Apollo

Founded in 1925, Apollo is one of the world’s oldest and most respected art magazines, covering everything from antiquities to contemporary work, with an emphasis on information for collectors.

When the magazine was acquired by new owners, its website no longer reflected its history and importance, and we were appointed to develop a new version in time for the centenary in 2025. As well as creating a site that does justice to the visual richness of Apollo’s content, we took the opportunity to rationalise and refresh the typographic palette and establish a robust digital design system.

As a result of this work we were also commissioned to develop a light-touch redesign of the print magazine, in collaboration with editor Edward Behrens and in-house art director Emma Kalkhoven.

One of the key components of the new design was a custom display typeface. The existing design lacked personality, and we wanted something recognisably Apollo’s own. We took our inspiration from the hand-lettered Arts and Crafts logo on the original 1920s editions, and asked Commercial Type to develop this into a headline typeface which gives the website and the print magazine an unmistakable voice.

In Apollo the art is the star, and our restrained design provides an engaging and structured environment for the images and words to shine.

MPA team: Mark Porter, Alan Keer
Editor: Edward Behrens
In-house art director: Emma Kalkhoven
Custom type: Commercial Type