Medicina Danes Gets Redesign

The Slovenian medical newspaper Medicina danes relaunched in late February with a new design. It was the final redesign for the whole family of medical papers within Bonnier Business Press International. "We found a formula that's quite modern, more like a magazine," says the redesign leader Jacek Utko, design director for Bonnier Business Press International.

Utko has been in charge of redesigning a total of of eight medical papers in six countries: Dagens Medicin in Sweden, Dagens Medicin in Denmark, Dagens Medisin in Norway, MediUutiset in Finland, Medicina danes in Slovenia, Puls Medycyny in Poland and Meditsiiniuudised in Estonia. Two pharmacy titles were also redesigned, Dagens Apotek in Sweden and Puls Farmacji in Poland.

"I'm particularly pleased with the new business style logo and the fresh blue-green color we've chosen - especially since it is similar to the color of hospital uniforms in many countries,"  says Utko.

The design work started in Sweden in early 2010 with Dagens Medicin. The demands from Swedish Editor-in-Chief Mikael Nestius were shorter texts and a lot of new elements, such as quotes, figures, graphs, boxes - which could attract the eyes of readers. Significant changes were bigger fonts and a more tabloid and magazine style. The front page was also opened up to provide for more creative solutions.

A challenge that Utko faced was to adapt a common design concept to different cultures and countries, something he has a lot of experience in doing, after working with the business dailies in Bonnier Business Press International for 14 years. "There are still differences between the papers, but we managed to increase the consistency across all countries," he says. "The papers were all different before, it was only the logotype that was somewhat similar."

Utko's redesigns of Bonnier Business Press titles Puls Biznesu in Poland and Äripäev in Estonia have gotten international attention and have won the "World's Best Designed Newspaper" award by the Society for News Design.