Table of Contents
Fast Company magazine was founded in November 1995 by two former editors of Harvard Business Review, Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, who wanted to bring a fresh take on business to news-stands. Since its launch, the magazine has built a loyal and passionate readership across the world, picking up numerous accolades along the way, including the American Society of Magazine Editors’ Magazine of the Year 2014, and 6 gold and 9 silver medals at the 59th Annual SPD Awards in 2024.
Published quarterly and distributed worldwide, the magazine blends aspects of technology and lifestyle titles (think Wired and Harper’s Bazaar) with more conventional corporate themes like leadership and entrepreneurship. The result is a one-of-a-kind business magazine.
Stylish covers with an iconic masthead
The masthead is instantly recognisable. It uses stylised lettering based on the Grifo font, with a couple of idiosyncratic touches: the “A” in “FAST” is a lot smaller than the surrounding letters, as is the “O” in COMPANY”, which is also nestled inside the “C”. These choices tell us that we’re about to open a smart but creative magazine that’s a far cry from the staid publications of the traditional business press.
Portuguese type foundry R-Typography led the latest redesign.
Covers usually feature lifestyle-type portraits of famous figures from the business world, but can be type- or illustration-led when the theme or occasion suits. Backgrounds are always a single colour.
Often, the cover portrait overlaps a little with the masthead, in the style of a glossy fashion magazine.
Playful yet sophisticated graphic design
Meticulous design is a FastCo hallmark that sets it apart from competitors.
According to art directors Alice Alves and Chelsea Schiff, its three design principles are “sophisticated”, “playful” and “gender neutral”.
FastCo has undergone three major redesigns in the past 20 years to keep up with – or one step ahead of – the times.
The layout varies from article to article: text might be split over six columns or two, columns may or may not be bottom aligned, and white space might or might not be used to make content stand out. These are typical features of modern magazine design, but in FastCo they’re on steroids: it’s almost as if you’re reading a fashion magazine, where photos are more important than words, except that here words are what matters!
Since 2011, the font used for body text has been Meret Pro by TypeMate, combined with Kaiser and Zizou. Headlines use Grifo, while subheads use Centra. The design team take a novel approach to achieving gender neutrality: they use lowercase and non-bold characters for most headlines and subheads. This, they say, dials down the masculinity levels, which were historically on the high side.
Such varied typographical choices mirror the magazine’s mission to bring readers a fresh and contemporary take on business.
The importance of images for talking about innovation
As we’ve seen, Fast Company‘s penchant for large-format photography and typography brings to mind the glossiest fashion mags. And it’s no coincidence: creative director Alice Alves is an avowed admirer of the elegant graphic design found in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar.
Photography is central to the magazine’s design; portraits feature heavily and usually show the subject in full striking a dynamic pose.
But there’s plenty of space for illustrations, drawings and infographics, too. Colours are often saturated, bordering on the fluorescent, illustrations are anything but didactic, and photos are sometimes edited and rendered in monochrome. Photo illustration – with collages and digital manipulation – tends to appear in the opening pages of each section.
Infographics are simple and used in against a beige background
An elegantly innovative magazine
Despite similarities with other magazines, what makes FastCo stand out is its original design and content: finance, technology and lifestyle are elegantly woven together in a magazine that has so far managed to survive the crisis in magazine publishing.
FastCo has a contemporary feel and is a must-read for anyone who wants to know how to design a magazine properly.