Hasta La Ideas

(Photos: Journal of Popular Noise)

The Journal of Popular Noise, the audio magazine founded and edited by graphic designer Byron Kalet, is a treat for the senses, from its expertly curated musical selections (distributed as a twice-yearly trio of seven-inch vinyl records) to its letterpress-printed, hand-folded packaging. Just in time to impress the design-savvy music fan on your holiday shopping list comes JPN‘s fall/winter edition (above), which will feature the music of Seattle band Foscil. We interviewed Brooklyn-based Kalet before he got too tired from hand-folding all of the new issues, which ship next month. Read on for the tale of JPN‘s origins, how frugality was the mother of great design, and why he thinks of Foscil as “the Dick Avedon to my Alexey Brodovitch.”

How did the Journal of Popular Noise come about?
There were a couple distinctly different signs that all pointed in the same direction for me. I had been doing some research and had long been interested in the intersection of music and design. As a musician and designer, I always felt very strongly that the same set of rules and functions were at work in the decision-making process when creating in either medium. Rhythm, contrast, tone, are among many of the words that are commonly used by both designers and musicians to describe what they’re up to. I wanted to try and very directly apply the basic compositional conventions of pop music to the composition of a magazine, as it seemed to me they were already almost one and the same. I was particularly attracted to magazines, as they seemed to have not only a close formal relationship to music composition but also an almost symbiotic relationship with pop music. Maybe blogs have that role now, but imagine what pop music would be like without Rolling Stone in the 70’s, Maximum RocknRoll in the 80’s, Riot Grrrl zines in the 90’s, and then, well…blogs.

How did you decide upon the three-records-tucked-in-a-lovely-package format?
Early in 2007, magazines were still flourishing—as the record industry was floundering trying to navigate the new business of ringtones and digital downloads. Magazines are great because they offer an experience that one could never get from the internets, which is why I chose the most tactile and physically impressive production techniques. So with all that on my mind, it seemed obvious that this was the way to do it. There’s a long tradition of record clubs, serial composition, and music magazines, from Aspen to Flexidiscs. I don’t think I’m really doing anything new, I’m just doing it my way for what’s happening right now.

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One of the best outlets for an American photographer to enter the international market used to be through the German publication GEO, known for their publication of lengthy photo essays and giving work to up and coming and experienced shooters. Unfortunately, Photo District News reports that the company has decided to close their New York office immediately, while also laying off their two main employees there, their bureau chief Nadja Masri and the photo editor Tina Ahrens. A sad day for sure, given the publication’s outreach and availability to working photogs. Here’s a bit about their history and spread:

The New York office has been in operation since 1976, when GEO was launched as an extension of Stern, a news magazine. The German edition of GEO is published monthly, and the brand includes several spin-off titles and 17 international editions.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Designing Davids dominate this year’s Fast Company Masters of Design, an annual salute to design visionaries. The magazine’s October issue spotlights a mix of legends and legends in the making: David Butler, vice president of global design for Coca-Cola; architect David Adjaye; creator of immersive enironments David Rockwell (who we learn is the son of a vaudeville dancer); Pentagram information architect Lisa Strausfeld; and Alberto Alessi, who helms the eponymous factory of shiny design covetables and has recently taken up winemaking [cut to shot of him patiently pressing grapes individually using a Philippe Starck-designed Juicy Salif].

The profile of Butler offers details on Coke’s new Pininfarina-styled Freestyle fountain. Developed in a top-secret project (codename: Jet) led by Butler, it dispenses “more than 100 different Coca-Cola variants, including exotic hybrids such as Minute Maid Raspberry Lemonade, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke With Lime, Orange Coke, and Fanta Peach.” Fanta Peach!? Be still our hearts. “It’s an audacious move for Coke, representing the largest investment in equipment innovation in the company’s history—hundreds of millions of dollars—and a big bet by CEO Muhtar Kent,” writes Linda Tischler. “Kent, a Formula One fan, not only approved the project but also urged the team to make the machine look ‘like a Ferrari.'”

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While France has seemingly become the home of realism in magazines, with Elle‘s recent “no Photoshoping, no makeup” issue, and in advertisements of all kind, with legislation proposed that would require cigarette pack-like warnings on any digitally altered image, Germany has snuck up and grabbed the “most progressive” title away from them. Or at least they’ve started something of a race, as the popular German fashion magazine, Brigitte, has announced that, starting with it’s January 2010 issue, it will no longer be using fashion models for its covers or in any of its pieces. Instead, they’ll be using friends, relatives, and staffers. This, all in a move to start showing real women and separate themselves from the culture of promoting impossibly thin fashion models as realistic (critics have also said that it’ll help cut costs too). Of course, this is all well and good, but since most magazines are 90% advertising, we wonder what effect this will really have, with one “regular” person on one page and two dozen paper thin models on the next five.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Web icon Derek Powazek, who we last mentioned around this time last year surrounding the closure of his controversial Pixish site, has returned to his magazine roots (see: JPG Magazine), albeit briefly. Following the massive dust storm in Sydney Australia a few days back, Powazek was like many of us who started seeing dozens of photos of the odd city-enveloping storm pop up on every blog and in every tweet. But whereas the lot of us clicked away, he was compelled to do something with the perhaps once-in-a-lifetime happening and dediced to put together a publication using all of these photos he was seeing. After getting permission from nearly every one of the photographers responsible for all those photos the world was seeing, he quickly designed Strange Light: Photos from the Great Australian Dust Storm and ran it through Hewlett-Packard‘s MagCloud self-publishing venture. All of this within 48 hours. Here’s a bit about why:

Why would a Web guy like Powazek slave over an old-fashioned paper product? “Magazines are my happy place,” he says. “I think print and the Internet complement each other more than people realize.” Certainly, there’s something about once-in-a-lifetime occurrences that cry out for print. It’s as if holding something tangible is a more satisfying way to process and mark big events than bookmarking a page.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.