R.I.P. ReadyMade: Meredith Folds DIY Magazine

In a move that is sure to spawn oodles of funky, handcrafted memorials, ReadyMade magazine has folded. Publisher Meredith yesterday announced that it would shutter the ten-year-old DIY bible and cut its 75 staffers in what CEO Steve Lacy chalked up to a “periodic realignment of resources” that would free up cash for “key strategic growth initiatives, including digital platform expansion.” Meanwhile, ReadyMade editors took to Twitter and the web to relay the sad news and bid farewell to their loyal readership of Readymakers. “As much as it breaks all our hearts it’s a decision we understand and are taking in stride,” noted a post on the magazine’s Editors’ Notes blog. “The ReadyMade community will continue [to] push DIY into the mainstream by building websites, writing blogs, taking photos, and most importantly, forming coherent opinions that are ours and only ours, and letting those be known. ReadyMade’s can-do spirit even in the most dire of circumstances has always been its life-blood and we know it will continue to be the driving force of ReadyMakers in the future. And this will keep us all going.”

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Interview: Sweet Paul

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Who is the man behind this great online magazine… I was curious and asked him a couple of questions…

Dear Sweet Paul what was the main reason of starting an online magazine? 

I wanted to have an outlet for my creativity and where I could so whatever I want to do. No one but me decides what goes into the magazine. Its a really good feeling knowing that this is a product of me and what I'm all about. 

*What is your favorite part in this issue? 

I have many, the summer salads was really fun to shoot, on shot on a lightbox. And the soda Jerk story was fun as well. I like to challenge myself with ideas. Like working on the natural dye story, I had to teach myself how to actually do it. 

 Sweetpaul_fish


*Which stylist or photographer do you hope to work with in the near future? 

I would love to shoot a Sweet Paul story with Ditte Isager, but I'm to shy to call her! 

*What was the most difficult or should i say challenging part of creating an online magazine?

Editing, you have to do it with a very hard hand. You might step on some toes on the way, but it is really the most important and challenging part.

I hate online magazines that shows a home on 40 pages with the same lamp in 6 pictures…. hate it! 

Sweetpaul_COVER

*What wil the future bring for Sweet Paul…. 

Im in no rush, Im building my empire slowly but surly………

But off course total world domination is the goal….. 

Thanks Paul and good luck … one day you will dominate I'm sure :):)

..Sweet Paul Magazine
..Sweet Paul blog

Wanted: Deputy Art Director for Washingtonian

Calling all D.C. dwellers! Washingtonian magazine is looking for a talented deputy art director to join its team.

Here, you’ll be designing features, service packages and department pages, while working with editors and the photo department to conceive and direct artwork for a variety of stories. You’ll help guide designers for front-of-book pages, and play a key role in the planned redesign of the magazine.

To be considered, you should have at least five to seven years of experience in magazine publishing and a passion for the industry. Your portfolio should demonstrate your unique design style and strong typographic skills. Those with a true love of the city and the ability to juggle multiple projects with grace are most wanted. Interested? Apply here.

For more openings and employment news, follow The Job Post on Twitter @MBJobPost.

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Seven Questions for Dirk Barnett, Creative Director of the Newsweek Daily Beast Company

“Please put your shirt back on.” Rarely does an art director have cause to utter these words while on the job—and rarer still when the job in question is a Maxim photoshoot with starlet Olivia Wilde—but it’s all in a day’s work for Dirk Barnett. The editorial branding pro, who earned an undergraduate degree in journalism before finding his calling on the art and photo side of the masthead, moved from Maxim to Lucky last fall, but put in only a few days at Conde Nast HQ before Tina Brown wooed him to her newly formed “NewsBeast,” the Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Since then, Barnett and his team have rolled out a redesign (the eighth major newsstand title he’s overhauled), a new logo, and a special “Osama Is Dead” issue, all the while making images and photojournalism more prominent in the magazine. Now they’re working their magic on the Newsweek and Daily Beast websites. We caught up with Barnett after his presentation at Friday’s ABSTRACT Conference to ask him seven questions.


Barnett’s design work for Blender and Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine

1. What has been your best or most memorable design-related encounter?
When I was a young designer at Entertainment Weekly in ‘97, I was working on a story about Van Morrison, and we were using one of Anton Corbijn’s portraits from the 80’s. Photo editor Michelle Romero knew I was a huge Corbijn fan, and as I was designing the opener, she ninja’ed me and brought in Anton to take a look at the layout. My jaw dropped and he started telling stories about Van, etc. It was a fantastic early career moment that always sticks with me.

2. What is your greatest graphic design pet peeve?
Laziness

3. What do you consider your proudest design moment?
Pulling off Newsweek’s Osama bin Laden special issue in 36 hours.

4. You were among the design star-studded list of presenters at the ABSTRACT Conference. For those who couldn’t make it to Maine, what did you talk about?
At ABSTRACT, I talked the conference attendees through “a day in the life” of what it means—and takes—to art direct, conceptualize, and design a news weekly magazine in 2011. Looking through the lens of Newsweek’s recent redesign, I walked through how we dealt with the Japan earthquake and tsunami disasters and bin Laden’s death.
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Seven Questions for Pentagram’s Luke Hayman

“Much of what we have known as designers has suddenly shifted,” says Luke Hayman. “However, we still have the ability to establish identity, and to communicate and engage through our design tools.” A partner at Pentagram, Hayman is something of a world champion in establishing identity, communicating, and engaging, whether on behalf of New York magazine (which he famously overhauled as design director) or the Khaleej Times, a Dubai broadsheet. Other publications that have enjoyed a visual rebirth at the hands of Hayman include TIME, Consumer Reports, and the Atlantic. This afternoon, he’ll take the stage at the ABSTRACT Conference in Portland, Maine, to lead a session entitled “Identity Crisis?” We took the interrogative hint and asked Hayman to answer our seven questions.

1. Can you give us a sneak preview of your ABSTRACT Conference presentation?
I’ll be talking about the importance of finding and establishing identity for a publication. What makes up the DNA of a magazine and how can it be expressed in rich, lasting way.

2. What is your greatest graphic design/publication design pet peeve?
Thoughtless stealing…as opposed to thoughtful ‘borrowing’!

3. What has been your most memorable design-related encounter?
George Lois calling to give his opinion on the cover of the first issue of New York magazine we did. He didn’t like it!

4. What do you consider your proudest design moment?
Joining Pentagram.

5. What’s on your summer reading list?
I’m on a Lee Child binge: guilty pleasure/escapism.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Thomas Frascatore Named Publisher of Metropolis

Metropolis is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year (just imagine the architectural marvel of a cake involved!) and with it a changing of the guard. The magazine’s newly appointed executive publisher and chief operating officer is Thomas Frascatore, who comes to Metropolis from VoodooVox, an audio advertising company that happens to be headquartered just down the road from MASS MoCA. The management shift comes at a time when magazines of all kinds are looking to make the most of the Web as well as video and live events. “It was time for us to bring in an expert who understands the new avenues of marketing and revenue sourcing in our mixed-media world,” said Metropolis founder and outgoing publisher Horace Havemeyer III in a statement announcing the appointment. Meanwhile, Susan S. Szenasy is still going strong after 25 years at the editorial helm. “I’m looking forward to the new worlds we will conquer now that Tom is with us,” she said.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Space is the Place

A zine of psychedelic illustrations throws an equally-trippy launch party

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Inspired by the Sun Ra film of the same name, Space is the Place is a rad little zine coming out of Brooklyn. We first fell for it when it was one of the few indie publications we chose to feature in our pop-up shop with Gap last fall. The work of illustrator (also a friend of CH) Keren Richter and graphic designer Andrew Janik, the mini mag includes some of the best contemporary graphic artists in the field.

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Featuring the work of nearly 25 hand-picked international artists, the work is united by underlying tones of “psychedelia, fluorescent jarring colors and patterns, drug inspired fantasy, and celestial iconography.”

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If you’re lucky enough to be in NYC tomorrow, swing on down to La Caverna in LES for Space is the Place’s “Magazine Launch Party/Rave” featuring DJs, video projections, and even an open bar. The first 50 people there also get a complimentary copy of the zine and some other fun party favors. Make sure to RSVP!


Seven Questions for Gael Towey, Chief Creative for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Oprah may have declared the iPad one of her Favorite Things and gifted hundreds of the sleek slabs to members of her studio audience, but another famous first name’s media and retail empire has really put the device through its paces: Martha. And the Good Things keep coming: yesterday saw the launch of two new Martha apps (Whole Living Smoothies and an updated version of Martha’s Everyday Food), and the Society of Publication Designers recently declared Martha Stewart Living‘s “Boundless Beauty” the winner of its inaugural Tablet App of the Year award. The special iPad-based issue of the magazine includes an 180-degree virtual tour of Stewart’s peony garden (how many of the 22 varieties can you spot?), tips for planning a bubble-themed party that really pops, and a design showdown between decorating editors Kevin Sharkey and Rebecca Robertson. Accepting on behalf of Team Martha was Gael Towey, Chief Creative and Editorial Director for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Having overseen the company’s design and creative teams since its inception 20 years ago, Towey has worked to develop six different magazine titles and also left her distinctive stamp of classically elegant cool on MSLO’s product design, marketing, and packaging launches (including five different lines of paint!). On Friday, she’ll lead a session at the ABSTRACT Conference entitled “Magazine Brand as Platform for Development,” which we thought was the perfect platform for a quick interview.


Good Eggs Living’s Egg Dyeing 101 App (Photos: Marci McGoldrick)

1. You’ll be presenting this Friday at the ABSTRACT Conference in Portland, Maine. Can you give us a sneak preview of your talk?
I will be talking about building the Martha Stewart brand, the special magazine issue I’m currently working on about our first 20 years of “really” living, our magazine identity, and how content informs everything we do from merchandising to building new apps and digital magazines.

2. What is your greatest graphic design/publication design pet peeve?
Gratuitous design with no real relationship to the meaning or purpose of the story.

3. What do you consider your best or most memorable design-related encounter?
Meeting my husband, Stephen Doyle, in my office 24 years ago. I was looking for a someone to design Martha’s wedding book. How ironic, wrong designer for weddings…right husband.

4. What is your proudest design moment?
Publishing our first issue of Martha Stewart Living 20 years ago this year, and creating our first digital issue for the iPad last year.
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Seven Question for Scott Dadich, Condé Nast’s Digital Magazine Guru

Scott Dadich‘s business card will tell you that he is the Vice President for Condé Nast Digital Magazine Development, which is an official way of saying “the iPad Whisperer.” After earning a trophy case full of honors for his achievements as creative director of Wired from 2006 to 2010, Dadich took to the tablet—and the executive offices. His pioneering iPad version of Wired debuted in May 2010, and within 30 days, it had racked up nearly 100,000 downloads and launched about as many “digital strategy” meetings at organizations around the world. Dadich’s latest app-tastic triumph? Working closely with the editorial and art teams at The New Yorker to launch the magazine’s tablet edition, which debuted at #4 on the iTunes Top Grossing apps list and has since been named the best publication app by iMonitor. On Friday, he’ll tell attendees at the ABSTRACT Conference in Portland, Maine why “The Revolution Will Be Digitized.” (“Can’t believe @abstractcon is a week away,” Dadich tweeted last Thursday. “I gotta get my preso cracked ASAP. Gonna be a brand new talk #nopressure”) He paused in his preparations to answer our seven questions. Read on to learn about Dadich’s breakfast meeting with a design legend, what he’ll be reading this summer, and his latest powerful project.

1. You’ll be presenting on Friday at the ABSTRACT Conference. Can you give us a sneak preview of your presentation?
I’m going to talk about the 10 lessons I’ve learned in a life of graphic design and specifically, magazine publishing. I’ll look at everything from app development to photography direction to working with creative partners.

2. What is your greatest graphic design/publication design pet peeve?
Sloppiness in typesetting

3. What do you consider your best or most memorable design-related encounter?
I can’t remember having a better time than sitting at George Lois’ house for breakfast, hearing all of his wonderful stories. I think I arrived at 8 a.m. and left around 3:30 in the afternoon. Quite a breakfast! George is my design hero, I love him beyond words.

4. What has been your proudest design moment?
Winning three National Magazine Awards for Design and three Society of Publication Designers Magazine of the Year awards back-to-back-to-back.
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Seven Questions for Arem Duplessis, Design Director of The New York Times Magazines (All of Them!)

Among our first priorities on any Saturday is opening the door to UnBeige HQ and locating our freshly delivered copy of The New York Times, bloated with all manner of colorful weekend inserts. We shuffle furiously through the Best Buy circulars and Macy’s coupons to find The New York Times Magazine (and, if we’ve been especially good that week, T: The New York Times Style Magazine as well), and it’s distinctive cover has a way of setting the tone for the weekend, whether with exploding produce, a gilded manhole cover, a killer sugar cube, or most recently, conjoined twins that may share a mind. Meanwhile, the creative mind behind all of the New York Times magazines is award-winning design director Arem Duplessis, a veteran of Spin, GQ, and Blaze. He made time to answer our seven questions, and we detected a pleasing ocean/aquatic theme to his answers, which include mentions of drowning and sharks!

1. You’ll be presenting at next week’s ABSTRACT Conference in Portland, Maine. Can you give us a sneak preview of your talk?
I’ll be discussing our new content and our most recent redesign. How we approach design problems, and more importantly how we solve them.

2. What is your greatest graphic design or publication design pet peeve?
Magazines that are so clearly design derivatives of other magazines. A successful magazine/brand has an immediate identity that belongs to them. We all “borrow” from time to time but when it’s so bad that you cannot even tell which magazine you are in, there’s a real problem.

3. What is your best or most memorable design-related encounter?
A decade ago, I was on a shoot and was accused by an overbearing publicist of trying to “drown” her client. Literally. It wasn’t the best moment, but certainly the most memorable.

4. What is your proudest design moment?
I once designed a poster for my wife for an anniversary present. It had some personal writing in it, and it made her cry and laugh all at the same time. Sappy I know, but I’m keeping it real here. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.