a WFH desk for a man and his two cats lounging nearby, along with the teasing tagline, “News at your finger clicks”. Another sees the red bar remodelled into a vault for an athlete to leap over; or a bath in which a person relaxes (reading a copy of The Week, naturally). 

As well as bringing warmth and energy to its digital current affairs coverage, the new brand world system is being rolled out across its other key digital assets, including social media, sales, careers and promotional billboard messaging.

“The assets we’ve created enable The Week to connect with its readers on a more meaningful level, blending its measured news voice with moments of visual wit,” says Andrew Lawrence, global executive creative director at Elmwood. “This, in turn, echoes Elmwood’s own belief that the best brands of tomorrow will be built on cultural tension; in this case, between human connection and relatability; and the balance that comes from succinct, non-biased news”.

“The Week red masthead is so unique and versatile,” Andrew continues. “We quickly realised that, in design terms, it’s this potent symbol that’s hiding in plain sight. By heightening it into a key asset that cleverly interacts with copy, photography and illustrations, we recognised that we could hardwire The Week’s motto, ‘Enjoy a different view’. And we could do so in a manner that is infused with simplicity and a human touch, to expand the magazine’s reach.”

“There is so much noise in the way news is delivered these days”, says Ed Craggs, Head of Marketing at The Week. “The simple, scalable approach Elmwood designed provides a powerful tool to cut through the clamour. Stylistically, the design system they created echoes The Week’s own skill for balanced, yet quietly charismatic, storytelling.”