Fri 26 Mar
2010
An unfortunate loss for a great newspaper. Porter has at least two distinctions of which he can be very proud: first, he was responsible for the stunning and justly praised redesign of the printed newspaper in 2005; and second, he rolled up his sleeves and with great humility and earnestness learned how to design for the Web in order to helm the design direction of Guardian.co.uk for the past several years. Under his direction, that site has been a continual source of inspiration to me, and it’s still well worth studying for anyone interested in publishing design. For my money, he may have made one of the most successful transitions to the digital medium of any print designer ever; there are scant few print-trained designers of any caliber who can match his canny grasp of what it means to design for the new century.