Beloved food and dining magazine Bon Appétit has just served up a piping fresh rebrand right in time for their holiday issue, which will hit newsstands and dinner tables this December. The new and improved print magazine was reimagined under the leadership of creative director Arsh Raziuddin, design director Caroline Newton, and design studio MCKL.
Intent on “keeping the playfulness but stripping the noise,” Raziuddin and co. drew upon inspiration from ’50s and ’60s cookbooks, the phototype era, and apéritifs for the magazine’s new look and feel. The main components of the rebrand took the form of an updated logo and custom typeface.
“We started with the logo, and knew we would be making it a little smaller on the refreshed cover,” said MCKL founder Jeremy Mickel. Inspired by Raziuddin and Newton’s image-driven approach to cover design and retro cookbook photography, MCKL cast their creative minds’ back to a pre-digital era. As such, the type within the updated logo is slightly rounded that harnesses an organic tone. “We also wanted it to feel elegant and pretty, which is accomplished through the juxtaposition of high contrast strokes and fine details like the small ball terminals and flourishes like the subtly curved acute accent on the ‘e’,” added Mickel.
Next came the custom typeface for the magazine, aptly named Aperitif. This font once again drew influence from old-school cookbooks, specifically from the ’60s and ’70s. “We wanted a custom font that would be versatile, expressive, and unmistakably Bon Appétit,” said Mickel.
While the redesign will debut exclusively in Bon Appétit’s printed edition, it will expand to their website in the coming months.
