Monocle: undantaget

Thus we were doing the opposite of what most magazine-driven brands\nwhen they turn to the internet (often as an afterthought). The obvious\nchoice is to plonk all the magazine editorial online, and augment with\na few editors' blogs and such-like. At first glance, we were\neffectively letting the print material reside where it is best\nexperienced - in the tactile format of the magazine - and instead\nexploring new facets of the brand with a broadcast-led website. But\nwanting to have our cake and eat it, the magazine material is there\ntoo, just reformatted for the web and immersed in a new navigational\nframework, appropriate to its new context.

As you might expect, these keywords are not user-generated, but\ncarefully chosen, curated and maintained. This retains a high quality\nthreshold to the navigation, as a controlled vocabulary of keywords can\nbe maintained by Monocle, and also reinforces the idea that Monocle is\na bespoke, hand-finished production.

In terms of rhythm of updates, we deliberately decided less is more,\nand flying in the face of conventional wisdom (if you can have wisdom\nin a medium only a decade old) we produced editorial at a steady rate -\nessentially a well-made film or two per week - rather than bombarding\nthe user with content. Deciding to filter, reflect and craft rather\nthan immerse the user in a constant flow of data in lieu of\ninformation.

Visually, we wanted to make something that didn't ape current design\ntropes - the boring, over-used and essentially art-less 'web 2.0 look'\nof bright palletes, gradient fills and rounded corners - but had a more\nclassical view, as befitting something a little more grown up.

In terms of\nuser generated content, or user discussion of Monocle pieces, my view\nwas that we didn't need comments on the site as people increasingly\nhave their own spaces to talk, discuss, comment - whether that's blogs\nand discussion fora, or the social software of Facebook\net al. So a more progressive approach would be to ensure that\neverything is linkable and kept online - with clean, permanent URL\nstructures - thus encouraging people to point to articles from the\ncomfort of their own sites.

There was no way we were going to\nsubmit to the tyranny of the banner ad - it's not a smart model, and\ncertainly wouldn't work with a bespoke premium brand. As with the print\nbrand, where advertising is carefully considered and advertorial is\noften produced in-house by Monocle themselves, advertising online would\nbe something we'd control rather than be subservient to. So all\ncommercial relationships thus far have been brokered and produced by\nMonocle.