Recently in RIP Category

The Village Voice: An Art Directors' History

Pictured above is the final cover of the final print edition of The Village Voice, which hits the streets on September 20. Photograph by Fred W. McDarrah, art director: Ashley Smestad Vélez.

Since its founding in 1955 The Voice provided a venue for a wide array of visual voices to speak--photographers, illustrators, cartoonists, artists, and designers who were given space and room to grow and connect with a larger community. The Voice visual aesthetic not only went on to influence newspaper design--both daily and weekly--but also mainstream magazine design. Former Voice art directors went on to direct the visual directions of Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Saveur, Real Simple, Details, Vibe, Fast Company, Wired, Fortune, Lucky, Mother Jones, and many more.… MORE

Gym Class Magazine's Final Issue with Founder, Steven Gregor

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The End of mental_floss magazine with Art Director, Lucy Quintanilla

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Remembering Art Director Frank Zachary, by Norman Hotz

[Editor's Note]: Legendary magazine editor and art director Frank Zachary passed away on June 12 at the age of 101. Zachary was the art director, photography director, and managing editor of Holiday, the beautiful, stylish 1950s-early 60s travel magazine. He later worked as art director of Travel & Leisure and editor of Town and Country. In 1987 Zachary was honored with the SPD Herb Lubalin Award "to acknowledge continuing excellence in publication design."

Zachary's deputy art director in the early 1970s at Travel & Leisure was Norman Hotz. After a year at the magazine, Zachary left to become editor of Town and Country, and Hotz took over as art director. Hotz's award-winning stint at T&L was followed by a distinguised career redesigning and art directing numerous other magazines, and he continues as a consulting art director for cartoons at Reader's Digest. 

Hotz shared with SPD his memories of working with Zachary at Travel & Leisure. We also have a never-before collected set of all 10 of Zachary's Travel & Leisure covers.

This is the first part of a two-part remembrance by Hotz of his years at T&L. Stay tuned for part two in the near future. The interviews with Hotz were compiled and edited by Linda Rubes.

(Above): Travel & Leisure, June-July 1971. Art director: Frank Zachary, illustration: George Giusti.
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Joseph Farris, noted New Yorker cartoonist, dies at 90

Joe Farris, whose cartoons were published in The New Yorker for 57 years, passed away yesterday at his home in Connecticut. He was most known for his 70's-inspired drawing style, and he was a part of a circle of noted Connecticut cartoonists and artists who also contributed to The New Yorker.… MORE

Mitch Shostak, 1950-2014

One of our community's greatest friends and supporters has left us too soon. Mitch Shostak passed away on June 25; he was 63.

Mitch was an art director for American Express, IBM, Money, The New York Times, People, BusinessWeek, Scholastic, and Sports Illustrated. He moved to San Francisco in 1991 to work as art director of PC World. In 1993 Mitch returned to New York City and established Shostak Studios, where he created the visual direction of countless magazines.

Mitch served on the Board of Directors of SPD and was a great advisor and friend to many in our community. We'll have a full appreciation here in the near future.

RIP, GreenSource

"A few weeks ago, I got the word that McGraw-Hill was folding GreenSource, a trade magazine that covers sustainable architectural design, building, and global green issues. For the last 6 years, GreenSource has been "the little magazine that could," with a reach far beyond its small circulation, recognized for the depth of information it gave architects, for its design, and for the illustrations commissioned for every issue.  … MORE

J.C. Suares (1942-2013)

Long-time designer and illustrator J.C. Suares has passed away at the age of 71.… MORE

PCWorld to Fold its Print Publication

Its the end of an era. After 30 years in print, IDG announced today that they would cease publishing a print edition of PC World in the U.S. to go for a digital-only strategy.… MORE

News Corp Shutting Down "The Daily" iPad Publication

News Corp. is ending its "bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation" and shutting down The Daily -- launched only back in February of 2011.

"As part of a digital restructuring initiative, the company will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012, though the brand will live on in other channels. Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post."

The last issue of The Daily will publish on December 15th.

Maurice Sendak Remembered

When Don Morris Design was producing issues of Nick Jr. Magazine, Editor in Chief Freddi Greenberg hired author Else Holmelund Minarik to create a story called "Little Bear's New Friend," the first new addition to the beloved Little Bear children's book series in over 30 years. Freddi really wanted Maurice Sendak to illustrate the story, reuniting the author and illustrator that created Little Bear. And she decided I was the best person to approach Maurice, who was noted for not doing commissions and not working in magazines. … MORE

Nick Dewar, 1973-2010

We received the very sad news today that noted illustrator Nick Dewar passed away. He was an amazing talent who worked with so many SPD members. His wonderfully brilliant illustrations and strong spirit and creative genius will be missed.

Nick Dewar--what a lovely man and dedicated friend. I can't believe he is gone in body but never, ever, ever in spirit. They surely threw away the mold when they made Nick. Those of us who were lucky to know him will have a void in our lives forever. Nick is survived by his wife, Sri.

A small family service will be held in Newport Beach later this week. A memorial service will be held in New York at a later date. Contributions can be made in Nick's name to radio station WFMU New Jersey.

The tasty brilliance of Cookie magazine

Children's/parents magazine Cookie debuted in November 2005, and left the Earth in October
2009. In that four-year run they established a look that was both playful and elegant, funky and chic, with tightly-refined typography and state-of-the-art illustration and photography. Design director Kirby Rodriguez and his art and photo crew were high-level smart in their approach to magazine-making.… MORE

RIP: I.D. Magazine Folds

Fast Company has the story: I.D. Magazine is closing after 55 years. Very sad news. Read more here.

(Photo above courtesy Fast Company.)

Met Home's Final Issue

Earlier this week, despite reports that the shelter category is rebounding, Hachette shuttered Metropolitan Home. Here we take a look at some of the work from the now-final December 2009 issue... … MORE

RIP: Metropolitan Home

Folio: and the Times' Media Decoder blog reported this afternoon that Hachette is shuttering shelter title Metropolitan Home (and presumably the @MetHome twitter account), to focus resources on company mag Elle Décor. Staffers at MH have confirmed the sad news; December's issue is the last.

Say It Ain't So: Condé Closes Four Magazines

Daily Intel, Gawker and Folio: are reporting that Condé 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...

George Pitts: Notes On Vibe Magazine

As news swept around last week, in e-mails and trending Twitter topics, that Hip Hop bible Vibe would be the latest magazine to close its doors, the response was felt deeply throughout the SPD community. As many wrote to us to point out, the obit for Vibe written by David Carr of The New York Times was a thoughtful and generous reflection, but said too little about the creative teams who have worked to elevate Hip Hop and the specific culture Vibe both reflected, and created. We asked George Pitts, Vibe's founding Photography Director, for his thoughts about Vibe's place in our collective history, and are honored to share those here:

In what was an unprecedented week of devastating losses to our culture, including the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and the great visionary choreographer Pina Bausch, it was also the week that Vibe magazine folded. The close of Vibe is obviously an event of great personal impact for me, as its first Photography Director, and I've received enough notices from well-wishers to understand that the magazine meant a lot of things to a diverse community of readers.

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GK Investigation > > > Clips finally released to SPD

***N*E*W*S*  *R*E*L*E*A*S*E***

After many months of negotiation, and many months of fine tuning the details, the undercover magazine industry investigation group known as GKI, or GK Investigation, is finally able to release numerous clips to the Society of Publication Design, SPD, for use on their blog.
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RIP: Portfolio

Sad news this morning, Condé Nast is closing Portfolio. From Jeff Bercovici's Mixed Media blog for the Portfolio website:

Our editor in chief, Joanne Lipman, just broke the news to staff, saying the decision had been made "because of financial reasons at Advance," Condé Nast's parent company. "It's not anything that the company wanted to do." She said she was informed by Condé Nast chairman S.I. Newhouse Jr. this morning of the decision.

The judges at SPD certainly liked what they saw from this short-lived book, as well as the ASME judges who awarded its "Briefs" section with a National Magazine Award in 2008. Check out some of the awards for Portfolio from last year here, and some of their Medal Finalists for this year here.

RIP: Blender

This is not the way we like to spend our Thursday mornings, Universe: Ad Age has the news that music mag Blender has closed. The current issue, with Kelly Clarkson on the cover, will be the last.

Makes our Q&A about the SPD PUB 44 Medal-finalist redesign last fall with Blender CD Dirk Barnett all the more bittersweet.

RIP: Best Life

Word is rippling around, but we've seen the "official" press release, and are sad to report that much-loved Best Life (just recently seen around these parts in NEW WORK) has been shuttered. More as we hear it.

Arena to Close Its Doors

More glum news for our friends across the pond.

As you might have heard, Arena has suspended publication after 22 years.

The final edition goes on sale next week, featuring an interview with The House Bunny's comic bombshell Anna Faris, an exclusive face-to-face encounter with Mike Tyson, a portfolio of the most stunning indie music girls and a report on the rise of the 'new amateur entrepreneurs'.

There's a celebration of '80s cars, profiles of Watchmen star Matthew Goode and maverick surfing legend Greg Long, and the return of Flight Of The Conchords - plus Liverpool hero Jamie Carragher selects his 'First and Last'. There's also the usual pages of fashion and grooming, opinion, music and film reviews.

The April 2009 issue of Arena is on sale on 12 March.

The Last Domino

We hate it when the phone-tree is put into action this way, but the word spread yesterday like wildfire. Sad news again this week, this time for our friends at the Condé shelter title Domino; this coming March issue will be their last, and Friday, for most everyone, the final day in the office. Breaking with recent magazine-folding-tradition, even the website (and all our Deco Files! -- ES) will be going dark. In farewell, some of the recent work from the Domino team, including what will be the final cover of March 2009: Ines de la Fressange, photographed by Pascal Chevallier and designed by Stella Bugbee. A few more spreads after the jump...
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R.I.P. tDR

Sad news from across the pond: The Creative Review Blog is reporting that The Designers Republic is closing its doors after 23 years of groundbreaking work. Founder Ian Anderson blamed a number of factors, but noted a potential silver lining:

"I want to go back to what DR was," he says of future plans. "Working hands-on and not through account managers. I've never liked that agency model - it's not where creativity lies. DR accidentally ended up there in order to service bigger clients. I'm not being ungrateful to the people who ran the business side at DR - it wasn't their fault. I'm glad we did it - it took getting there to make me realise that it wasn't where I wanted to be."

RIP: Radar, Again -- and 02138?!?

We shouldn't be surprised (we shouldn't, right?) but we kinda believed the "we are open forever" bit: news from the Observer that recently redesigned Radar is closing, again, and will revamp, again, to position itself as a website. Again. Staffers were notified this morning, and are to have desks cleared-out by the end of the day.

And then, to make this gray Friday a little bleaker, word that also recently-revamped 02138 is shuttering as well. Daily Intel has the full report.

To-do for the weekend: buy some friends some drinks...


RELATED:  RIP: CosmoGIRL!

RIP: CosmoGIRL!

That exclamation point is theirs, not ours -- sad news from Hearst, via NYmag.com, that CosmoGIRL! is folding.