A week of Wired! The Design Issue...Part 1

Last week Brandon Kavulla, CD of Wired US gave SPD.org a great little reel previewing their October Design Issue. Seems it was a hit and this week by popular demand Kavulla and his team have gone the extra mile to give us even more behind the scenes insight into how this landmark issue was put together...Brace yourself...for a week of Wired! 

Wired CD Brandon Kavulla: 

"One of the biggest challenges was the charge of putting a 3-D printer on the cover, which is basically a black box; the sexiest part being what this thing actually prints, not what it looks like alone. The idea came about to shoot Bre Pettis, owner of Makerbot and inventor of the printer, holding the device at his huge compound in Brooklyn. We brought regular and favorite contributor Joe Pugliese [..yep him again!- The eds.] on board for his second Wired cover. 

We also had Bre and his team create a custom logo for the cover (above), shot by James Wojcik."

Director of Photography Zana Woods:  

"We wanted to create a visual relationship between Bre and his 3D printer. This is his "baby", and something he's incredibly proud of. This passion resonated throughout the Makerbot offices; this is what we wanted to capture with the photography. Joe's gift is his ability to create a narrative with each image. He captured the passion and commitment of the team, allowing you a glimpse into their process."

Kavulla: It was critical to develop a style and typographic format for the package that would reference several aspects of design: graphic design, industrial design, digital design as well as architecture. The approach needed to be uniform but flexible enough that it could not only adapt to each layout but also make each opener unique and "custom" as a stand alone piece of design.

We didn't just want to type a word in the corner. 

Art Director Alice Cho began the studies: "We wanted to use interconnecting graphic elements that would feel structural to reference the dimensional design we were featuring. It was important to keep the elements basic and simple to keep the system modular and flexible."

Kavulla: While at Makerbot, Bre and his team were pulling out countless incredible 3-d printed items. Literally every day, they had something they had never done before. 

Makerbot's artist-in-residence Marius Watz had just that morning created "Polyblend" which they re-printed for us in orange plastic to create the flame-like sculpture that appears on the opener (above). It felt like something that was literally growing off the printed page. It also had a molecular or bacterial quality that spoke to the idea of creation; the birth of something new and revolutionary photographed beautifully by James Wojcik.