December 2008 Archives

Jason Eskenazi's Wonderland

Every so often, a body of work interrupts daily life and helps us see the poetry and pathos of living. Jason Eskenazi's recent book Wonderland: A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith is this catalyst.
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Throw A Dog A Bone

Beside this year's competition being a special one (new categories, eliminated circulation rule, free mag of the year entry,) and in lieu of our canine Best in Show theme, we're also giving back to the companion animal.
By submitting for one of our new categories (creature feature,) the entry fee will be donated to Bidewee.org, one of the oldest humane organizations in the United States. Download entry form here.
Read more about the organization after the jump … MORE

We are the world...

Oh, but PUB 44 is for your magazine.

As with my own experience meeting folks last month from the publishing industry in Denmark & Norway, and from all those amazing mags in the Berlin Shop of Heaven our SPD Pres Scott Dadich posted about, we see there's some fantastic work from all over the globe that can be rewarded and shown-off in the published annual, so keep note that this is an international competition. Download the entry form here!

Spotlight on 'The Big Picture' from Boston.com

MediaShift has done a profile of both The Big Picture and Alan Taylor, the web developer behind it, in Big Pictures Help Tell Big Stories at Boston.com.

It's worth a read and The Big Picture is definitely worth a look, especially the spectacular Year in Review: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.



PREVIOUSLY: Powerful Web Photojournalism

The Paper Principle

Earlier this year, I produced a panel on the effects that magazine production has on the environment; we looked at conventional methods of production and compared them with sustainable manufacturing. The panel covered the entire cycle, from the importance of understanding the source of your paper through to the end life of your magazine.  Throughout the night, the names of publications that use some percentage of recycled paper content were mentioned with collective pride.  These titles were doing it, printing on recycled paper!  We all seem to agree that virgin paper is a no no, but what we didn't have enough time to explore, is why recycled paper manufacturing is so amazing and why we should get excited about it.  I call this The Paper Principle.

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Weapon of Choice Assualt SPD 43 Annual

As the annuals are arriving on your desks like hotcakes, we thought it would be nice to hear from this year's design team, Weapon of Choice, a design firm created last year by Todd Albertson and Tom Brown. As Albertson describes:

Weapon of Choice is a design studio that is the culmination of two friends who have been collaborating for many years on various design projects with similar tastes and wanted to commit more time to that work and above all, have fun. The impetus for this came at a point where projects were becoming more laborsome and less creative so an outlet was needed. That outlet was making typefaces which was a process we were both doing and introducing into our work. Type as in big black geometrical shapes and abstract letterforms--one offs for specific projects. Not that there is a lack of great typefaces out there, but crafting ideas is what we both do and applying this process to type was a perfect match. Soon WoC opened up to include magazine redesign and consluting, again, things we both were already doing, but now on a platform that we can do together and push each other.

More after the jump about the Weapon of Choice design approach to the annual, as well as cover outtakes. Photographs by Fredrik Broden
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Get Ready to Win Big!

With more than 30 prizes to give away, this year's SPD holiday raffle promises to be bigger and better than ever before. There's something for everyone, including mega beauty bags, two tickets to the Colbert Report, The Complete Sopranos DVD Collection, signed posters from Carin Goldberg and Gail Anderson and a complete "GQ  Look". We will be giving away 10 raffle tickets to everyone at the door -- use them all on one item or take your chances by spreading them around. Good luck and see you tomorrow!

NEW Categories!? MORE Categories!? WHAT?

Here's the deal with this year's bow-wow competition 44: No more circulation categories, but focus on content. Shazaam. Like goes with like, and the unsung (non-celebrity work, service, etc.) are DEFINITELY getting a medal at the Gala. Whaaat!?! Yeah, no joke. It's time to keep the groups together, like pooches at the Westminster Dog Show. Download the entry form here.

(Photo courtesy of Hulton Collective/Getty Images)

Thoughts on Democracy

By Leslie Dela Vega, Photo Editor, Time

I had arrived at the Miami Intl Airport at midnight on Dec 5th dreading the 3 mile walk from the gate to the taxi stand! I was already half asleep walking into complete humidity thinking NOTHING is going to wake me up for this, as I was trying to keep my head up, I turned slightly to my right and saw a poster that started out with FREEDOM OF SPEECH by Adam Dye. The treatment made it look as if you could just take those letters and peel them right off. (Let me give you a bit of background, I'm a photo editor. But I have always had a great love for type. I took a typography class in art school and collected all the Letrasets I could find when I was kid. All the old schoolers should know that those are.)
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Members and Friends: This is for YOU!

To all of our dedicated, fabulous, wonderful SPD members and friends, this holiday party is for you!

No need to RSVP, just come, celebrate and enjoy!

Wednesday, December 17th
7 to 9 PM
ROOM Studio
250 West Broadway at Sixth Ave, 5th Floor


...and bring your business cards to enter our annual Holiday Raffle! Good stuff to win!!
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Event Impact

We have a long way to go before producing a zero waste event, but here are some steps we took in organizing our LandSeaAir benefit auction on November 19th.  Keeping our event theme in mind, we wanted to make sure we created as little garbage as possible, while also throwing the best event we could and getting the biggest bang for the buck. One of the decisions we made was to serve drinks in biodegradable drinking cups.
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Bizarre and Beautiful...

...was my take on Art Basel Miami this year which I was lucky enough to attend, though I'm still getting used to the 60 degree temperature difference here. If you know nothing or a lot about art, go! Its a huge cross section of painting, sculpture, photography and performance from all around the globe. Like Ina... I heard German, British, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Italian and Japanese crowds milling about eclectic collections both famous and not...
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Modern Victore

We are very happy to announce that James Victore (yes, of SPD Speakeasy fame) has just had a selection of his posters chosen for inclusion in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Five of his pieces are included in the current and ongoing exhibition Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge.
We're sure it's just a coincidence that James gets in the MoMA mere weeks after his Speakeasy. Please.
Join us in congratulating James!

Noted Without Comment

Via Gawker. 

Hola/Greetings from Design Miami & Art Basel/Miami Beach!

The palm trees are wrapped with Christmas lights and Miami has been invaded by critics, dealers, collectors, aficionados and international social moths drawn to the flame of design/art. Art Basel/Miami Beach, itself a spinoff of the original art exposition in Basel, has spawned dozens of related expositions, including Design Miami, Scope, The Artists Fair, Art Asia, Photography Miami, Art Miami, and ArtPhotoExpo.

In addition to the Miami Convention Center, massive tents and innovative temporary structures have sprung up all over town, even in places as unlikely as under the I-95 highway overpass. Hotel lobbies and even entire motels are serving as art galleries. Basically all of Miami has been taken over: the Russians are here, along with the Chinese, the French, the Italians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, et al. It's been a flurry of events and parties (oh, how to choose?), capped last night by the Kate-Spade-designed reception at the Wolfsonian-FIU for the "Celebrate Democracy" exhibition (60 designers re-imagined Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms). Chip Kidd, looking especially dapper, agreed with me that the resulting posters should have been identified with the designers' names (but it was fun  trying to guess who designed which).

The constellation of parties and events has been the perfect opportunity to check out the brand new Mondrian Hotel, the Miami Standard, and the freshly redesigned Fontainebleu (which updates the original fabulous Maurice Lapidus design) and a chance to get away from cold, grey NYC. (It hasn't been all art and design...I confess: I spent a couple of hours on the tennis court and went salsa dancing on Lincoln Road...it IS Miami, after all.)

Today, a "Design Marathon:" 35 artists take the stage at the Wolfsonian for five minutes apiece to "express themselves." This event honors Dutch designer Wim Crouwel (whose work is also on exhibit at the Wolfsonian) and celebrates our right to freedom of expression.

It is impossible to see it all...wish you were here!

The Daily Beast: A Q&A

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Recession Special

We're all in need of some help these days.
Jobs, and magazines, are disappearing, and it's time to get serious about redefining what magazine people do. We'll all be better off if we're the ones in charge of our own destinies, and we're ready to get serious about it.

We've gotten a lot of questions at SPD HR about, as one of our favorite people wrote, "what to do when your magazine goes up in flames" -- and we're on it. We're collecting answers, we're finding people who know far better than us, and we're compiling resources & advice we plan to start posting next week.

But we want to know: what do YOU need right now? No question is too big or small, and no idea will be too crazy. Let us know in the comments, or shoot an e-mail to tips@spd.org.

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Lou Dorfsman: Remembering the Tiffany Network's Elegant Eye

Before it was called branding and contracted out to design firms that specialize in imagemaking on a global scale, there was the very cool job of corporate art director. Lou Dorfsman designed every aspect of CBS's image, from the sign system for the Eero Saarinen "Black Rock" headquarters to the ashtrays that sat on his set for Walter Cronkite. Having access to the deep pockets of CBS chairman William Paley and a partner in corporate style with Frank Stanton, president of CBS, Dorfsman created an elegant visual image for the network that was recognized for 40 years both in the home and in the boardroom.   … MORE

Best Holiday Gift Spot: Dashwood Books NYC

If you, like me, are looking for that special, unique gift for the hard-to-buy-for visual person in your life, then look no further than Dashwood Books at 33 Bond Street in New York City.… MORE

Best Book Covers of 2008

Joseph Sullivan over at the Book Design Review has a great post up today featuring some of the best book cover design of 2008. Friends of the Society factor prominently in said list, including jackets by Paul Sahre, Barbara de Wilde, and The Heads of State. Vote for your favorites at the bottom of the post. 

Famous People Get Hangnails Too!

Honestly, famous people don't excite me much.
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The Kids Today...

... are gonna be alright. And you know why? Because they've got fantastic teachers giving world-class advice, some of the best in the business opening their offices and telling it like it is about the way the work gets done, and now, just in time for the mad rush to spring portfolio reviews, an event JUST for students, and JUST to work on putting together the portfolio to land that dream internship (or, gasp, a job!).

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 2nd, 6:00PM.
FREE for all SPD Student Members!! (& if you're student, but not a member yet, sign-up there!)

Details & info here; you MUST RSVP to attend, but there's still time to do it!

PUB 44: Behind The Scenes

While your PUB 44 co-chairs Judith Puckett-Rinella and yours truly have been preparing all the details for the competition, I couldn't bear but document our Best in Show star Chrome during the photoshoot for the announcement poster (to be found in your mailbox this week.)
I have never met a pooch with more dash and obedience; so much that I had to stop myself from trying to mess up his perfected hair-do with the possibility of getting a mischievous reaction.

Check out the video after the jump of Chrome getting primped and primed to show us his stuff just as those tearsheet entries will be for the judging weekend in January...

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