In keeping with the craft theme today, check-out IdN’s latest issue “Handy Crafters”. Here’s a brief description:
Craft designers say they love being “hands-on”, that the feel of real material between their fingers and the inevitable imperfections of the process make it more exciting than purely digital work. They also say that it has its drawbacks — mistakes cannot be rectified with a click of the keyboard and it tends to be time-consuming!
While the magazine industry goes through their own difficulties, you’d assume there would be checks and double-checks along the way to make sure there weren’t any potential embarrassing missteps, particularly not with your very first issue. But so it is with Condé Nast UK‘s recent launch of Love, which features on its cover a nude Beth Ditto, the lead singer of the band The Gossip. Certainly, it’s racy and daring, but it’s also been done before, back in 2007 by the popular music magazine, NME. While some are simply ignoring the similarities and appreciating the new glossy, particularly for the design work thereon/in, others are crying foul:
Jeremy Leslie, executive creative director of publisher John Brown, says, ‘Ditto had her moment a couple of years ago and, given the NME did it already, I can’t believe that, in the closed world of fashion, Condé Nast didn’t realise. It’s a strange faux pas to make on your launch.’
Graphic and print designer Mike Dempsey, founder of Studio Dempsey and Master of the Royal Designers for Industry, says, ‘The Love cover smacks of desperation in an already overcrowded magazine world. If this is how they intend to carry on, I give it six issues.’
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In case you missed it, Graphic Design USA, most commonly seen on the newstands as GDUSA, has released its 46th annual “People to Watch” selections, highlighting thirty designers working today at the top of their game and making a few waves here and there. We were pleased to see our old friend Jeff Fisher among the ranks, which also included Hilman Curtis and MoMA‘s new Creative Director, Julia Hoffmann. We also learned that some designers wear funny hats and others have strange hair. Here’s a bit from the introduction:
It is a subjective process — this is a field deep with special people doing special things — and we admit our limitations upfront. That was never more clear to us than when — for the first time — we asked our online readers to nominate someone for selection. And were inundated by absolutely outstanding selections, many with whom we were not so familiar.
An editorial goal for 2009 is to get to know many of those put forth by their peers more closely and to give them opportunities for exposure in GDUSA.
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More bad news on the design-y magazine front: Craft is folding its witty, DIY-obsessed print publication, two-and-a-half years after its launch. The magazine’s party-themed tenth issue—on newsstands now and fronted by ubercrafter Amy Sedaris—will be the last. “The future of Craft is online,” announced the magazine Wednesday on its blog. The plan is to expand Craft‘s online home, Craftzine.com, under the leadership of senior editor Natalie Zee Drieu. “We have a lot of work to do to bring the best of the magazine to the website, but the team has started to pursue that goal,” noted the editors. “We will focus on bringing you more craft projects, just as the print magazine did but we’ll be able to do so with greater frequency.” Craft‘s higher-circulation and more tech-savvy brother publication, Make, will continue to be published in print.
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A new look for Newsweek is in the works…
Newsweek is about to begin a major change in its identity, with a new design, a much smaller and, it hopes, more affluent readership, and some shifts in content. The venerable newsweekly’s ingrained role of obligatory coverage of the week’s big events will be abandoned once and for all, executives say.
Speaking of Shepard Fairey, there’s been a bit of a flap over the flap of his February Esquire cover, though not specifically any of his doing. Over at the American Society of Magazine Editors, the editor of the magazine, David Granger, gets interviewed and defends his decision to include an ad on the very cover of the magazine, right under the Fairey-illustrated-Barack Obama‘s face, accessible by pulling the flap back. This has the magazine community in something of a huff, upset that it “violates the sanctity of the cover,” to which Granger essentially responds several times, in a variety of ways, “Yeah, you guys care, but no one who reads the magazine does.” He also explains that he decided to give it a try because he was tired of hearing that print is dead and wanted to do something interesting in response, ad or otherwise:
…I got sick of reading about the demise of print, which is the best, most rewarding medium ever, and I got sick of all forms of print being labeled “old media.” Yeah, print has been around for a long time, but that’s because it works really well. Both aesthetically and as a business — which is more than one can say for most forms of “new media.” So we’ve been trying to find ways to get people to reassess the print medium.
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The gobsmacked expression that Lindsay Lohan sports on the cover of the February issue of Interview (pictured at left and photographed by Mert and Marcus) approximates our own reaction to news that Fabien Baron is leaving the magazine, along with creative director Karl Templer. As you’ll recall, we worried about the fate of Interview, founded by Andy Warhol in 1969, when the brilliant Ingrid Sischy departed last year, but have been duly impressed by the killer design and content upgrade wrought by Baron and co-editorial director Glenn O’Brien.
Brant Publications today confirmed to WWD that Baron and Templer have resigned from Interview. “It has been an adventure working with the DNA of such a legendary title and an exciting, not to mention sometimes challenging, experience to reinvent the magazine to make it relevant and inspiring for a whole new generation of readers,” said Baron. “Now it’s time to focus all my energy on my own business [Baron & Baron] and the many clients that have been loyal to me over the years.” Templer is leaving “in order to focus on other projects.” Rumor has it that graphic design studio M/M Paris may take the creative helm of the magazine.
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And another shelter magazine bites the dust. Condé Nast is folding Domino, the young “Shopping Magazine for Your Home” launched in April of 2005. The magazine recently broke the news of Michael Smith‘s appointment as White House decorator and just yesterday was Twittering about cute headboard options, but this morning, staffers were notified that the magazine is no more. A final March issue will be published, and the Domino website will be shuttered.
“This decision to cease publication of the magazine and its website is driven entirely by the economy,” said Conde Nast president and CEO Charles Townsend in a statement issued today. “Although readership and advertising response was encouraging in the early years, we have concluded that this economic market will not support our business expectations.” As we told you last Friday, while circulation has been up at Domino, advertising pages have fallen and the magazine has lost nearly $40 million over the past three-and-a-half years. Earlier this month, Condé Nast appointed William Wackermann as Domino‘s senior vice president and publishing director.
Previously on UnBeige:
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First there was Brad Pitt‘s photo of Angelina Jolie on the November cover of W. Then came Pitt tipping his hat to New Orleans on the January cover of Architectural Digest. Now W gives over its February cover (pictured) to an extreme close-up of the actor, who was photographed by the one, the only Chuck Close.
It was Pitt’s idea. “When W asked the megstar to appear on the eighth annual A-list cover, he had one, and only one, request for a photographer: Chuck Close,” writes deputy editor Julie Belcove in her Letter from the Editors. The resulting series of Close-snapped daguerrotypes spares no enlarged pore or forehead wrinkle. “You can’t be the fair-haired young boy forever,” says Close. “Maybe a photograph of him with his crow’s-feet and furrowed brow is good for him. It humanizes him. It makes him less of a cinema god and more of a person.” Plus, if you slowly move the cover away from your face, Pitt appears to age in reverse (a subtle hint to Oscar voters?).
Previously on UnBeige:
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Pentagram’s Luke Hayman is a jack of all trades. Among those trades? Metalsmithing and jewelry design. Hayman has redesigned Metalsmith, the magazine of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (the trade association with an abbreviation that evokes what is surely the bane of many a metalsmith’s wardrobe, SNAG). The publication’s new size and bold look debut in this month’s issue (pictured) as SNAG celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Published five times a year under the editorship of Suzanne Ramljak, Metalsmith has also added editorial departments, including one called “In Fashion,” with the aim of engaging a broader audience for jewelry and metalsmithing. “Metalsmith‘s last major redesign was ten years ago, and it was time to reinvigorate the magazine,” said SNAG executive director Dana Singer. “Metalsmith has consistently championed the best and brightest, and with the redesign, we’ve just raised the bar.” And knowing SNAG, that’s no ordinary bar. We’re envisioning an opal-encrusted branch of anodized titanim with torch-fired enamel accents. Ooh, sounds like centerfold material!
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media
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