Iceland review - 2013, Síða 67

ICELAND REVIEW 65
them to obtain information about Iceland
and the developments in our society. Hardly
any material about Iceland was available in
foreign languages. This sparked the idea for
a publication to provide the outside world
with access to regular information about
our country and nation. Even though I had
no available funding to execute the project,
the idea didn’t leave me. Slowly but surely I
started laying out my strategy.
As a journalist I didn’t have much to do
with the layout. People didn’t really con-
template the appearance of a publication
in those days; it was mostly fixed. However,
while I worked at Morgunblaðið, it was the
task of the journalist on the foreign news
desk to go down to the printing depart-
ment at the end of the night shift and assist
with putting together the front page of the
newspaper for the following day. I gradually
became interested in the design and began
looking at newspapers and magazines in a
new light.
THe Beginning
By Haraldur J. Hamar A much abbrevi-
ated version of Haraldur’s account of the
history of Iceland Review in the catalogue
to Five Decades of Graphic Design, a ret-
rospective exhibition of the work of Gísli
B. Björnsson.
Shortly after graduating from junior
college in 1955, I was unexpectedly
offered a job as a journalist at Morgunblaðið
[Iceland’s leading newspaper]. Raised in the
atmosphere of rural culture in Ísafjörður in
the West Fjords, I had rather expected to
become a servant of the church. But I
became very interested in journalism and
have never regretted that career choice.
The first years at Morgunblaðið I worked
mostly on the foreign news desk and
gradually established contacts abroad. I
became aware of how difficult it was for
I felt that the magazines in Iceland more
or less lacked taste and style, were not mod-
ern-looking and not at all comparable to
the variety of professionally designed maga-
zines available abroad. It would be pointless
to offer foreigners a magazine with a char-
acterless Icelandic design, despite the text
being informative and written in English. A
magazine that was meant to present Iceland
to the outside world had to catch the eye
of readers for being modern and stylish. It
would have to be attractive.
I came into contact with and started
working with Gísli B. in 1963. Our col-
laboration was inspiring from the very
beginning. He was certainly up for the task
and we soon became friends. I was thrilled
when he first showed me the progress of
his work. The innovative cover had a new
and fresh feel. After the magazine went into
distribution, I came to realize that I was far
from the only one in whom the magazine
evoked such emotions.
Gísli’s designs were never old-fashioned.
The collaboration with him gave me a
new vision and, with the years that went
by, valuable experience. The initial creation
of the magazine’s main characteristics in
appearance and tone, evolved with time
into a special look and feel. Nonetheless, the
design allowed for sufficient flexibility and
opportunities to give each issue indepen-
dent features without compromising the big
picture. In Gísli’s hands, each issue became
its own little world within the all-encom-
passing frame created in the beginning. And
he took special care when designing the
cover. It was a definite novelty in magazine
publishing in Iceland. Ground-breaking.
Iceland Review was the first magazine pub-
lished in Iceland with professional graphic
design. It was also the first magazine pub-
lished in English to present Iceland interna-
tionally. And it wasn’t backed by the govern-
ment—as is widely the case—but rather by
eager and ambitious individuals and compa-
nies. We usually got a very positive response,
both at home and abroad. Iceland Review had
struck a chord.
Translated by Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir.
Iceland Review celebrates its 50th anniver-
sary later this year. Fifty years is a long time
in publishing in our country. The first issue of
this originally quarterly magazine, founded and
edited by Haraldur J. Hamar, and co-founded
by his former school mate Heimir Hannesson,
appeared in September 1963.
Haraldur J. Hamar was
at the helm of Iceland
Review for 38 years,
until the end of the
last century, and i was
fortunate to work with him for 18 of
those years. Still today, i call him to
ask for advice and tell him our plans.
i started working at the magazine just
over 30 years ago and learned more
from Haraldur in the first three weeks
on the job, in the summer of 1982, than
in the three years prior, studying pho-
tography in Sweden.
More than anything, Haraldur wanted
to publish a magazine of an interna-
tional standard, to be leading in design
and photography, a standard we’ve tried
to maintain to this day. He has a good
eye for images and design. The maga-
zine had to be in english, its content
informative and interesting, and the
design modern and bold, with big imag-
es of icelandic culture and landscapes.
Haraldur wrote a new chapter in the
history of icelandic publishing and
photojournalism.
Introduction by Páll Stefánsson.
ANNIVERsARY