Life Agency Redesigns Monotype Recorder

Life Agency designer Luke Tonge has revived The Monotype Recorder, an influential typography magazine which relaunches this month as a biannual publication. Tonge won a pitch to design the magazine, rebranded as The Recorder, with a brief to reinvent it for a modern audience of creatives, exploring type within a broader context.

The Monotype Recorder was originally launched in 1902, and published for more than 90 years as a showcase for the type company's products that were used in traditional printing. The newly relaunched Recorder is an editorially independent publication that is a celebration of typography and visual culture.

Tonge was able to take on the project alongside his role at LIFE because of the agency's culture of letting staff get involved with non-work related projects as a way of keeping them inspired. He was allowed time from his LIFE role to help undertake the project.

"The guys at LIFE know I'm a 'magaholic' and a huge type nerd, so they understood this was a rare opportunity and a passion project I just couldn't pass by, so they generously supported me in going for it," Tonge commented.

Tonge has spent four months fully involved in the project from advising on paper stock and pagination, to commissioning illustration and layout design. The resulting publication is a beautiful sewn-bound 120-page magazine featuring gold foil blocking on the cover, spot colours inside and two 'throw-out' sections, printed on premium Mohawk Superfine paper.

The first issue of the revived magazine is published this month and includes interviews with typographers and features on type in visual culture.