Entertainment Weekly (EW) is an American entertainment magazine launched in 1990 by Time Inc., covering film, television, music, theater, and popular culture.[1] The publication’s visual identity has been shaped by two distinct typographic eras, each tied to a custom typeface from Font Bureau.
Design and History
When EW debuted in 1990, the logo and magazine design used Bureau Grotesque (later renamed Bureau Grot), a sans-serif family developed by David Berlow in 1989. Several styles in the family were originally custom designs created specifically for the magazine, and this distinctive typeface helped define EW’s look for more than a decade through several design updates.[2] Early issues featured a tilted logo with a side panel, though the logo righted itself and the side panel disappeared by the middle of EW’s first year. The logo remained uncapitalized until 1992.[3]
In 2006, design director Geraldine Hessler led the magazine’s first significant typographic update in more than a decade. Hessler wanted a typeface with a no-nonsense, industrial tone, and when nothing pre-existing on the market matched her vision, she commissioned type designer Cyrus Highsmith to draw a custom family originally dubbed EW Sans.[4] Highsmith, a senior type designer at Font Bureau, drew the new typeface and a related logotype for the redesign.[5] The redesign, including the new custom-drawn logo, was officially announced to coincide with the new face of James Bond in the August 2006 issue.[6]
The typeface was later published by Font Bureau in 2008 under the name Scout.[7] Highsmith developed Scout as a display face in six weights in normal and condensed widths, drawing structural inspiration from DIN, Bauer’s Venus, and Nebiolo’s Cairoli, designs whose rounded characters become straight-sided when condensed.[8]
When EW transitioned from weekly to monthly publication in 2019, the magazine underwent a major redesign led by Executive Editor and Creative Director Tim Leong and Design Director Jennie Chang. The redesign simplified the publication’s typography, moving from as many as five different fonts in a single feature well to one main font family throughout, a return to the unified type philosophy of the Bureau Grotesque era.[9] The logo itself remained the one drawn by Cyrus Highsmith for Geraldine Hessler’s 2006 redesign.[10]
In September 2021, EW introduced a brand refresh across all platforms, including a refreshed homepage and magazine with new sections and experiences. The announcement focused on editorial features and content enhancements rather than a change to the wordmark.[1]
Typography and Design
The current EW logo is a custom-drawn wordmark by Cyrus Highsmith, created in 2006 for Geraldine Hessler’s redesign.[6] The related typeface, Scout, was originally dubbed EW Sans and was commissioned in multiple weights and widths for use throughout the new design.[4] Scout’s form derives structural elements from both early grotesques and more modern geometric designs such as DIN.[7]
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