Grids: October 2009 Archives

Hardware: Flip Camcorders

IN OUR CART 10.30.09 posted by Gail Anderson

I was given a Flip UltraHD Camcorder camcorder to make a short video for a website, and was soon sold on my sweet little toy's charms. Could I just use the video setting on my digital camera instead? Sure, but somehow the Flip is just more fun. … MORE

Always Time for a Party!

Life Outside of Work 10.29.09 posted by The Editors

It's Thursday afternoon (at least, it is here on the East Coast). It's probably time for a little break, maybe some coffee, maybe a little trip in your mind to a happy time. Need a happy time suggestion? We've got you covered! Take out your calendar, and make sure you're free two weeks from tonight: November 12th about 7pm for the American Photography 25 // American Illustration 28 party -- the best place to grab those must-have books designed by Fred Woodward and Rob Hewitt (AP25) and Matthew Lenning (AI28) with a cover by John Hendrix. Need to RSVP? Do that here. Now get that coffee, and make a little room on a shelf where you're going to put your THREE new gorgeous books (the SPD PUB 44 Annual, AP25 and AI28), alongside all these Best! Books! Ever!

The FADER: Double Vision

New Work 10.29.09 posted by The Editors

Last year, The FADER's annual photo issue focused on the AIDS crisis in the United States; this year #64 marks the 6th annual photo issue for the music mag, and features "the changing landscapes and people across America" with photography by Peter van Agtmael and Victoria Sabunaris, and an interactive feature that brings the reader into the photos.
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"One Beautiful Picture After Another"

In Memoriam 10.29.09 posted by The Editors

At the end of an already tough month, word came yesterday that photographer Roy DeCarava had died. Trained originally as a painter, DeCarava was the first African-American to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, and elevated photography of primarily African-American subjects to more than just a documentary endeavor--the power and intimate emotion of his images is undeniable. For his work in magazines, Lester Sloan wrote, "DeCarava's approach to photojournalism, and his choice of subjects, set him apart at a time when the image-makers were encroaching on the turf of the writers." The Times' Lens Blog has a slideshow of a small part of his work, and copies of his monograph "Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective" and his collaboration with Langston Hughes, "The Sweet Flypaper of Life" are must-get.

My Midwest: Mercury Rising

New Work 10.28.09 posted by The Editors

INK Publishing CD Shane Luitjens sends some new work from their MyMIDWEST title: a feature on Ultramarathoners. As NYC gears up for the New York Marathon this Sunday, we get a look at some of the only people who could put those 26.2 milers to shame... … MORE

American Photo: Redesigned

New Work 10.27.09 posted by The Editors

American Photo's new Art Director (and still-AD for Bonnier's sister-pub Garden Design) Donna Reiss shares new work from the issue's fresh redesign.

The magazine just hit newsstands this month with a complete redesign. I would love to hear what the design community thinks about it.

After the jump, a before and after cover comparison and some of the feature openers... … MORE

Tips & Tricks: InDesign Guides

Adobe 10.27.09 posted by The Editors

Our partners at Adobe, as you probably already know, have a wealth of videos, shortcuts and insider info available at Adobe TV. As part of our mission to help every member be more creative, more efficient and just generally better at everything you're doing, we're working to bring the highlights to you in GRIDS as often as we can, starting with this short video (after the jump) with some tricks and shortcuts for using InDesign guides. We guarantee, if you use ruler guides, you need these tips. If you're not using guides... you will be! … MORE

Best! Books! Ever! (Part 3!)

IN OUR CART 10.26.09 posted by Gail Anderson

Now that I've exhausted the patience and goodwill of my coworkers, I've moved on to colleagues' favorite design reads. Please note that we're now on numbers 11 through 15. It's like Julie and Julia! Can we make it to 100 designers? … MORE

Ten Web Agencies

Resources 10.22.09 posted by Josh Klenert

Expanding on a list started for Billboard.com for their 2009 redesign, here is a list of ten web agencies in no particular order:

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Australian Financial Review: Power List

New Work 10.22.09 posted by The Editors

Tony Rice, Design Director for the Australian Financial Review, sends us some in-depth backstory on their recent issue, a great look at problem-solving when you're faced with that recurring best-of or lists issue... once again:

With the 10th Anniversary of the AFR Magazine's annual 'Power in Australia' issue looming -- and having been the design director of each successive issue -- I dreaded the thought of yet another three-quarter shot of the current prime minister gracing the cover.

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Wired + Wallpaper =

Covers 10.22.09 posted by Jeremy LaCroix

I swear... I did not stage this!

Random Placement?

Or is someone at Farley's messing with our minds?

View another funny random cover collaboration.

Photo: Jeremy LaCroix

Update:

Check out Chris Dixon's Mash-up of the original, I sense a trend here!

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NY Freelancers and Studios: A Tax Alert

Careers 10.21.09 posted by SPD HR

This note is for SPD members who live and work in New York City and the surrounding Counties:

A new MTA Tax applies to self-employed individuals and freelancers, and the first payment is due to New York State by Monday, November 2nd, 2009. We're hearing that many freelancers and independent studios haven't yet heard about this new tax, and in order to try to save any of us the pain of penalty from the IRS, we asked our SPD bookkeeper to share some advice while he was setting us straight ourselves: … MORE

The design of Gourmet magazine

Magazines 10.21.09 posted by Robert Newman

After Gourmet magazine closed down on October 5, we asked the art staff for some of their favorite feature spreads and covers from the past couple years. Although the covers of Gourmet often garnered the most attention, the insides of the magazine were brilliant and sparkling as well, and received much acclaim and many awards. Here are four covers and 10 beautiful feature openers from Gourmet. Creative director: Richard Ferretti; art director: Erika Oliveira.

(Above left): August 2008 cover photograph by John Kernick.

Watch for the best of Cookie magazine, coming next week!

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GQ.com and Details.com Relaunch

Redesigns 10.19.09 posted by Josh Klenert

Peeling the two sites apart, and removing them from the "men.style.something.iforget" umbrella, GQ.com and Details.com unveil their own redesigns.

What do you think?

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Best! Books! Ever! (Part 2!)

IN OUR CART 10.19.09 posted by Gail Anderson

Again, Andrea Dunham and I are on a crusade to solicit your thoughts on the one design book you make sure to keep handy at your desk (or night table, if you're really into it...). Before polling the masses, I took one more swipe at getting my fellow SpotCo colleagues to weigh in.

Andrea and I are aiming for 100 designers (and however many books that ends up giving us), so here are numbers 6 though 10, including my selection.

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Andrew Horton's BusinessWeek covers

Covers 10.17.09 posted by Robert Newman

Andrew Horton has been the art director of BusinessWeek since January 2007. In late 2007 he worked with the Modernista folks to redesign the magazine and give it a sleeker, more "modern" look. Since then his BusinessWeek covers have consistently been among the smartest and most creative in the business. They're simple, intelligent, direct, and clever. In the tradition of Time magazine AD Arthur Hochstein, many of the covers are totally created and executed by Horton himself. And when he uses photographers and illustrators, they're topnotch. We salute his ingenuity, resourcefulness, and creativity with a beautiful collection of 10 great BusinessWeek covers.

After you've seen these contemporary covers, visit this website for a gallery of knockout BusinessWeek covers from 1929-2009, collected by Andrew Horton and his colleagues Steven Taylor and Ron Plyman.

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Solitaire

New Work 10.15.09 posted by The Editors

Maryjane Fahey sends along some new work from a redesign her firm recently completed for Singapore's Solitaire, a luxe consumer magazine catering to the jewelry industry. Prepare for your daily dose of lovely luxe after the jump...

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ASME Best Covers of the Year

Covers 10.14.09 posted by Robert Newman

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has announced the winners of its 2009 Best Covers of the Year competition. Rolling Stone's July 10, 2008 cover of Barack Obama, photographed by Peter Yang (and art directed by Joseph Hutchinson), won the Cover of the Year award, as well as Best Obama cover.

Other winners include:

* Most Delicious Cover: Bon Appetit

* Best in Celebrity & Entertainment: Vanity Fair

* Best in Fashion & Beauty: Harper's Bazaar

* Best in House & Home: Veranda

* Best in Lifestyle: Conde Nast Traveler

* Best in News & Business: New York

* Sexiest: Elle

* Best in Sports & Fitness: Sports Illustrated

* Best in Science, Technology & Nature: Audubon

There were five nominees in each category, selected by a panel of ASME judges. The winners were voted by visitors to the Amazon.com website. For a full view of winners and nominees, visit the ASME website.

Best! Books! Ever! (Part 1!)

IN OUR CART 10.14.09 posted by Gail Anderson

Women on a mission! Andrea Dunham and I are on a crusade to compile the Best! List! Ever! We're hoping you'll indulge us when we come to your online doorstep in pursuit of the one design book on your shelf that you can't live without.

The easiest place for us was to start was with our coworkers, so to get things rolling, I strong-armed my SpotCo designers into action: … MORE

Paris Vogue + Blackface. What Next?

News 10.14.09 posted by The Editors

October's issue of Paris Vogue -- the super models issue -- is hitting the news for its photography, particularly Steven Klein's shoot with Lara Stone. Video after the jump... … MORE

UK Magazine Cover Awards 2009

Awards 10.14.09 posted by Robert Newman

The winners have been announced for the Maggies, the UK magazine cover awards competition. The overall winner was Q magazine, for their Lily Allen cover. There are seven categories, and five nominees in each. Check out their website for a great glance at state-of-the-art UK magazine design. (Thanks to Jeremy Leslie at Magculture for the tip.)

Bloomberg Acquires BusinessWeek

News 10.13.09 posted by Josh Klenert

MarketWatch reports that Bloomberg L.P. won the bid to acquire BusinessWeek magazine from McGraw Hill, and will rechristen the title Bloomberg BusinessWeek, according to the Times. More on the story at BusinessWeek.com.

Gigi Gaston: The Black Flower

Celebrity 10.13.09 posted by Robert Newman

Artist / illustrator / art director Josh Gosfield has an amazing exhibit coming up at the Steven Kasher Gallery that will delight all fans of archival design. Gosfield created a fictional character, Gigi Gaston, a fabulous 60s French pop star, and then chronicled her in a series of created posters, album covers, magazine covers, articles, and videos. You'll swear it's the real thing, and maybe it is. The albums and magazines chronicle Gigi's rise and fall, and love and hate affair with celebrity media. SPD members will delight in Gosfield's attention to detail and his loving recreations of period publications.

All the material will be presented at the gallery in large-size prints, and will also be available in a limited edition catalogue. Take a look at our sampler of Gigi Gaston materials, and then visit this site for the full collection. And dig this crazy video directed by "Godard." The show runs from October 22-November 25; opening is October 22, from 6-8pm. Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St. in New York City.

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Goodbye, Mr. Penn

In Memoriam 10.12.09 posted by Greg Pond

By GREG POND

How do you say goodbye to someone you never met?

I never knew Irving Penn. But I'm going to miss him. He was a constant, important presence in my life for many years.

I've looked for Irving Penn's pictures in American Vogue every month for as long as I can remember. I looked for the man himself on the street in New York too. A photographer friend once told me a story about Mr. Penn, a myth no doubt, one of those artist-as-God stories, related in a hushed voice, but I liked the story, so I chose to believe it. … MORE

Wilco as Design Resource

Appreciation 10.12.09 posted by Andrea Dunham

I find the rock band Wilco's poster collection a handy resource for some of the most elegant, witty graphic fine-artists working today. Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, including Uncle Tupelo and the whole constellation of side-project bands associated with them, have contributed substantially to the elevation of extraordinary, modern poster design. Like Pearl Jam--and countless others, though the latter band really sets a contemporary high bar for execution and profligacy--Wilco just gets it, and gets it good. Below only a fractional sampling of their limited edition posters with links to the studios or individuals who created them. The first image you see is called "Fractured" by FloraFauna. --ad … MORE

Interview: Dugald Stermer and Ramparts magazine

Magazines 10.11.09 posted by Robert Newman

A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS, DECEMBER 5, 2011: It is with great sadness we note that Dugald Stermer, illustrator and Ramparts Art Director from 1964-1970, passed away last week at 75 after a long illness. Below we're reposting an interview Robert Newman did with Stermer in the autumn of 2009.

Dugald Stermer was the art director of Ramparts magazine during its heyday, 1964-1970. A new book by Peter Richardson, A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America , has brought the magazine back into the public eye. The New York Times gave the book a lengthy review in the October 11 Sunday Times Book Review, which praised the magazine's "hip, slick and provocative look."

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Magazine Covers that Reference Magazine Covers

Covers 10.10.09 posted by Robert Newman

The latest issue of the UK edition of Esquire features actor/comedian Ricky Gervais shot with arrows. It's a visual reference to the famous Muhammad Ali April 1966 Esquire cover, art directed by George Lois. And that cover is, of course, a clever visual nod to the famous paintings of St. Sebastian. Our pal Jeremy Leslie at Magculture.com suggests it's time to give that particular homage a well-deserved rest. We agree; but all this homage-ing got us thinking about other magazine covers that have referenced magazine covers. So here's a brief recent history. Our rule here is that the covers had to be a direct reference to another magazine cover; we're saving record album, posters, etc. for a future post. We know there are a lot more of these out there, so please send us your favorites. -- [post by Josh Klenert and Robert Newman]

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Portfolio Review

Photography 10.09.09 posted by Catherine Talese

Joined a bright crew of 30 + art buyers & photo editors at ASMP's portfolio review at Tribeca Skyline, and met with a range of established and aspiring photographers; here are the highlights from those I met. … MORE

Font Bureau vs. NBC: Must Steal TV?

Typography 10.09.09 posted by Amid Capeci

As first reported by cityfile.com this morning, on Tuesday afternoon, NBC was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate?
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Stupid Human Tricks

Celebrity 10.09.09 posted by Josh Klenert

EW covers David Letterman's scandalous week. Here's a look back at how some pubs have covered Dave.… MORE

From Nagel to Niemann

illustration 10.07.09 posted by Tom O'Quinn

I recently visited the National Portrait Gallery in London which got me thinking about editorial portraits. In magazine design, more often than not, photography is the star of the show. But there are more great illustrators today than ever before, and I will always have a special respect for artists who can take an image like a basic portrait and transform it into something uniquely their own---through drawing. Maybe it's a side-effect of my own unrealized dreams of becoming a really cool, famous painter. But for now, I'll settle for being cool by association.
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Ramparts Magazine

Magazines 10.07.09 posted by Robert Newman

The New York Times has a review of the new history of Ramparts magazine today, A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America, by Peter Richardson. For those who've never seen it, or for those who remember, Ramparts was a striking visual magazine, art directed from 1964-1970 by the great Dugald Stermer (who is better-known today for his illustration work). Dig this cover of Stermer and the mag's editors burning their own draft cards! We'll be posting a more detailed visual history of Ramparts later this week. Images from those days are hard to find....if you've got any you want to contribute to the post, please let us know ASAP.… MORE

Revolving Cover Logos

Logos 10.07.09 posted by Robert Newman

Last week we posted an item on SPD Grids about upside down magazine covers, designs where the art directors turned the logos on their heads. We asked for more examples of this style, and received the following collection of covers from the legendary Seattle music and culture magazine The Rocket, art directed by Art Chantry. For this series of six covers Chantry decided to completely rotate the cover logo from issue to issue, in a clockwise manner. The logos starts at the top in a traditional position, and then flips around over the six issues. Chantry notes that the issue where the logo got back to the top was also his last. Ed Fotheringham is the illustrator for the first issue, from January 1993. For more examples of classic design from The Rocket, visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92700&id=75782447667… MORE

Seasons Change

From the President 10.06.09 posted by Casey Tierney

The sun is out but there's a distinct chill in the air. Fall is upon us and given the heartbreaking news out of CondÃ© Nast yesterday, it feels downright wintry. (It was all just a bad dream, right? What will I do without my Cookie?!) We've certainly seen better times but we continue to press on knowing that challenges like these bind us together and remind us not only of the great work we do but the great and talented people who make up this membership.

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RIP 10.05.09 posted by The Editors

Daily Intel, Gawker and Folio: are reporting that CondÃ© Nast shuttered four titles this morning: Cookie, Elegant Bride, Gourmet and Modern Bride. More news as it's known, but not a good Monday morning...

Newspaper Album Covers

Old School 10.04.09 posted by Robert Newman

I've been listening to lots of old albums lately, especially from back in the late 60s/early 70s days. Of course, that was the golden album of rock album cover design, when no expense was spared, and no idea was too trippy. (And then of course, there were those gatefold covers, very useful at party time, or so I've heard...). One of the most popular design trends in those days was to create album covers that looked like newspapers, and not underground or alternative types, but regular old mainstream papers, which were not considered cool by any stretch of the imagination. So here, with no redeeming value, except pure fun, are some classics of the genre.

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Neville Brody Guest Art Directs Arena Homme +

New Work 10.02.09 posted by The Editors

Once again Neville Brody (The Face, founding AD of Arena) is in the guest-art directing biz with a collaboration on men's fashion title Arena Homme + and their latest issue celebrating iconic stylist Ray Petri and the spirit of the Buffalo fashion movement. This is the first time in several years that Brody has worked with the art direction, typography and layout of a full magazine. … MORE

The Wilde Years [at SPD]

SpeakEasy 10.01.09 posted by Gail Anderson

If you're an SVA graphic design department alum, then you remember sitting in the darkened 23rd Street amphitheater, hoping that your work would appear on screen in Richard's class. If you're as old as I am, you designed your name in many moods on the large handouts that were distributed each week, or created a work of art on a printout of a brick wall. Maybe you even had that assignment where you mailed Richard an envelope that said something about YOU. I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, but I remember those Richard Wilde assignments like they were yesterday.… MORE

October 2009 Archives

Hardware: Flip Camcorders

Always Time for a Party!

The FADER: Double Vision

"One Beautiful Picture After Another"

My Midwest: Mercury Rising

American Photo: Redesigned

Tips & Tricks: InDesign Guides

Best! Books! Ever! (Part 3!)

Ten Web Agencies

Australian Financial Review: Power List

Wired + Wallpaper =

NY Freelancers and Studios: A Tax Alert

The design of Gourmet magazine

GQ.com and Details.com Relaunch

Best! Books! Ever! (Part 2!)

Andrew Horton's BusinessWeek covers

Solitaire

ASME Best Covers of the Year

Best! Books! Ever! (Part 1!)

Paris Vogue + Blackface. What Next?

UK Magazine Cover Awards 2009

Bloomberg Acquires BusinessWeek

Gigi Gaston: The Black Flower

Goodbye, Mr. Penn

Wilco as Design Resource

Interview: Dugald Stermer and Ramparts magazine

Magazine Covers that Reference Magazine Covers

Portfolio Review

Font Bureau vs. NBC: Must Steal TV?

Stupid Human Tricks

From Nagel to Niemann

Ramparts Magazine

Revolving Cover Logos

Seasons Change

Say It Ain't So: CondÃ© Closes Four Magazines

Newspaper Album Covers

Neville Brody Guest Art Directs Arena Homme +

The Wilde Years [at SPD]

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