SPD 50
12.09.14
From the SPD Archives: 25th Anniversary Call for Entries, 1989
The Call for Entries for the SPD 25th anniversary competition was a major piece of work (and art). It was a mini magazine, filled with stories, lists, and charts, that celebrated 25 years of publication art direction. Co-chairs for the competition were Walter Bernard of WBMG and Phyllis Richmond Cox, the art director of Bride's magazine. The call for entries was designed by Bernard and Milton Glaser of WBMG, with assistance from Karen Trittipo, and owed quite a bit of inspiration to the pages of Spy magazine. It was edited by Killian Jordan. The call was a 16-page masterpiece of content and design, that contained not only the usual entry information, forms, and lists of judges, but also had a brilliant mix of rich detail and stories on art directing magazines, both contemporary and historical, including contributions from Dugald Stermer, Sam Antupit, Rip Georges, Fred Woodward, Steve Heller, Lloyd Ziff, Roger Black, Bob Ciano, and Tom Bentkowski. The stories include a list of art directors who are married to each other, a brief history of Fortune redesigns, a remembrance by Vincent Winter of arm wrestling Jann Wenner to keep a Rolling Stone layout intact, and much more. This is one of the best and most entertaining collections of publication art direction information that SPD has ever compiled. And most impressive is that the complex design and production was all done pre-desktop.
You can click on the pages to blow them up to readable size!
PAGE 2: Art director Dugald Stermer on the famous Ramparts burning draft cards cover, and a story about how Regardie's editor Bill Regardie wrecked the magazine art director's office with a baseball bat.
PAGE 3: Milton Glaser on redesigning an editor at New York magazine, and a list of "design duos."
PAGE 4: Steve Heller on publishing a photo of an undercover policeman in The New York Free Press, art directors and their bands, and more on Regardie's by Rip Georges and Fred Woodward.
PAGE 5: Lloyd Ziff on a memorable Vanity Fair layout, Richard Stolley's famous People magazine rules for covers that sell, and Sam Antupit on seeing his Esquire pages on the walls of the men's room at Elaine's restaurant.
PAGE 6: The history of Fortune's design (with art directors) and Roger Black on a memorable job interview.
PAGE 7: More on the history of Fortune's design, plus a list of art directors and their college alma maters.
PAGE 8: A list of all the art directors of Esquire and New York since 1964, plus snapshots of the Esquire art department in 1969 and 1989 (the 1969 photo is mislabeled as taken in 1964).
PAGE 9: The art directors of Rolling Stone and Vogue, plus some "Little-Known Amazing True-Life Facts" about Screw magazine.
PAGE 10: Pam Vassil on getting covers approved by editors, and Playboy's Arthur Paul on his favorite cover of the magazine.
PAGE 11: Vincent Winter on an epic arm wrestling contest with Rolling Stone editor/publisher Jann Wenner.
PAGE 12: Bob Ciano on threatening an editor with a samurai sword, and Mike Salisbury on designing REALLY ugly covers at West magazine.~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related Stories:
From the SPD Archives: The 15th Call for Entries, 1979
From the SPD Archives: Publication Design 12, 1978
From the SPD Archives: Publication Design 39 Cover, 2004
From the SPD Archives: Society of Publication Designers News, 1966
From the SPD Archives: Call for Entries Poster, 1972
From the SPD Archives: The First Issue of Grids, 1982
From the SPD Archives: Publication Design News, 1975
From the SPD Archives: Call for Entries 20, 1984
From the SPD Archives: 1973 Call for Entries, Designed by Massimo Vignelli
From the SPD Archives: Publication Design Annual #2, 1976
From the SPD Archives: Publication Design 13, 14 & 15 Annual, 1982
