Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper?

翻译人员: Sabrina WANG 校对人员: Yu Miao

Newspapers are dying for a few reasons.

报业面临空前濒危的状况有几个原因，

Readers don't want to pay for yesterday's news, and advertisers follow them.

读者不愿意付费来阅读昨天发生的新闻，没有读者，广告商当然也不愿意买广告。

Your iPhone, your laptop,

你的iPhone,笔记本电脑，

is much more handy than New York Times on Sunday.

都远比拿着一份纽约时报周末版来读更为方便。

And we should save trees in the end.

还有别忘了，如果我们不读报纸的话，还能拯救树木免于被砍伐，

So it's enough to bury any industry.

这些已经足以将任何产业推向绝路了。

So, should we rather ask, "Can anything save newspapers?"

那么我们不禁要问，「有任何能拯救报业于水火之外的方法吗?」

There are several scenarios for the future newspaper.

对于报业的未来，我们听过一些说法。

Some people say it should be free;

有些人会说，报纸应该要是免费的，

it should be tabloid, or even smaller: A4;

或者是更摘要的，像是小于A4大小的小报式刋物。

it should be local, run by communities,

报纸应该朝在地化发展，以社区为主体来经营发行。

or niche, for some smaller groups like business --

又或者，未来的报纸应当主攻像商业族群这样的缝隙市场。

but then it's not free; it's very expensive.

然而这样一来报纸就无法免费，而是非常昂贵的。

It should be opinion-driven;

一份报纸应当有自己的观点导向，

less news, more views.

少点新闻，多点对新闻的评论。

And we'd rather read it during breakfast,

我们更希望报纸适于早餐时阅读，

because later we listen to radio in a car,

因为之后我们就开始听车里的广播了，

check your mail at work and in the evening you watch TV.

然后在工作时你会检查你的电子邮件，下班之后你会看电视。

Sounds nice, but this can only buy time.

听起来很不错，但这些只是权宜之计。

Because in the long run,

因为就长远来看，

I think there is no reason, no practical reason

我看不出有什么实际的原因，

for newspapers to survive.

报纸在未来还能够继续生存。

So what can we do?

所以，我们还能怎么办呢?

(Laughter)

(笑声)

Let me tell you my story.

让我来说说我的故事吧!

20 years ago, Bonnier, Swedish publisher,

20年前，一位名叫Bonnier的瑞典出版商，

started to set newspapers in the former Soviet Bloc.

在前苏联地区办报。

After a few years, they had several newspapers in central and eastern Europe.

几年之后，他们在中欧和东欧都发行了几份报纸。

They were run by an inexperienced staff,

这些报纸都由一位没什么经验的人来经营，

with no visual culture, no budgets for visuals --

当时还没有所谓的视觉文化，当然也没有与视觉艺术相关的预算，

in many places there were not even art directors.

在许多地方甚至连美编指导都没有。

I decided to be -- to work for them as an art director.

当时我决定为他们工作，担任美编指导的工作。

Before, I was an architect, and my grandmother asked me once,

在这份工作之前，我是一名建筑师，我的祖母有次曾这么问我，

"What are you doing for a living?"

「你要靠什么生活呢?」

I said, "I'm designing newspapers."

我回答我祖母说，「我设计报纸啊。」

"What? There's nothing to design there. It's just boring letters"

我祖母说，「什么? 那只不过是一堆无聊的字母，哪有什么东西好设计的?」

(Laughter)

(笑声)

And she was right. I was very frustrated, until one day.

不幸的是，我祖母的确是对的。当时我非常沮丧，直到有一天，

I came to London, and I've seen performance by Cirque du Soleil.

我去了伦敦，欣赏到太阳马戏团的表演。

And I had a revelation. I thought,

我受到了启迪。我想，

"These guys took some creepy,

「这些家伙把一些诡异的，

run-down entertainment,

老旧的娱乐表演，

and put it to the highest possible level of performance art."

提升成了表演艺术所可能达到的最高层次了。」

I thought "Oh my God, maybe I can do the same with these boring newspapers."

于是我灵光一闪，「喔，天啊，或许我能在这些无聊至极的报纸上做相同的事呢!」

And I did. We started to redesign them, one by one.

于是我就开始了，一份一份的重新设计他们。

The front page became our signature.

我们报纸的头版变成了我们的特色。

It was my personal intimate channel to talk to the readers.

而这也成了我个人和读者之间亲密对话的管道。

I'm not going to tell you stories about teamwork or cooperation.

我不会跟你们说什么团队合作之类的故事，

My approach was very egotistic.

我的手法是非常自我的，

I wanted my artistic statement,

我想要将自己的设计概念表达出来，

my interpretation of reality.

想要传达我对于真实世界的诠释，

I wanted to make posters, not newspapers.

我想设计的是海报，不是报纸，

Not even magazines: posters.

甚至也不是杂志，就是海报。

We were experimenting with type,

我们试过使用不同的字体、

with illustration, with photos. And we had fun.

插画和照片等等，从中获得许多乐趣。

Soon it started to bring results.

不久我们就看到了具体的成果。

In Poland, our pages were named

在波兰，我们的报纸荣获

"Covers of the Year" three times in a row.

「年度最佳头版」连续三次之多。

Other examples you can see here are from

在这里大家也可以看到来自

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia

拉脱维亚、立陶宛、爱沙尼亚等

and central European countries.

这些中欧地区国家的例子。

But it's not only about the front page.

但是，这绝不只有「头版」这么简单。

The secret is that we were treating

秘诀是我们

the whole newspaper as one piece,

将一份报纸视为一个整体，

as one composition -- like music.

如同音乐的交响乐章一般，

And music has a rhythm, has ups and downs.

是有节奏的，有高低起伏的。

And design is responsible for this experience.

而一个好的报纸设设计就是要带给读者这些体验。

Flipping through pages is readers experience,

翻阅报纸就是读者的体验，

and I'm responsible for this experience.

而我就是负责美化这个感官经验的人。

We treated two pages, both spreads, as a one page,

我们将展开的两个版面，视为一整个页面，

because that's how readers perceive it.

因为读者看到的就是这样。

You can see some Russian pages here which got many awards

大家现在看到的这些俄罗斯报纸的页面，

on biggest infographic competition in Spain.

就曾在西班牙获得很多信息图像类最大的奖项。

But the real award came from Society for Newspaper Design.

而真正的大奖还是来自于国际专业报纸版面设计学会SND的奖项。

Just a year after redesigning this newspaper in Poland,

仅仅是在波兰重新设计的一年之后，

they name it the World's Best-Designed Newspaper.

就被他们评为「世界最佳报纸设计」。

And two years later,

再隔两年，

the same award came to Estonia.

同样的奖项由爱沙尼亚获得。

Isn't amazing?

是不是很神奇呢?

What really makes it amazing: that the circulation of these newspapers

不过真正令人惊讶的是，这些获奖的报纸的发行量

were growing too.

也增加了。

Just some examples:

这里举一些实例和大家分享:

in Russia, plus 11 after one year,

在俄罗斯，这份报纸经过重新设计的一年后，发行量提升了百分之11，

plus 29 after three years of the redesign.

三年之后更增加到百分之29。

Same in Poland: plus 13, up to 35 percent

在波兰也相同，发行量增加了百分之13，

raise of circulation after three years.

三年之后更增加百分之35的发行量。

You can see on a graph,

可以看这个图，

after years of stagnation, the paper started to grow,

经过长久的停滞之后，报纸的销量在

just after redesign.

经过重新设计之后开始增长。

But the real hit was in Bulgaria.

但最大的爆冲是在保加利亚。

And that is really amazing.

这真的很令人惊讶。

Did design do this?

是因为设计为这些报纸的销售带来这么大的转变吗?

Design was just a part of the process.

设计只是过程中的一部份，

And the process we made was not about changing the look,

我们所做的不仅只是改变一份报纸的外观，

it was about improving the product completely.

而是完全彻底的改善报纸本身的质感。

I took an architectural rule about function and form

我借用了建筑中的「功能」与「型式」原则，

and translated it into newspaper content and design.

把这些概念融入到报纸的内容与设计中，

And I put strategy at the top of it.

而在进行改造之前，拟定策略也很重要。

So first you ask a big question: why we do it? What is the goal?

首先要问的大问题是，我们为什么要这么做，目标是什么?

Then we adjust the content accordingly.

然后我们同步调整需相应改变的内容。

And then, usually after two months, we start designing.

通常在两个月之后，我们会开始进行设计。

My bosses, in the beginning, were very surprised.

我的老板们在刚开始时都很惊讶，

Why am I asking all of these business questions,

为什么我会问所有这些报纸方方面面的问题，

instead of just showing them pages?

因为他们以为我会直接将设计完的作品直接展示给他们看。

But soon they realized that this is the new role of designer:

但很快地他们就了解到，这是设计师所扮演的新角色，

to be in this process from the very beginning to the very end.

设计师从规划初始到最终的过程都要全程参与。

So what is the lesson behind it?

所以我们可以从中学到什么呢?

The first lesson is about that design can change not just your product.

第一个课题就是了解到设计不仅只是能改变你的产品，

It can change your workflow -- actually, it can change everything in your company;

设计还能改变工作流程，事实上，设计能改变你公司中既有的任何东西。

it can turn your company upside down.

设计能完全反转你的公司;

It can even change you.

甚至改变你本身。

And who's responsible? Designers.

而这些转变是谁的职责呢? 是设计师。

Give power to designers.

所以，请给予设计这样的职权吧!

(Applause)

(掌声)

But the second is even more important.

而第二个我们学到的课题可以说更为重要，

You can live in a small poor country, like me.

就是你可以像我一样，活在一个小而贫穷的国家里;

You can work for a small company,

你可以在一家小公司

in a boring branch.

其中一间无聊的分公司上班。

You can have no budgets, no people --

你可以在没有预算和人力的状况下，

but still can put your work to the highest possible level.

仍然可以呈现出最高水平的工作表现。

And everybody can do it.

每个人都能做到这点。

You just need inspiration, vision and determination.

你只是需要启发、愿景和决心。

And you need to remember that to be good

还有你必需要记得，光只有「好」

is not enough.

是不够的。

Thank you.

謝謝大家。