Appreciation: November 2010 Archives

The Art Direction of Musician Magazine: Gary Koepke

For much of the 1980s and 90s, Musician magazine served as a home for creative art direction and imagery. It was a place where art directors learned their trade while producing cool covers and feature spreads. Art directors during this period included Gary Koepke, David Carson, Patrick Mitchell, John Korpics, and Miriam Campiz.

SPD is going to be hosting a month-long celebration of the art direction of Musician, starting with the work of Gary Koepke. Koepke was an art director at Polaroid before moving to Musician in the mid-80s, where he worked with a staff of two others (a typesetter and an assistant). He describes his design approach at the magazine as "Simple and elegant. The articles were always by great writers, and the photos were all by amazing photographers, so I always respected the word."

After working at Musician from 1984-87, Koepke went on to be the founding creative director of Vibe, designed publications as diverse as Colors, World Tour, and Businessweek, and is the co-founder and executive creative director at creative agency Modernista!

(Above): April 1984. Photograph by Deborah Feingold.
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Details Magazine, 1990-2000, Part 2

This fall marks the 20th anniversary of the relaunch of Details magazine by Conde Nast. Earlier this month we profiled a set of Details covers from 1990-1998. Now we've got a feast of photography and illustration, from a stellar set of visual creators, including David LaChapelle, Helmut Newton, Dan Winters, Sue Coe, Moshe Brakha, Anton Corbijn and more. Through all its iterations, brilliant photography and illustration has been a Details mainstay. The photos in this collection were all produced by longtime Details photo director Greg Pond.

(Above): April 1996. Photographer: David LaChapelle, design director: Markus Kierzstan, photo director: Greg Pond.
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U.S. News & World Report, R.I.P.

U.S. News & World Report was always an also-ran among the newsweeklies. I shunned it both because of its plodding visual design and its conservative, "traditional" American lifestyle politics. And in recent years the magazine had slowed down to a monthly print schedule that seemed confined to circulation in doctors' offices. So this week's news that the magazine was finally killing its print edition was no great loss (they'll continue with their website as well as printing special issues, like college rankings). However, U.S. News did some wonderful covers in the 50s and 60s that were graphic, engaging, and very stylized. We've got a dozen of the coolest, courtesy of their archives.

(Above): November 18, 1949, March 17, 1950, December 26, 1951.
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Bloomberg Businessweek

When Bloomberg Businessweek launched their redesign (and re-imagination) of the magazine at the end of April, the response from the publication design community was somewhat underwhelming. The first couple covers were solid but not remarkable, the insides were crisply formatted but a bit overstuffed, and the imagery had yet to find its full voice. 
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Details magazine, version #2, 1990-2000

This fall marks the 20th anniversary of the relaunch of Details by Conde Nast, under the editorship of James Truman, along with creative director Derek Ungless, photo director Greg Pond, and fashion director Bill Mullen. The first issues under Ungless's direction were truly groundbreaking, filled with bright, tabloid-inspired design, provocative photography, and cool fashion. Subsequent design directors included B.W. Honeycutt, Markus Kiersztan, and many others, but the constants were Pond and Mullen, who combined to create some of the most memorable magazine imagery of the 90s. Here are some of our favorite Details covers from 1990-1998. Unless noted, all credits include Greg Pond, photo director, and Bill Mullen, fashion director.

(Above): Creative director: Derek Ungless, photographer: Isabel Snyder

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