Inspirations: Covers I Love

I am in love with this cover design. Maybe I'm just a sucker for using typography as a shape...go Ms.

Hey! I like Sunset Photos....

Canon is having their annual "Photography in the Parks" contest and this year's theme is 'inspirational nature images'

UnBeige, of course, makes the connection between this theme and the most photographed image there is: the Sunset.

My favorite quote:

According to a national study, 92% of vacation photos consist of at least three pictures of sunsets.

And speaking of, here's my entry:

Yeah, that's a nice Birmingham Skyline. So what if I used Photoshop to enhance the shadows, that color is 85% real baby.

Actually I did that just to get this image out of it for my work desktop:

Now I went to a News Design Conference in Orlando a few years ago and this speaker said any filter in Photoshop should be outlawed because you're not really doing any work. True, I could have meticulously traced the photo in Illustrator and drawn it myself, but this took 5 minutes! Artists are getting all up in arms about the 'masses' being able to compete with their techniques --same with amateurs thinking they need a digital SLR camera for their snapshots...but the hard truth is that photography--and now illustration--is a high percentage of luck. Being in the right place at the right time. Anyone can do it. Let the protest begin.

Deziginer Words of Wisdom: the Mock-up

The Mock-Up.

I've been there. And so has some poor soul who thought he/she'd get a totally awesome clip by designing the new Weezer cover album:

From Vulture:

"Yes, that's absolutely the cover. It's what they chose. They looked at a bunch of mockups, and that's the one they decided to go with. It's not a joke." —Weezer publicist Jim Merlis on the newly released cover of the band's upcoming album [MTV]

Deziginer Words of Wisdom #1: Never let anyone see anything you couldn't accept as a final product. I know about it. My coworker knows about it. The Weezer album designer now knows about it.

Honestly I could make a better cutout than that...

Personal Update: A meditation on warts?

What better way to start than with my weekly horoscope:
Weekly Horoscope
Lewis Thomas was a physician who wrote elegantly about biology in books like The Lives of a Cell. I want to bring your attention to his meditation on warts. "Nothing in the body has so much the look of toughness and permanence as a wart," he wrote. And yet "they can be made to go away by something that can only be called thinking . . . Warts can be ordered off the skin by hypnotic suggestion." (tinyurl.com/3clzc5) Thomas regarded this phenomenon as "absolutely astonishing, more of a surprise than cloning or recombinant DNA." According to my astrological reckoning, Cancerian, you currently have a comparable marvel at your disposal. Using the power of your mind, you can shrink, dissolve, or banish a wart-like vexation.

Man I really can't get enough of this guy. I wonder what kind of drugs he must be taking.

Job Application Update
This past week I applied for 4 jobs and heard back from one more. One was in DC, one was in LA, and the other two were New York based.

I heard back from the government job* by means of a letter telling me when to expect to hear back. That's what I love about the government: full disclosure. I know they will take a month to go through applications and move people to the next level. Every hears back when they've found someone. Yet another way to make me feel less like a insignificant resume in a pile of applications....love it.

Goal for the Next Week
Two more applications, one homemade dinner and a successful first trip to New Orleans for JazzFest! I wonder if Billy Joel is gonna rock as much as I think he will....

Oprah's New Cover Design

[WWD.com]

This is the June Cover for Oprah....what do you think? You can view her cover archive here to see her previous designs.

Just off the top of my head, I think her old designs were a little too 90s looking--there was always a lot going on in the image because decorations seems to be the easiest way to solve the ever-challenging problem of How do you keep a cover fresh when you have to have the same person on the cover each month?

My personal favorite from the past issues was this past April that had Oprah sitting in a field of lavender. Loved the color, and the outdoor quality of the photo.

The new design is interesting, but it's hard to tell where they are going with it. Are they planning on using white space more? Colored sell lines? I'm all for simplifying the covers, but not sure how that translates month-t0-month. We'll have to wait and see.

How Awesome Is This?

A three-tiered book jacket, of course related to McSweeney's material. I think I like the X underneath the cover the most.

Designing book covers is up there as my number two Dream Job. Number One? Museum Designer*.




* fingers crossed on that application

Guidelines? We Don't Need No Stinking Guidelines

So the magazine editors are considering throwing down the gauntlet and producing guidelines for magazine covers.

Now while some would say the Photoshopping has gotten out of hand....

***JUST-CAME-TO-ME INTERRUPTION: do you realize we use the term 'photoshopping' so much that come a few years, Adobe might be facing the same problem Xeroxx and Asprin have? I guess the term is 'photo correcting' but honestly***

anyway, where was I? Right. Guidelines. It's a dumb idea.

I have always been of the mindset the cover is an advertising tool for the magazine. It's what sells the issue on the newsstand and you have to present something there that convinces readers to pick it up. Will a Barbie-esque Drew Barrymore do that? Not necessarily for me, but perhaps it does for someone else. When it all comes down to it, the editors aren't using photoshopping as an advertising tool and the editorial/advertising balance is the main reason for ASME's existence.

Second, the magazines aren't using it as a way to 'fudge' a story's effectiveness (mostly). Now, if the magazine is using the photoshopping to say, enhance an editorial story about losing weight--that's a problem.


Also, is it just me, or did Marie Claire make Tina Fey look ancient? What is with magazines screwing with natural beauty? Now THAT'S a guideline that should be put in place...

Personal Update: Who needs love when you have a piano?

Most Memorable Movie This Week: Once
Never has a piano affected me so much. I think this movie shows that the music---or the creative output---that is produced by love is more important than the emotions themselves. Well, maybe not, but the act of love is something private and personal, and to share that with others you need to translate it to something else---i.e. love songs.

Reminds me of Dan in Real Life, which I saw two weeks ago. There was a quote "Love isn't an emotion, it's an ability" Love can't last without someone's ability to nurture it and transforming it into creative music or poetry or art can help remind you of your feelings and prevent them from slipping away.

And now for something completely different
A tornado came through my area on Friday and I lost power for 8 hours. My car being trapped in the garage, once it went dark I proceeded to amuse myself with candle wax and text messaging. How did people get on in the middle ages.

Freelance Update
Turned in drafts to both my logo freelance projects this week, as planned. Yay for completion....even if its months later. Just goes to show why you should pay someone for their work--it gives you the authority to set deadlines. Will post the finals when they're ready--I want to show them off at the same time.

Project Runway: Lifetime's Coup

In case you haven't heard, Project Runway is being sent away to Christian Camp in hopes of curing itself of its dreaded Fierceness!

Not really. But Lifetime and Project Runway? That seems a little.....wrong? Not that I don't love Army Wives but there seems to be a disconnect. Lifetime wants you to get in touch with your emotions, while Project Runway wants to make fun of you for doing exactly that.

Here is what I'm talking about. A Lifetime Project Runway would include

More of this:

and less of this:

More of this:

and less of this:

More of this:

and less of this:

God, how could I have hated Santino so much! He very well could have been the pinnacle of the show's magnificence.

And just in case you think the move will make the show better, here's a lovely quote that I believe is very telling of where the show is headed with Bravo out of the picture:

Weinstein not only considered the per episode price to be a low-ball figure, according to sources, but also butted heads with network brass, including NBC chief Jeff Zucker, when he tried to make extra money through product placement deals. [NYP]

That's right. MORE product placements. Because that's what made this last season SOOO successful.

Mr. Magazine: Most Notable Launches, 2007

Mr. Magazine has come out with his top 30 launches of 2007, out of the 715 he counted as coming out during that year. Conde Nast's Portfolio gets the honors as the 'most notable' launch....maybe because it was the ONLY notable launch most mainstream people have heard about.

Largest Genre: Medicine/Science/Therapy (7 titles)
Everything from Aromatherapy Thymes (honestly?) to Medical Tourism (a free mag to the 50 million uninsured in the country....because that's an audience that screams 'i have the excess cash advertisers love')

Most Common Cycle: Quarterly
not surprising considering the the economy--starting as a quarterly gives you time to build up advertisers.

They're Really Onto Something Here: Everywhere
Readers upload their vacation images to the website and Everywhere prints their favorites. Their goal is for everyone to share their love of traveling...and the incorporation of a website allows for great reader interaction. This reminds me of a lecture I heard from National Geographic people....their largest web presence is through THOUSANDS readers submitting monthly snapshots for a chance to be the ONE picked that month. This is like Flickr, but what can make this work is having the photos in print: readers are suckers for thinking their famous, and a print magazine can deliver that in a way page views can't.

Best Title: Garden & Gun
Only in the South. From the description, this looks like another luxury regional title--only covering the general 'South' instead of just one city. It's target audience is men and women....risky. It's also nice to see Our Iowa on the list--a decidedly un-luxury regional mag. Good to see they still make those.

There's an Audience for this?!: Mob Candy
Yes. It's a magazine that is "Mob Candy is the perfect magazine for the aspiring mobster of the future". It looks like a Playboy type mag, but geared around.....mobsters? You'd think this magazine would pop up in the movies or cartoons...but in real life?

Proof Magazines are for All People:
You've got your tattoo magazine, Urban Ink, launching the same year as Thoroughbred Style, a publication for horse racing enthusiasts.

Local B-ham Shoutout: Victoria
Hoffman media produces the cutest regional magazines, my favorite among them being 'Tea Time' magazine. The company proves that if you know your audience, you can succeed in this business.

Someone Got their Mediums Confused: Artful Blogging
That's right. A print magazine for the online community. I'm sure this one will catch on faster than knee socks.

Why is there always a Pet Title on these lists: Wag
I'm convinced the 'pet' genre of magazine gets launched more any other and probably has the worst retention rate. Honestly, a magazine about dogs in VINEYARDS!

'Hip' Titles that have most likely closed already: Antenna and Bond
Antenna caters to men who like to shop---its description made me this 'Lucky..for men'....meanwhile Bond captures the 'urban/trendy/hipster' wedding market by launching as a luxury bridal magazine for people too cool for InStyle Weddings....don't they know all those trendy hipsters wouldn't be caught dead doing something as typical as a wedding, let alone getting married.

One More for Good Measure: Russia!

For Americans interested in internal Russian politics....

Anyone for Stripping in Church?

So my blog remains completely devoted to magazine and design critique, but it turns out my friends may actually have interest in my personal life. SO being that nobody blogs on weekends anyway, I'm going to start a weekly personal update for those personally interested in my life. Go crazy.

Weekly Horoscope
Cancer: In recent years there has been a rash of climbers shedding all their clothes on Mount Everest. A sherpa by the name of Lakpa Tharke claims the world's record for high-altitude nudity, having stood skyclad for three minutes at the 29,035-foot summit. Some Nepali authorities are seeking a ban on such displays, believing that it defiles the revered mountain. "How would Westerners feel about people stripping in church?" they ask. Not meaning any disrespect to them, I urge you, Cancerian, to make "in the buff on the holy mountaintop" your power metaphor of the week. Blend sacredness and nakedness in any way that appeals to your imagination, especially if it's in high places or make you high. [Free Will Astrology]


What I'm Designing
Still churning away at the Family Recipe Book, but now that's it's spring I really want to finish up all those outstanding Freelance projects.

Quote To Inspire
"She Did It the Hard Way" --Bette Davis would be 100 this week. That quote was on her gravestone. Reminds me when I was a precocious kid. My parents would be "DO you want to do this the hard way?" and my stubborn self answer back without missing a step. "YES"


Future Plans
Still have plans to move on to DC in the early summer. Apparently there is a dollar bus that goes from NYC to DC everyday...should be easier to get interviews when you get to NYC for a dollar...

Magazines of the Future....part two

This news item caught my attention earlier this week:

Avril Lavigne wants to try her hand at running a celebrity mag — but only if it's scandal-free. "I would make it completely positive," she told us after her sold-out show at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City. "There's so much negativity right now. I'd pick up the big stories, but they'd have to be positive." [Daily News]

And while it's funny to think of the Sk8r Boy singer acting as editor-in-chief, it does bring up my second prediction about magazines:


2. Celebrity [print] magazines will not be here in ten years.
All you have to do is look at what is happening to the newsweeklies to see celebrity print magazines are not long for this world. True, they have the financial resources to offer millions for celebrity baby pictures, but it's only a matter of time before online sites like TMZ edge them out.

Now you might say, "Hey chick, these are the most popular magazines out there!" but if you look at the trends, any magazine that delivers identical content online and can't keep up with that 24-hour news cycle is a dying breed. Examples being those news, entertainment and of course celebrity titles.

What will be the final knife in the back of these weeklies? Cell phones. Their life span should correspond directly with society's increasing willingness to text and surf the web on their phones, because what Britney's up to or what movie to go see this weekend are exactly the kind of in-the-moment, headline only stories that work well in cell phone form.

Magazines of the future....part one

Not really. I thought about it and realized Graydon Carter may not be entirely off the mark when thinking about the future of our profession. Some thoughts.

1. The magazine format will change in ten years, although I doubt it will be wide spread for another 25.....
Sure the environmental issues will lead some to stop wasting all the paper, but as the rain forests continue to suffer despite my fourth grade musical efforts at my elementary school (I believe I played a monkey) so will global warming.

What will lead to change? The fact my younger sister and her generation have been raised entirely on computers and eventually they will be the demographic that drives advertisers. And the potentially damaging detail magazines have failed to embrace?

Wide screen my friends.

Sure, it may look silly in print, but eventually when the medium changes to screens, magazines (and designers, really) are going to have to deal with the fact no one's computer screen looks like this:

Welcome to our esteemed profession, Borat

Since when is entertainment the same thing as journalism?

The 2006 hit, starring Cohen as a crass Kazakhstan journalist, can be deemed "newsworthy," defined in its most liberal and far-reaching terms, U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska said.

Oh wait. I forgot.

NYO: more from the Survey

Profile on Annie Leibovitz
Hey look! She's sold out!
(Hey look! That doesn't matter at all when it comes to selling cover images on the newsstand!)

So in middle school I subscribed to Vanity Fair because I loved Leibovitz's photography. But for some reason, it's become crystal clear over the years that lately, she's been phoning it in. It's my own little amusement to see new covers she creates (like Aprils' VF with Sara Silverman on the cover)

What's going on in Annie's mind:

hmmmm....we've got celebrities, but not 'real' celebrities....I mean these cnts are no George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio.....so i know! let's put them in costumes! YES! I'll go for whimsical! The light, whimsical comedy stylings of Sara Silverman.....and then I'll have my intern play with the levels until they seem even whiter that white because I'm a big racists and that's all I think about when i set up photo shoots.


That was fun, I should try being other people more often and see how much trouble I can get in....but back to the article. There were some pretty funny quotes throughout:

“The truth is, I thought I was doing journalism, but I really wasn’t,” Ms. Leibovitz told Powell’s Books in 1999. “When I started working for Rolling Stone, I became very interested in journalism and thought maybe that’s what I was doing, but it wasn’t true. What became important was to have a point of view.”

Glad to know journalists are completely blank slates without their own agendas.

Around the same time, she told The Times: “There’s a lot of things that have taken over over the years that weren’t there when I started. They need to sell the magazine. … The cover probably feels more like advertising than anything else.”

Sounds like SOMEONE read my masters thesis.....cash money.

And of course how could the article get away with NOT mentioning the lovely non-controversy that is the Vogue cover. (Please that's so last week...check my archives!)

And there was LeBron James, on the cover of this April’s Vogue, hustling both a ball and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen in either an unlikely conscious homage to 75-year-old imagery of King Kong or in just, say, a randomly discovered, formally pleasing, overly lit and magazine-friendly arrangement of the human figures that so happened to have been negotiated for cover placement and that, among all the shots taken, tested best among women of a certain age bracket that had been recently gathered in some horrible room with no exterior windows in a mall.

I have a feeling this comment is going to get a lot of slack from the other blogs. Let's break it down:

"Randomly discovered,"
Please. Leibovitz is all about stealing from archaic photographs.

"formally pleasing, overly lit and magazine-friendly arrangement of human figures"
Because an animal-like yell is oh-so-friendly and typical image to the UpperEastSiders wanting to discover if OvalSkirts are the new SkinnyJeans.

"...tested best among women of a certain age bracket that had beenrecently gathered in some horrible room with no exterior windows in a mall"
The day Anna Wintour does a focus group in a mall is the day magazines truly die.

NYO: First Annual Survey of Magazines

SO the New York Observer decided to devote a whole bunch of stories today on the magazine industry. Because you actually have work to do, here is a nice little summary so you can feel smart and in the loop about your profession:

Will Magazines Be Here 10 Years From Now?
NO!....says Graydon Carter, golden boy of Conde Nast---the company that:

said that it’s using its magazine’s Web sites as a way to boost subscriptions for its magazines.

Yeah. Cause that's the forward-thinking kind of insight that will naturally lead to Carter's vision of the future magazine:

In the next five years in Graydon Carter’s world, you’ll walk onto a plane, or a subway, or a soon-to-be-invented mode of transport, and you’ll tuck a little electronic book under your arm. Inside that little book, which will be very expensive at first but soon will cost $150, there’ll be a series of mylar “pages,” and there will be small buttons off to the side, and once you hit one of them, whoooosh, words and photos from Vanity Fair will suddenly appear.

Meanwhile, over at Wired, Chris Anderson apparently has been spending too much time with those old foagies in the newspaper industry:

In a decade time frame?” asked Chris Anderson, editor of Wired. “No. Technology adoption happens slowly. This is the editor of Wired telling you no. Obviously, newspapers are going to be changing dramatically over the next few years, but magazines are not newspapers. And I think magazines 10 years from now are going to look something like they do now.”

My summary: You really know newspapers are dead when their dead-medium debate has moved on to magazines...

New Yorker: Eustace Tilley Contest

So this is a little old, but I still think it's a fun idea so I'm posting anyway. The New Yorker held a contest inviting readers to create their own New Yorker cover featuring their iconic Eustace Tilley in the top hat and monocle. All the entires are posted on flicker for you to scroll through, I really got a kick out of seeing the varying degrees of creativity.

It's fun to see how people reinterpret the icon. You have those (like the one on the left) that took the general image and then did a small twist on the face or monocle.

Then you had the ones that drew an entirely original illustration, but inserted the icon somewhere in the drawing:

You have the call outs to New York life:

The jokes about those orange flags from Central Park...
(wasn't that 3 years ago? Who do they think they are David Letterman?)

And my personal favorite: The monkey!

The New Yorker picked their own winning entries, and of the five I've pulled because they either made me laugh or I liked the idea, two of them made the finals! I guess that means I have 40% the taste the New Yorker does....not too shabby, really...