December 2009 Archives

Time for a tiny format for newsweeklies

I've always been a fan of the format of 50s newsweekly. Quick, a digest-sized celebrity and fast news magazine that was published from 1949-1953. Quick was tiny in size, just 4 1/2 x 6 inches (considerably smaller than the Reader's Digest and Jet sizes of today), and it promoted the fact that readers could " carry it in your pocket or your purse...and read it wherever you are." Like the name says, articles were short and fast; it was a highly portable read. The cover designs started out with black and white photos and a single background color, but soon moved to full-color celebrity photo portraits. Quick always promoted itself as a "news weekly," and carried a mix of current events and a heavy dose of celebrity news and lifestyle updates.… MORE

Illustrator David Levine, R.I.P.

We just received the sad news that brilliant illustrator David Levine passed away at the age of 83. Most famous for his many illustrations of writers for The New York Review of Books, Levine was also part of the school of 60s illustrators who skewered LBJ, Nixon and others with wit and style. The New York Review of Books has a wonderful gallery of Levine's work here. And you can see a quick take on a handful of his greatest illustrations (LBJ, Nixon, Kissinger...) here.

Tips & Tricks: Preflight Takes Off in CS4

Now that we're in the last week of the decade, time is flying faster than ever, which makes today's tip especially helpful, because it's all about saving time by half:


More on this magical Live Preflight that finds errors as you're working and helps you fix them in half the time after the jump...
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The 20 Greatest Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time

A few months ago, Fortune Associate Art Director Linda Rubes suggested that we collaborate on an online posting that collected the best Christmas magazine covers of all time. She was inspired by looking through archives of classic Fortune covers of the 30s, when every December issue was a brilliant celebration of the holiday spirit. We dug through online archives and collections, bought magazines on eBay, solicited contributions from friends and colleagues, dug deep into our personal archives, and even contacted publishers directly for images (thanks Ms. magazine!). The final result, The 20 Greatest Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time, is now on display at the Mediaite site. The covers range from funny to provocative, beautiful and sensitive to in-your-face, and include examples from Fortune, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Jet, Playboy, GQ, and many more. They're all cool, and all a graphic reminder that magazine-making can be about making statements and connecting with readers on a personal, emotional level.… MORE

SPD Magazine of the Year: Who's the Rarest One of All?

Some rare specimens can be pinned, others mounted, and others still: stuffed. Our rarest specimen suffers none of these indignities. Ours is published. Ours is Magazine of the Year.
 
Entering Magazine of the Year is entirely FREE. Simply enter any other category and you're automatically entitled to present your gorgeous specimen (in the form of three issues) for analysis by a scholarly panel of esteemed academicians.
 
The first day of judging is entirely devoted to MoY. Every judge will see your submission and, like last year, only ONE magazine will be declared that rarest of rare: Magazine of the Year.

Show off your colors. Take this once-a-year opportunity to put a representative sample of your hard work and field research in front of the experts, your peers.

Download entry forms & submission specifications here. 

Tips & Tricks: Flash Catalyst, Game Changer

So far our Adobe tips have all come from that wonderland Adobe TV. If you haven't been over there yet, do some clicking and make your worklife much better.

Today, though, this isn't really a tip we're sharing: it's a game-changer. Adobe is beta testing Flash Catalyst, which lets you, the designer, create interactive content (websites, apps, everything you need to have in your professional creative portfolio these days) without writing code. Create it, and set it live. Without writing code. Your eyes aren't fooling you: you can do this yourself. Come with us after the jump and get ready to download the beta software. … MORE

A Wise Latina and the Color Red: Latina's Justice Sotomayor Cover

In 2009, Justice Sonia Sotomayor became an instant inspiration to Latinas in the United States.

She lost her father when she was 9, battled diabetes, and was raised by her mother in a public housing project. She eventually graduated with honors at Princeton University, received her J.D. from Yale Law School and embarked on a distinguished legal and judicial career. By the time she was nominated for the Supreme Court, Sotomayor had more federal judicial experience than any potential justice in 100 years, and more overall judicial experience than anyone confirmed to the court in the past 70 years. And that's the short story.

Here at Latina, we were honored to be granted the first photoshoot with the new justice in September. We all felt there was only one person for this assignment, and that was Platon, who graciously accepted. The story from the shoot after the jump... … MORE

Rolling Stone: The 00s

With a huge decade in the music/culture business to look back on, Rolling Stone created a cover that couldn't be more perfectly, well, Rolling Stone. We asked RS Art Director Joseph Hutchinson to tell us about the making-of: … MORE

'Tis the Reason RECAP!

hang o ver [hang-oh-ver]
-Noun
The disagreeable physical aftereffects of drunkenness, such as a headache or stomach disorder, usually felt several hours after cessation of drinking.
That pretty much sums up my morning after Tuesday night's SPD holiday bash. And what a bash it was: drinks, food, giveaways, awesome conversations, and my fav: dancing.
We'd like to thank all who donated the fantastic gifts to our raffle, Monterone Inc. catering and our very special liquor sponsors brought to us by Todd Weinberger: Bear Flag, Hendricks, Milagro, Reyka and Sailor Jerry. A big thank you to Linda Rubes for gathering the vintage holiday mag covers shown during the event.
Check out some of Antwan Duncan's captured moments (as well as a few of mine) here.

**VERY special thanks to the gorgeous Judith Puckett Rinella for being my partner in crime during raffle announcements!

The tasty brilliance of Cookie magazine

Children's/parents magazine Cookie debuted in November 2005, and left the Earth in October
2009. In that four-year run they established a look that was both playful and elegant, funky and chic, with tightly-refined typography and state-of-the-art illustration and photography. Design director Kirby Rodriguez and his art and photo crew were high-level smart in their approach to magazine-making.… MORE

Tablet Crystal Ball, Pt 3: Another Demo on Magazines Going to Tablets

Hot on the heels of the NYT's article yesterday about the Sports Illustrated and Wired solutions for magazines on the fabled Tablet, Bonnier (home to Popular Science, Field & Stream and others) introduced this video yesterday of what they're working on:

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

NYT: Magazines Get Ready For Tablets

Good piece today in the nytimes.com about Wired and Sports Illustrated taking the initiative -- both creatively and business wise -- by developing prototypes for the inevitable release of the Apple tablet. Check it out here.

Behind The New York Times Magazine's Redesign with DD Arem Duplessis

In June of this year, The New York Times unveiled a major redesign of their Sunday magazine, the first in almost a decade, and one of only a handful ever in its more than 100 years. Under the leadership of Design Director Arem Duplessis, a more lithe version of the magazine (smaller by about 9% in trim size) has been greeted with much appreciation around the design community for its subtle transitions of typography and color palette that exude new energy while staying true to the NYT Magazine everyone knows and loves (and obsesses about). Almost six months later, with enough issues printed to have some room to look back, we asked Rem to talk with SPD about the redesign process and the modern magazine business at the Times these days. His generous, detailed, honest reporting after the jump... … MORE

RIP: I.D. Magazine Folds

Fast Company has the story: I.D. Magazine is closing after 55 years. Very sad news. Read more here.

(Photo above courtesy Fast Company.)

SPD Members: Adobe Saves You Time and Money, 15% Off All Software

Need just one fantastic gift this holiday season? We've got the answer.

Save 15% on all Adobe products in the North American online Adobe Store. Time to upgrade to CS4? Got the Lightroom bug? Buy it now, and save a little of that cash for splurging on the rest of the holiday madness.

Read on for the simple steps to follow to take advantage of this offer...
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Dwell: The Future

For Dwell's December/January issue, "The Future," the magazine commissioned just one photographer, Dean Kaufman, for their feature shoots. Photo Editor Amy Silberman tells us about the thinking that went into the commission and a little of the work Kaufman sent back from his shoots... … MORE

Upside down covers

Last month on SPD we posted an article about magazine covers that flip their logos upside down. Now two recent newsweekly covers have us thinking about upside down images. The cover on the left is from the November 16, 2009 issue of BusinessWeek, illustrated by Mirko Ilic and art directed by Andrew Horton. The cover on the right is from the December 7, 2009 issue of Newsweek. We know how great minds think alike (or at least these things come in threes, which would make it a trend....). If you've got a recent cover that fits this format, please send it along to SPD Central.… MORE

New York: The 00s

For some of us, the best part of this time of year is the lists: best of (even more when they're meta), worst of, top-selling, favorites, and anything else that can be list-ified. The end of a decade means even more bounty in this department. New York joined the party this week with their 00s cover commissions. Covers and slideshow after the jump...  … MORE

Tips & Tricks: Create a Flash Web Gallery in Adobe Bridge

More and more, we're all being asked to flex our muscles in the world of web design, and, admittedly, there's a completely different learning curve there, so not all of us are completely caught-up yet. Here's a  quick tip about using just one Adobe product from the Creative Suite, Bridge, to create a flash web gallery for your images: dazzle your web editor with a fast gallery of out-takes from a recent shoot, highlight great items from a FOB/BOB section that got squeezed for space in a last-minute page close, or, best of all, show off your own updated work on your personal site. Catch the video after the jump and get prepared to wow... … MORE

The graphic attack of The Dallas Observer

Alexander Flores has been the art director of alternative weekly newspaper The Dallas Observer for a little over two-and-a-half-years. In that time he has created a series of covers that stand among the boldest and most creative of any publication, anywhere. Working with a limited budget and deadline, Flores attacks the covers, using the images, logos and headlines as tools in his palette, crafting wonderful holistic visual products. He draws on his prior experience as an art director at local ad agencies, and essentially creates the entire cover himself, through creative typography, manipulation of stock photography, and his own illustration. Almost everything on the covers in this collection was done by Flores, who says, "If I can sit in front of the computer or a drawing board and create it myself, I will." This is state-of-the-art cover design. Take a look at the 10 we've got pictured below, and then visit here for over 100 more. … MORE

Twin Cities METRO Goes Foodie

Twin Cities METRO AD Bryan Nanista shares the story behind their December issue:
… MORE

Platon's Portraits of Power

In September 2009, Platon set up shop in the General Assembly at the UN and set about photographing the world leaders gathered there for The New Yorker, where he is staff photographer. The magazine has a great collection of the shots, each accompanied by an audio clip of Platon describing some of the behind-the-scenes in getting his shot. Read more, and check the whole series out here on The New Yorker's site.

(Photo grid courtesy of The New Yorker.)

Fast Company Goes Inside CNN.com's Relaunch

A month after the relaunch, Fast Company goes inside the philosophy behind CNN.com's facelift (designed by HUGE). Read Alissa Walker's full story here.

'Tis the reason...

...to be marking your calendar in RED for this year's holiday bash. Join SPD at Retreat (37 W 17 St) for hours of drinks, food, great tunes, sweet prizes and plenty of good times on Tuesday, December 15 at 7PM (open bar from 7-9PM.)
Pass the word along to your fellow photographers, illustrators, stylists, editors and friends...

Members: FREE (need to renew? do that here)
Non-Members: $15
RSVP to get on the guest list after the jump (and non-members get to save $5 on entry fee!)

***Special Thanks to our Members' Outreach committee volunteer, Todd Weinberger for hooking us up with our awesome sponsors: Bear Flag, Hendrick's, Milagro, Reyka and Sailor Jerry!

12.15.09 - 7PM - Retreat - 37 W 17th Street (between 5th/6th ave)
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Follow-up: Must-Have Handheld of '10?

James Reyman (from our Facebook page, thanks, James!) and Kottke both shared this video today of Sports Illustrated / Time Inc.'s 2010 plans for magazines on they mythical tablet device that may, or may not, be under development at Apple, or some other mystical company:




What do you think? Better than the UK's Best-of for 2009?

UK's "Must-Have" Handheld for 2009

As Holiday Gift Lists and Year End Best-of Lists surround us, the UK gives us the handheld device that has a 26" screeen, free games, never loses a connection, has no hidden fees, shares easily with friends... This thing's a dream;


Can't get enough of that.

SPD Membership: Essential Benefits & Privileges

It might seem impossible, but it's that time of year--for many people, your SPD membership has expired, and we'd like to help you renew. For a few more of you, you've been lurking, checking us out--we're happy to say, to all of you, we've worked out a few things we hope help seal the deal, because it's essential to us that we count you as a member in this collective of people who love magazines in all their forms and styles. Read on after the jump for tons of reasons to join or renew today...
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Tips & Tricks: Creating Interactivity in InDesign

A huge new boost in Adobe's InDesign with CS4 is the ability to add interactive elements while you're working in InDesign--workspaces set up to help you add hyperlinks, page transitions and buttons, with streamlined toolbars to simplify your creative process even as you're doing more than ever. Find out more with us after the jump...
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