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Fast News for September 2, 2010

SPD MEDIA MIX is our regular list of publication design, digital, and media news and updates. Please send your links and news items to SPD at mail@spd.org and we'll add them to the Mix.

>> Bon Appetit design director Matthew Lenning has left the magazine and is moving to Austin to start his own studio....

>> Katherine Van Itallie is the new art director at Redbook...

>> GQ art director Anton Ioukhnovets is leaving to freelance...

>> Kate Elazegui has left her position as design director of Money magazine to become creative director at SYPartners, a design/strategy/innovation firm....

>> Jennifer Miller is the new photography editor at New York magazine. She was previously photography director at Cosmopolitan...

>> Paste magazine, the indie music publication based in Georgia, announced on September 1 that it's ceasing publication...

>> Apple announced that iOS 4.2 will be released in November, finally bringing iOS 4.x support to the iPad. The free update will include multitasking, wireless printing as well as a new feature called AirPlay, which replaces AirTunes. AirPlay will offer streaming of video, music, and photos.

Covers

09.01.10posted by
Robert Newman

The First Mother Jones Cover, Illustrated by Dugald Stermer

In a recent interview on the SPD site, Mother Jones creative director Tim J. Luddy referenced the first cover of the magazine, in 1976, as an influence on his current work. We asked Luddy for a copy of that cover, illustrated by Dugald Stermer, and he responded with that one and two more from Mother Jones's first year of publishing. Here's what Luddy has to say about them:

Tim J. Luddy: Dugald Stermer, who was listed as a consultant on the Mother Jones masthead through the August 1976 issue of the magazine, illustrated three of our covers that year. The February/march 1976 issue, our first, featured a racially-integrated version of the Archibald M. Willard painting, "Spirit of '76." He got all Renaissande on us for our "June MCMLXXVI" issue, for a story on "The New Conservatives." This cover was based on a portrait od Count Tommaso Inghirami by Raphael. And to illustrate our July 1976 story, which was critical of Jerry Brown's new politics, Stermer painted a portrait of Brown on canvas and slashed open its center, revealing a portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower behind it. The styles of these three covers, and even the signatures on each one, show a remarkable stylistic range. Regarding that, Stermer says, "Obviously I was still trying to find myself as an illustrator, after long careers as a graphic designer and magazine editor/art director." Mother Jones's art director at this time was Louise Kollenbaum.

Read 3 Questions with Tim J. Luddy of Mother Jones here.

News

08.31.10posted by
Robert Newman

Fast news for August 31, 2010

SPD MEDIA MIX is our regular collection of publication design, digital, and media news updates. Please send your links and news items to SPD at mail@spd.org and we'll add them to the Mix.

>> Gourmet brand to return to print--as a series of special newsstand-only issues. Gourmet Quick Kitchen hits newsstands September 7...

>> Sarah Vinas has been promoted to art director at Glamour. She takes the place of Theresa Griggs, who moved over to become design director at Women's Health....

>> Time magazine's editor Rick Stengel is "the last man standing." How Time won the newsweekly wars....

>> R.I.P. British fashion photographer Corinne Day (via Magculture.com) ...

Respect

08.31.10posted by
Robert Newman

Essence 40th Anniversary Cover Mosaic

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first issue of Essence magazine, which was published in May 1970. In honor of that first issue, Mosaic Legends has recreated that first cover, featuring model Barbara Cheeseborough, in mosaic form, using all 496 covers of Essence.

Technology

08.30.10posted by
Josh Klenert

Dueling Covers on the iPad

No matter how you tilt the iPad, as publication designers, the workload has increased. When it comes to covers, back in the old days (8 months ago) you "only" had to ship a newsstand and subscriber cover. Nowadays, add a portrait and landscape iPad cover to the mix.

A blessing or a curse? Looking at the August cover of WIRED, they took the opportunity to use an alternative photo of time traveling Will Ferrell. For the September issue, they took this one step further and used the ole "we love them both" approach: "The Web is dead." covers the print and portrait cover, while Joel McHale & "How to Watch TV" grace the landscape mode.

Wired Creative Director, Scott Dadich weighs in:

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Working in Europe

08.29.10posted by
Robert Newman

Keith Campbell Sends a Postcard from Germany...

One of our favorite art directors, Keith Campbell, recently wrote us an update on his activities in Hamburg, Germany, where's he's been living and working since June 2006. Keith has been immersed in the world of German tabloid magazines, designing a series of titles that are jammed with color, photos, and type--think Us, Star, People, All You, etc. on mega-design steroids, with lots of photos of Heidi Klum. The covers are crazy, noisy, and chaotic, but also brilliant in their execution. We love what he's doing, even if it does hurt our eyes!

Keith Campbell: One of the best emails I ever received went like this: "Meet me in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday, April 4 at 1pm for lunch!" It read like some kind of cryptic cold war directive from a sexy Russian operative. Alas, it was an invite from Marc Werthmann, editor of the then-recently launched In Touch Germany. He was on the lookout for a new art director and had gotten my name from In Touch USA's creative director Audrey Razgaitis on one of their fact-finding missions to Bauer Publishing's Englewood Cliffs, NJ offices.
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Covers

08.26.10posted by
Robert Newman

ASME announces best magazine cover contest finalists!

The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has announced the finalists for the annual 2010 Best Magazine Cover contest. There are six finalists in 12 categories. Winners will be selected by voters on Amazon.com; voting begins September 1, so be sure to vote for your favorites! Congratulations to all the finalists.

Pictured above are four groups of finalists. Row 1: Sexiest; Row 2: Entertainment and Celebrity; Row 3: Fashion and Beauty; Row 4: House and Home.

News

08.26.10posted by
Robert Newman