Commentary
11.26.08
Things I Am Thankful For (A Note from Your President)
I love working for the Society; whether you're a photographer or a designer, an illustrator or an intern, a photo editor or an editor, participating in this organization is a terrific way to get an inside look at how great magazines are made. It's a front-row seat to the present-tense history of America.
Which is why this is a particularly painful time for many of us, our friends and colleagues. We're living in the end of one era of publishing--a seismic shift in what models of media will be viable--and experiencing firsthand the painful repercussions of a failed economic philosophy.
The way ad pages (read: jobs) are vanishing, you'd think Lance Burton himself was skulking around out behind the recycling bins. Magazines are scraping together minimum-size books, banking singles into spreads, cutting budgets and ambitions, trimming staff, and just plain struggling to make ends meet. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. I mean, magazines are just plain vanishing. It's scary as hell.
Which is why I want to take a moment to share couple sentiments on this Thanksgiving Eve.
I'm thankful to work in an industry that rewards innovation and supports quality. Year after year, we visual journalists are treated to a feast of ideas: powerful photography, challenging illustrations, provocative designs, edgy typography, new ways of thinking and looking and seeing. Again, I can't think of another profession where such innovation is revered and respected as it is in American magazine and website publishing.
But mostly, I'm thankful for the Society of Publication Designers. This is a singular group of people; I can think of very few instances in professional life in which the participants of a group are peers, counselors, and supporters of one another, while at the same time being direct competitors. In my years in the Society, I have made some of the best friends anyone could ever hope to have. From sheer osmosis, being in the same room with real genius, I have learned more than any amount of years in school could have taught me. I have sat for countless hours reading and admiring the magazines of my heroes, and then had the pleasure of asking them "How?" and "Why?" (in person!) and marveling at their answers, dumbstruck at the audacity of their talents. All because of a little group called The Society of Publication Designers.
People--families and friends--come together in times of crisis; really, it's the true test of the solidarity of a people. We will make it through this downturn. We'll survive the layoffs and the cutbacks and we'll do it in spite of the gloom and doom, because we know that we can count on our brothers and sisters in groups like the SPD. Now more than ever, the partnership and cooperation that is the lifeblood of this Society will sustain us and lift us up. We're all here to help each other, and I hope that on this Thanksgiving, in 2008, we can think of and help those less fortunate.
On that note, I wish each and every one of you the very best of luck and send a heartfelt "thank you" for all that you do to make this community so vibrant.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Scott Dadich
President, SPD
