It is a good thing.The watchword
The design
A 1990s identity, faithfully kept.
The palette, the type, the small things. Drawn from Martha Stewart Living, 1990 to 1999, art-directed by Gael Towey.
Palette
Three palettes, one mood
Araucana
Araucana Colors 1995 The Signature 90s Palette
Colors Of Skylands 1999 Later Moodier
Colors Of The Garden 1992 The Original Palette
Garden
Skylands
Type
The voice on the page
Display XL · wordmarkMARTHA
Display · page openerIt is a good thing.
Display smaller · sectionCherry preserves and tool handles.
Smallcap eyebrowBegin with the best ingredients
Body · serifA multi-segment episode covering chocolate chip cookies, hydrangeas, and oven-dried tomatoes. Martha moves through each subject with precision, combining kitchen technique, craft, and home management.
Caption · italicPhotograph wanted.
Motifs
The dignity of small things
Eggs
Lemons
Pumpkins
Hydrangeas
Linen
Burlap
Copper
Beeswax
Editorial voice
Declarative. Calm. Instructive.
Begin with the best ingredients.Cooking
Photograph wanted.Where an image would have been
Notes
The brief, as written
1990s Martha Stewart — Design System Reference
A research file for building a design system rooted in the original Martha Stewart Living visual identity (1990–1999), founded by Martha Stewart and art-directed by Gael Towey. The aesthetic is restrained, luminous, and craft-forward: pastoral palettes, generous white space, classical serifs, and "luminous photos and restrained typography [that] portrayed the domestic arts as anything but quaint or dowdy" (AIGA, 2014).
1. Primary archival sources (the most useful links to share)
Magazine archives & cover galleries
- Martha Moments blog — the most exhaustive fan archive of 90s-era covers, layouts, paint, catalogs, and product lines: http://marthamoments.blogspot.com
- LibraryThing — Martha Stewart Living magazine series index (every issue from 1990 onward, with cover thumbnails): https://www.librarything.com/nseries/33222/Martha-Stewart-Living-Magazine
- OriginalMagazines.com — vintage MSL issue listings: https://originalmagazines.com/collections/martha-stewart-living
- Pinterest — '90s Martha Stewart Living covers: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/473792823315025783/
- Internet Archive — scans of MSL-branded books: https://archive.org/details/whattohavefordin00stew
Design / art direction sources
- Barbara de Wilde on the Martha Stewart Living redesign (typography, templates, gravure printing): https://barbaradewilde.com/Martha-Stewart-Living
- AIGA — Gael Towey, 2014 AIGA Medalist (definitive piece on the magazine's design ethos): https://www.aiga.org/membership-community/aiga-awards/2014-aiga-medalist-gael-towey
- AIGA Talk — Stephen Doyle & Gael Towey (branding, identity, packaging): https://www.aiga.org/inspiration/talks/stephen-doyle-gael-towey-2008-gain-conference
- Gael Towey's portfolio site: http://www.gaeltowey.com/about
- Society of Publication Designers — podcast w/ Gael Towey: https://www.spd.org/print-is-dead-long-live-print/adam-moss-fnwts
- Academic paper: "Martha Stewart's Graphic Design for Living": https://www.academia.edu/8186614/Martha_Stewarts_Graphic_Design_for_Living
Paint, color & merchandise
- Martha Moments: Remembering Martha Stewart Paint (history of Colors of the Garden 1992, Araucana Colors 1995, Colors of Skylands 1999): http://marthamoments.blogspot.com/2018/06/remembering-martha-stewart-paint.html
- Martha Moments: Martha by Mail catalog (mail-order packaging, type, photography from the 90s): search "Martha by Mail" on marthamoments.blogspot.com
Wayback Machine — original marthastewart.com (start here for late-90s web design)
- Browse captures of marthastewart.com from 1998–2000: https://web.archive.org/web/1999*/marthastewart.com
2. Color palette
Three layered palettes ran through 1990s MSL. The Araucana set is the famous one — soft, pastoral, derived from the eggshells of Martha's Araucana hens at Turkey Hill.
Araucana Colors (1995) — the signature 90s palette
| Name | Approx. hex | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Araucana Eggshell Blue | #BFD3CE |
The icon. Pale blue-green, used on packaging, paint, MSL covers |
| Robin's Egg | #A7C7C2 |
Slightly deeper, more saturated |
| Bedford Gray | #9CA39C |
Named after Martha's Bedford properties; warm cool-gray |
| Dove | #D8D5CC |
Warm off-white, the magazine's most-used "white" |
| Buttermilk | #F1E8D2 |
Cream with a touch of yellow |
| Pale Sage | #B4BBA1 |
Foundational green |
| Wisteria | #C8BFD4 |
Soft lavender, used sparingly |
| Pale Buttercup | #EFE0A8 |
Quiet yellow |
Colors of the Garden (1992) — the original palette
| Name | Approx. hex | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hosta | #7C8B6F |
Deep botanical green |
| Hydrangea | #9FB4C9 |
Powdery garden blue |
| Wedgwood | #9FB1C0 |
Classical blue, often paired with cream |
| Tomato | #B84A3E |
Quiet, slightly dusty red |
| Crocus | #D9C7B0 |
Warm tan |
| Russet | #8B5A3C |
Earth accent |
Colors of Skylands (1999) — later, moodier
| Name | Approx. hex | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Skylands Blue | #6A7E89 |
Deep slate-blue from Martha's Maine home |
| Stone | #A8A39A |
Mineral gray |
| Lichen | #8C9075 |
Muted gray-green |
| Putty | #C8B89C |
Warm neutral |
Recommended core neutrals (page/canvas)
- Page cream:
#F5F0E4 - Page warm white:
#FBF8F0 - Body text:
#2E2A24(very dark warm brown — not pure black; MSL avoided pure black in body type) - Rule lines / dividers:
#C9C1B0
3. Typography
The 90s MSL identity predated the Archer/Surveyor proprietary typefaces (those were commissioned from Hoefler & Frere-Jones for the 2001 redesign, per Barbara de Wilde). In the 1990s the magazine used a mix of classical serifs and quiet sans-serifs.
Likely fonts to use in a 90s-faithful system
- Display / cover wordmark: a high-contrast classical serif. Bauer Bodoni, ITC Bodoni 72, or Didot are the best modern stand-ins. The MSL logotype itself was a custom Bodoni-style display serif, all caps, very wide letterspacing.
- Headlines / department titles: Caslon (Adobe Caslon Pro), Garamond Premier Pro, or Mrs Eaves — quiet, classical, generous serifs.
- Body: a transitional serif at a generous size with airy leading. Adobe Caslon, Sabon, Galliard, or Janson.
- Captions / metadata / labels: a humanist sans in small caps or all caps with wide tracking. Trade Gothic, Engravers Gothic, or Copperplate Gothic.
Typographic principles
- Wide letterspacing on display caps (the wordmark is the model).
- Small caps for section heads, recipe titles, and bylines.
- Italic in titling positions — never cute, always elegant.
- Ragged-right body with hyphenation, never justified blocks (unless caption columns).
- Drop caps in feature openings, often in a contrasting color (eggshell blue, terracotta, sage).
- Lots of white space — text never crowds the photograph.
4. Photography & art direction (the heart of the look)
This is what made the magazine. Per AIGA, the magazine pioneered "luminous photos and restrained typography."
- Light: natural, north-facing, soft. No hard shadows. Window light or overcast outdoor light.
- Backgrounds: scrubbed-pine tabletops, marble, slate, linen, weathered painted wood, plaster walls. Always tonal — the background never competes.
- Color in subject, neutral around it: a saturated lemon, a russet pear, a bowl of dyed eggs — placed against a near-monochrome ground.
- Hands: a key visual motif. Hands kneading, pouring, tying, folding. Gael Towey identified hands as "the importance of depicting hands" early in the magazine's run (Martha Moments).
- Polaroids for planning: art directors used Polaroids extensively to scout and compose shots — that craft-driven, hands-on production shows in the final layouts.
- Black-and-white as a deliberate choice: e.g. James Dunlinson's all-B&W puff-pastry story — used to highlight instructional clarity and texture.
- Crops: generous, often square or 4:5, with the subject quietly centered or slightly off-axis. Never dramatic Dutch angles. Never busy.
- Step-by-step photography: a hallmark — small uniform thumbnails in a grid, each labeled with a numeral, demonstrating a process.
5. Layout principles
- Generous margins. White space is the luxury.
- Single dominant image per opener, often full-bleed or near-full-bleed, with a single line of display serif as the title.
- Two-column body with wide gutters; one-column for intimate essays.
- Recipe and how-to integrated into the article, not relegated to the back (a deliberate move, per Barbara de Wilde, in the later redesigns — but rooted in the 90s editorial DNA).
- Hairline rules (0.25–0.5 pt) in warm gray, used to separate caption blocks and recipe ingredients.
- Numeral-led step grids for crafts and cooking.
- Square photo grids for collections (eggs, pumpkins, ribbons, shells — the "taxonomy" shot).
6. Editorial voice (relevant for UI microcopy)
- Calm, declarative, slightly formal. "It is a good thing." "Begin with the best ingredients."
- Imperative voice in instructions, never apologetic.
- Loves the word good: "Good Things" was a monthly column.
- Loves simply, carefully, gently.
- Avoids exclamation points and superlatives.
7. TV show graphics & set design (1993–1999)
- The Martha Stewart Living television show debuted September 1993 as a weekly half-hour, expanded to weekdays in 1997, and to a full hour in 1999 (Wikipedia).
- Lower-thirds and title cards used the same classical Bodoni-style display serif as the magazine, with wide letterspacing.
- Sets were her actual Turkey Hill kitchen and gardens (Westport, CT) early on — meaning the "set design" was real architecture: white-painted plank walls, soapstone counters, copper, cream linens, baskets, glass demijohns.
- The opening titles used soft fade-ins over photographs of seasonal still lifes — flowers, eggs, ribbons — set to harpsichord/string music.
8. The icons & motifs (what to put on a moodboard)
- Araucana eggs in a pale blue bowl
- A single peony in a milk-glass vase
- A wire egg basket
- A row of identical clear glass jars with handwritten labels
- A cake stand
- A garden trug full of root vegetables
- A pumpkin lineup, ranked by size
- Pinking shears, twine, kraft paper, wax seals
- A French copper saucepan
- A linen tea towel hung from a peg
- Bare branches in a stoneware crock
- A pristine white cake with piped scallops
- Marigold seedlings in clay pots, identical, in a row
9. Modern equivalents / what to reference today
For pulling actual high-res visual reference into your design tool:
- The marthamoments.blogspot.com tag pages are the deepest visual archive (search "1990s" or specific years).
- Martha Stewart's official archive at https://www.marthastewart.com/8327384/best-magazine-covers (some 90s covers reproduced).
- Pinterest boards tagged "Martha Stewart 1990s" and "Martha Stewart Living magazine spreads" — fast moodboard fodder.
- Cooper Hewitt National Design Triennial catalog (2000) — Towey's product/packaging work was included.
10. One-line system summary
Pastoral palette + Bodoni serif + luminous natural-light photography + generous white space + the dignity of small things, well made.