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Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

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175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

p170

5th Black

Magazine design has, for the moment, turned its back

on the mid-’90s explosion of Carsonic typography

and is moving, at best, toward a safely simplistic modern style,

and at worst, toward the graphic hodge-podge of “lad mags” in the vein of Blender or FHM.

With their work for the British magazine The Wire, Non-Format, the Anglo-Scandinavian team

of Norwegian Kjell Ekhorn and Brit Jon Forss, is forging a third way that combines clean,

dramatic layouts with intricate details that reward the reader’s attention.

2003.

The Wire, cover and spreads.

Non-Format’s work for The Wire.

shows their greatest strength.

of marrying classic layouts.

with modern photography and.

dramatic ornamentation.

KJELL

EKHORN

FORSS

JON

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Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

Scn :

#

175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

5th Black

p171

171

F

oundations of virgin modernism are conquered by graphic

wildlife. Like vines taking over a Frank Lloyd Wright

building, delicate lines grow from bold magazine headlines.

Massive numerals catch the wind and blow away as a mass

of leaves and flower petals. And a minimalist magazine cover

faces slow invasion by the encroaching underbrush of

flash Internet style.

Both men were raised by artistic families. Says Forss, “My father

is a furniture designer/maker, sculptor, and craftsman. Kjell’s

father used to be an architect. So our respective parents were

a strong influence from a very early age. Both of us recall chan-

neling our energies into art studies, and we have a common love

of pop art, fashion photography, and Modernist architecture.”

The early years of Ekhorn and Forss’s careers are surprisingly

similar but entirely separate. Both started their professional lives

in advertising but were soon frustrated and left to pursue a

better life in graphic design. “Kjell and I started out in graphics

by working in advertising, but we both left that field at about

the same time. We both then got into designing for the publishing

industry—book jackets. We spent quite a few years pursuing

this—in my case nearly a decade. We both really wanted to be

doing something else.” A mutual friend finally introduced them

in the late ’90s. “We quickly realized we had a similar approach

to design. We enjoyed the same kinds of idea-based work.”

They joined forces almost immediately and decided to seek work

in the music industry. Forss had already designed CDs for Jon

Tye’s Lo Recordings and Tony Morley’s Leaf Label. “I wanted

Kjell to be involved straight away. We started working together

on music packaging, then set up EkhornForss.” Assignments for

EMI, Mute Records, The Leaf Label, and Lo Recordings

followed, as did book covers for Granta, Orion, and Random

House. In 2001, EkhornForss gave themselves a new name:

Non-Format.

,

m

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