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Letter from the President - Francesca Messina

To the SPD Community:

I appreciate the vote of confidence you've given me in electing me to this role. It's an honor and a privilege to help guide SPD in the coming year. I want to acknowledge the great work done by my predecessor, Neil Jamieson, who worked tirelessly in the last year to advance SPD's many initiatives. And also our Board of Directors, and our amazing crew of volunteers, whose tireless efforts bring you all of the programs you know and love.

As I stopped by my local newsstand today on my usual lunch-break magazine grazing, I was struck by the number of newly-freshened or redesigned brands. We are at a moment of such incredible expansion in our industry, despite the hardships and shrinking budgets we all face daily. Apps are being created, new digital products imagined, and print magazines are at a really incredible moment in terms of smart editorial design. ADs and PDs are now brand design managers, with their hands and eyes on so many different types of media. There are fantastic new custom publications being bankrolled by big companies or kickstarted by a group of passionate individuals. There's a feeling of possibility, mixed with practicality, as always.

SPD has always been the voice of all of us who are editorial visual contributors: art directors, photo editors, photographers, infographics designers, and illustrators. We all create content that astonishes, informs, and reflects the cultural moment. Yet we cannot accomplish what we do alone. We work in teams, collaborate, fight, and defend our ideas and vision. SPD is here to represent our issues, needs, and ever-evolving industry. Whether you are creating Flaunt or Fast Company, Money or Monocle, Interview or Institutional Investor, W or Worth, Bicycling or Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Atlantic or The Oxford American, whether you've been working in this industry for a decade or a week, on staff or freelance, we represent YOU.

SPD turns 50 in 2015. This year we will plan a celebration of SPD's legacy, and of a great chapter in the history of publication design. Please give me your thoughts on how we can truly commemorate the great designers, photographers, illustrators, editors, and work that has been done in the last half century.

So, here's what you have to do: if you haven't yet, JOIN SPD. TODAY.
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2012: A Note from SPD President Neil Jamieson

2012: A Note from SPD President Neil Jamieson

llustration for SPD by SHOUT


2012: The year the designer got busy....really busy! 

Ah the year-end wrap up...the final word on the year that was. The note that summarizes where we've been as a society and where we're headed...Well I can certainly talk about the "where we've been" part...but as for "where we're headed"? Well I don't know about you guys but I'm headed to the holiday party on Thursday night and will take it from there!


2012 was a complicated year for our community, it was one of great opportunity both digitally and in print. We saw some extraordinary redesigns and mile-stone editions, we welcomed back Best Life, saw the biggest ever issue of InStyle, the return (in part) of lux ad dollars and the launch issue of Howler magazine (okay that last one was for me!). Sadly this year though we also saw Newsweek go all digital and Newscorp's great digital experiment The Daily just...go. 
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Looking Back, Moving Forward

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Looking back, 2011 was a big year. Amongst the defining events this year were the Earthquake in Japan, Arab Spring, The Royal Wedding, Osama bin Laden's Death, Oprah's last show, the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, Occupy Wall Street, the passing of Steve Jobs. Events we closely followed and covered.

For The Society, we saw good things: A jam-packed Gala, our debut iPad app, a thriving Student community, exciting Speaker Series, and more. Industry-wide, we saw exciting magazine redesigns and launches; Exploration and wider roll-out of tablet apps; Stunning design, photography and illustration work (more on that in a moment). In addition, at the end of this year, our Executive Director, the indefatigable Emily Smith is leaving SPD. We will miss her sorely. Personally, I have been very lucky to work closely with Emily over the years, and I will miss her grace and dignity and wish her the best on her new endeavors.

illustration by Felix Sockwell
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A Note from SPD

A Note from SPD

Dear SPD Community,

Yesterday I sent this to all the members of SPD, and I wanted to share it with you here too.
 
Although it doesn't seem as though three years have passed, the time has come to bid farewell as President of the Board of Directors. I'm grateful to the entire Board for working together to make SPD the leading community support in our industry. Thanks to the Board's hard work and collaborative efforts, there are quite a number of accomplishments over the past year:
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Seasons Change

Seasons Change

The sun is out but there's a distinct chill in the air. Fall is upon us and given the heartbreaking news out of Condé 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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« July 2013