SPD GUEST EDITOR: December 2014 Archives

"An Extraordinary Collision Between P.G. Wodehouse and Spinal Tap"

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

This is my last post of the week; it's been great fun and I hope you've enjoyed it, so if you'll indulge me, here's a story about some of my own Back Pages.

In the late 80's and early 90's Q Magazine was the biggest music magazine in the UK. It's success led directly to the launch of Mojo, still going strong, but Q is now sadly a shadow of its' former self. It fell victim to changing habits as well a lack of focus on the reader and their aspirations.

But at launch, if tone is everything, then Q Magazine had it all. Created to give the regular Englishman an alternative to the tribal rock press of the day, it became a publishing phenomenon within its first year. Bitingly funny, beautifully written and with a presentation to match, the brand gave English readers in particular a sense of identity that few contemporary music magazines have equaled. It won innumerable awards, sold by the bucketload and made the careers of many of its contributors.

I drew the Q, designed the first 29 issues, and over the next 10 years designed 30-odd more covers along with several major redesigns.

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Is Your Content Going Down the Toilet? Here Are Three Things You Can Do About It

Is Your Content Going Down the Toilet? Here Are Three Things You Can Do About It

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

Crap. That's the word that begins content marketing agency Velocity's slideshare, now downloaded over half a million times. Their argument is that so much content is now being produced by marketers, social media agencies, production companies and PR's that it's inevitable we're all going to drown in a flood of content that's just plain rubbish. (Brilliantly skewered by Clickhole, logo above.)

It's a good looking dek, but at the end, when I was expecting there to be an antidote to this tide of garbage swilling around my ankles, I discovered that their answer was... "Raise your game."

So what does this platitude actually mean? It's an important question, because unless we work it out, trust in journalism, publishing and the brands we serve will just melt away. And without trust we have nothing.

Storytelling may be the basis of human experience, but it means diddly-squit if the source is untrustworthy.

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How Media Brands Explain Who We Are, and More Importantly, Who We Want to Be

How Media Brands Explain Who We Are, and More Importantly, Who We Want to Be

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

Last weekend I witnessed a couple of friends in London discussing the nature of their relationship by which shelter title they preferred. For the record, Richard was Elle Deco, Annie was Living Etc. Whatever you may think, both these brands are so well drawn that readers can use them as a shorthand to express deep seated feelings that otherwise might take weeks to uncover.

This exchange goes to the heart of the modern media conundrum. More so than ever before, the content is nothing compared to the point of view that surrounds it. Values, beliefs and tone of voice are the things that a reader values, and is prepared to pay for.

Living Etc and Elle Deco's content is different, but only by degree. Many of the houses and ideas in one title could appear in the other, the key is the code used to present them.


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How Do You Compete With a Billion Dollar Logo?

How Do You Compete With a Billion Dollar Logo?

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

Buzzfeed
is now considered one of the world's most innovative news organizations. It's value is currently over $1b, getting close to the likes of The New York Times ($1.28b), and dwarfing other digital news sites. So it's no surprise that more start-ups want a slice of the pie.

American news site Vox is early out of the blocks, launched just three months after founder Ezra Klein left the Washington Post. He claims that Vox will "Explain the world" but the site is already creating a stir, as evidenced by this rant from a senior Facebook executive complaining that "Someone should fix this shit."

He was referring to Vox's story about how you should "Wash your jeans instead of freezing them," with the complaint was that they were not delivering  "A new home for serious journalism in a format that felt Internet-native."

When it comes to content, you have to make your intentions very clear. Which is why design is central to a users understanding of what to expect. Can Vox persuade readers that it's a real heavyweight political commentator? Can Buzzfeed change horses midstream and let us believe that they too should be taken seriously?

In short, what does the design of these two sites say about trust?


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The Genius That Is Carla Frank

The Genius That Is Carla Frank

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

I have only ever subscribed to three magazines in my life. When I was eleven it was Military Modeling because I couldn't get in my village newsagent. Now it's The New Yorker, but for many years it was O, the Oprah Magazine, because I just loved the design.

Carla Frank was the launch creative director, and remained on the title for ten years, during which she produced some of the greatest and most moving editorial design I've ever seen.

oprah-joy-cover.pngAfter she left Oprah, Carla spent time on Cooking Light, but not so long ago she upped and went off to Italy, becoming the Creative Director of Italian Glamour for six issues. And what a stunning job she made of it. If you look at her site today it looks and feels completely reinvented.


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Type Size Is Your Friend

Type Size Is Your Friend

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

Most people never read more than 25% of even their favourite magazine. However, many editors are totally blind to this fact, insisting on getting every single word of their deathless prose wedged into the page. Invoking higher authority, this often produces nothing more than a sophisticated internal memo that no one will ever read.

As designers, we're culpable in this, as it's we who set the size of the type in the first place. Not only that, many designers seem to think that readers have 20/20 vision, and are perfectly willing to read large tracts of text across super wide columns in sizes that would strain the eyesight of fighter pilots.

Among many other reasons, this is a reason why I love The New Yorker so much.  Their text is beautifully set, 10/12, I believe, across the correct measure and with perfect kerning.

(Image courtesy Streets of Salem)



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Insanely Beautiful

Insanely Beautiful

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

Whilst on vacation in NYC this summer I met with Time Out's sparkling new editor Terri White and her top notch new art director Chris Deacon. And like many media expats before we gathered at the Ear Inn on Spring Street to drink Mexican beer and gossip about our friends in the media.

Which was all great fun, but for a while we were sorely distracted by a copy of The Wall Street Journal's magazine, WSJ., which I had been "loaned" earlier that day by Christos Hannides, the Creative Director of Ink Global Media's Rhapsody and Hemispheres.

Dear God what a beautiful magazine this is. Page after page of effortless class. Amazing photography, perfectly judged layout, and top-notch writing. It's completely old school, large format, black and white images to the fore, resolutely not glossy. The WSJ. creative team includes Magnus Berger, creative director; Pierre Tardif, design director; and Jennifer Pastore, photography director.

You've got great taste Christos. And you're not getting it back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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"Elitist, Narrow-minded, and With An Aesthetic Corridor No Wider Than My Middle Finger"
Possibly the Best Airline Magazine in the World
Possibly the Best Airline Magazine in the World

Possibly the Best Airline Magazine in the World

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

I'm currently consulting with Ink Global Media, the world's largest publisher of airline magazines. My own projects for them are still in the mixer, but we'll do well to get halfway close to N, the magazine Ink produces for the smart, increasingly global carrier Norwegian Airlines.

N was narrowly robbed of the UK's top publishing award this year, coming second to Slimming World at the PPA Award for Customer Magazine of the Year although it did win Launch of the Year in the BSMEs (British Society of Magazine Editors Awards) in 2013. But such is the consistency of quality; I can't see it being overlooked in 2015.

N-stinking fish-thumb-550x690-22365.jpg

Art director Rickard Westin has built a modern, easy-to-read but visually distinctive template that carries some pretty powerful journalism. Together with editor Toby Skinner and deputy editor Mandy Keighran they've published a ton of world-class covers, along with a bunch of smart, clever ideas.
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"Elitist, Narrow-minded, And With An Aesthetic Corridor No Wider Than My Middle Finger"

NEWCOWLESSIGNER.jpgBy Andy Cowles
andycowles.com

These were my considered reasons for not joining the Society of Publication Designers when I first moved to New York. Clearly this was the mindset of a post-punk tabloid-esque European Idiot; when I finally joined a year later I discovered just what a fine resource the SPD really is.

Apart from the world-class work skillfully documented in the SPD annuals, the biggest gift is the community of like-minded souls. It sounds cheesy, but to an Englishman this is another representation of America at its best. The industry here is big enough and inclusive enough to make a group like this work, with it apparently running on nothing more than pure passion, iron resolve and an acceptable level of self-interest.

Editorial design has changed. In fact it's changed so far and so fast that none of us really know what we're meant to be doing anymore. Are we now selling ads, managing reader feedback, incorporating native, generating commercial content, or just becoming the primary brand champion?

(Image via Jim Marshall Photography)

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