RegardingDesign

My Favorite Magazine

I've been a devoted reader of the Atlantic magazine for longer than I care to count. When I started out to write my book "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers," I used the exercise as an excuse to profile the magazine's then fairly recent re-design.

 

Well, on the same day the I hear my book is finally, really out and ready to ship, I also get in the mail my November issue of the Atlantic and lo and behold, it's redesigned AGAIN. Potentially, I think, making the special section of my book moot. Only, not so much. There's a description of the process of redesign by Michael Bierut of Pentagram who led the team. It's an interesting little piece and reflects so many of my own feelings about the magazine. Bierut is also a long-time reader and fan. And he discusses the importance of striking a balance between the actual content between the pages, but also with the history of where the magazine has been and the places its readership hopes to be taken.

One of the ways he and his team -- which included Pentagram-ers Luke Hayman, Joe Marianek, and Ben King as well as the Atlantic's art director Jason Treat and editor James Bennet -- struck this balance was to resurrect and update its traditional nameplate, giving the cover a decidely classic and modern look. In the way, I suppose, of all truly classic things. As a design writer, my eyes like what I see; as a reader, my brain still loves what I find inside.

Check out the new look ... along with the older one, profiled in a special section in my book.

Farewell my friend

I'm very sad to report that a wonderful magazine of art, design and architecture, POL/Oxygen, has folded. I got the news as I was about to write my second feature for them: their creditors came in one day, apparently totally unexpectedly, and shut down the the place, took the servers, and fired all the staff.

It was through interviewing the great Australia-based designer Marcus Piper for my latest book "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers" that I first discovered POL/Oxygen, and then he generously recommended me to his editor Jan Mackay. My first assignment was to write a profile of Stefan Sagmeister, a daunting task that quickly turned into a rather pleasing one. Just a couple of weeks ago, the magazine from Down Under gave me the excuse to meet and interview another fabulous creative soul, the NY-based, Dutch architect Winka Dubbledam. Unfortunately, now neither of those profiles will be printed. HOWEVER, you lucky readers of my blog will get a consolation prize: I'll be posting about both Sagmeister and Dubbledam right here, instead, all this week.

P.S. There is a rumor that the publisher may try to ressurect the magazine at a future date -- fingers crossed.

Publications: Habit 98

I'll end my little series on publication design secrets with this thought about the future. With the influx of so many different types of media, print designers should not feel threatened, but instead simply embrace -- and perhaps amplify -- the differences between magazines/books and online media.

As Casey Caplowe, art director for Good magazine, which is designed by Open in NY, observes: " You have opportunities to do things in print that you can't do online, such as big pictures and illustrative headlines. The interplay of text and images is way more interesting in print than online." After all, the online experience is a different kind of engagement from the act of turning the pages of a wonderful magazine or book. Jason Godfrey of UK-based Godfrey Design puts it simply, "Books are the most interactive stuff we have, actually."

Images on this spread are from "Western Interiors and Design" magazine, designed by Jessica Fleishmann.

Publications: Habit 73

Advice for a Monday: Only do a book if you really like the subject matter.

It's no accident that book designers use the language of relationships to describe book design. It takes months and months and months of painstaking work manipulating text and visuals into a symbiosis that makes the sum greater than the whole of its parts. Because of this level of commitment, "Most of my projects are based on things I have an affinity for," notes Brett MacFadden. Vince Frost concurs. "Why go out with someone if you don't like them?" he asks. The images on this spread are for books designed by Brazilian Victor Burton and Maya Drozdz.

As mentioned last week, the "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers" is available for pre-order and will be out in October.

Publications: Habit 16

Head out into the weekend with this thought: Be willing to be smart instead of beautiful.

Magazines and books require that the designer be confident enough to take a back seat to the content provided by writers, illustrators, and photographers. Steven Heller offers this wise advice: "Try not to impose your signature on something that shouldn't be signed." This is especially true in a newsmagazine, such as Time. Arthur Hochstein is the art director at this venerable weekly, which was recently redesigned with help from Pentagram partner Luke Hayman to reflect an increased empahsis on news analysis. He points out that "Being part of the news process is as important as good design. You have to understand that it's a collective pursuit, and design is one aspect...Sometimes you want to be the smartest girl in the class instead of the best looking."

Images on this spread are from & magazine from D&AD a UK-based charity that "represents the global creative, design and advertising communities."

Publications: Habit 14

Today we'll hear from Vince Frost of Frost Design in Australia, Arem Duplessis of the New York Times magazine, and Nicole Dudka, who designs at the Chicago Tribune. All of these designers point out the pleasures and necessities of working quickly. "We do not have the luxury of time working on a weekly," Duplessis points out. "You have to be a quick thinker." Dudka says she "fell in love with the deadlines" of newspaper work and enjoys the demand to "be creative really fast." For Frost, who works on longer-term projects like books as well as monthly magazines, working fast is simply part of what he thinks makes better creative: "The quicker you do it, the better...If you spend too much time analyzing it, it loses impact and passion."

The images from this spread are from the Chicago Tribune and were designed by Nicole Dudka.

Publications: Habit 62

Here we go. In no particular order or rhyme or reason, I'll spend this week sharing some snippets of habits from my latest book, "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers" with you.

Habit 62 comes from Michael Ray, the editor of "Zoetrope-All Story", the literary magazine founded by legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, and Martha Rich, an illustrator based in LA, who encourage collaboration and "chance creation." When Coppola started his literary magazine, "He wanted to mimic the collaboartive aspects of filmmaking," notes Ray. "He likes that idea of chance creation." Rich concurs, suggesting that designers and art directors remember that they are working with an illustrator for their ideas as well as their work. "You're hiring them for their mind," she says, "And the best thing for me is to work as a team where...they're using my mind in tandem with their minds to get a great result."

Images on this spread are from the book from Chronicle, "Photo/Stoner", about the legendary surf photographer. Book design by Brett MacFadden.

Publication Design

I just got my advance copy of my latest book, "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers." It's a beauty, I must say. Doing this book gave me the chance to talk to many folks involved with publications I've admired, as well as discover some wonderful new magazines, editors, and designers. So, I have to start off by saying thank you to everyone who shared their time, insights and work with me. I enjoyed every minute of my conversations with legends like Arem Duplessis, Vince Frost, Luke Hayman, and Steven Heller, as well as with younger, newer, and more niche editors and designers from fabulous literary magazines, Asian, European and South American design studios, and even one entity who blogs about magazines from across the River Styx.

I learned -- and if you read the book, you'll learn -- so much about how publications are made and made better: how to use type, uderstand the material you're given, discuss creative approaches with artists, work with editors, learn the rules and break the rules, and more. We also included some special "Focus" sections that explore the makeover of "The Atlantic Monthly," deconstruct a spread of "Good" magazine, let some illustrators describe how they work, review what book and magazine covers need to do, and hear from some folks about the future of magazines in an increasingly technological world.

I'll give everyone a taste of the book content over these coming days by sharing some habits and spreads -- hope you enjoy the sneak peek. The book is available for pre-order and comes out for real in October.

Lemonland

"LEMON is “Pop Culture With A Twist”: a new breed of magazine that stakes its claim at the intersection of 60s-70s Pop and 21st century hyper-culture. Designed and produced with obsessive attention to every last detail, each issue of LEMON is pure Pop Art."

And now, if you take a couple minutes out of your busy day of trolling for stock images and take this survey, you can get a free subscription to the magazine. The free subscriptions end as soon as 200 surveys are taken, so sign up ASAP.