While I couldn’t find a complete color palette for the New Yorker online, I looked through multiple issues of the publication and looked for similarities with my own eyes, and found a few. The New Yorker is mainly black and white and text heavy, with the exception of the illustration on the cover and some portrait photographs inside.
However, they use the same bright red and light blue to indicate different headlines, names, sections, etc. throughout the publication.
For example, in the table of contents, the department headings are in bright red and stand out from the rest of the contents listings, drawing the reader’s eye to them, and reoccur in every issue.
The New Yorker uses the same red to indicate names on the contributor’s page to make the writers’ names stand out, as well as for subheadings within the comment and reviews section at the beginning of each issue (see below).
They even use the same red in their advertisements to market their subscription programs and archive database.
The publication also uses a light blue to indicate subheadings when previewing events around the city.
In addition, the same red and blue are used throughout the publication in the form of illustrations. Each illustration that is not the standard black and white uses the same light blue and vibrant red. It makes the illustrations stand out against the monochrome text and cartoons/sketches, and brings a cohesive look to a publication that rarely uses colorful photographs and images.
Red and blue are an interesting choice, and one I think works well because the New Yorker was created to be the pinnacle of high brow journalism, displaying a lifestyle that Americans aspired to achieve. Red and blue are the staple colors of America, and because this magazine exemplifies every aspect of what it means to be living in this age in America – complete with literary and arts reviews, poetry, and political and pop culture commentary – red and blue are the most fitting colors to be used throughout the publication.
