Covers
06.30.10
Inspiration, or.....???
On the left, New York magazine's BEST DOCTORS cover, 2003. On the right, Seattle magazine's TOP DOCS cover, July 2010. Notice the "Take a break!" signature on both casts.Related story:
Rolling Stone: Deja Vu? Friends / Glee
More Inspiration... Billboard / Mediaweek
Homage, Inspiration, or ... TIME / The Village Voice
Ouch!
Too close for comfort from my perspective.
I'm typically not one to frown on others work as I empathize that many magazines out there are operating with small budgets and the work flows may be intense, sometimes pushing creatives into a position of having to "mine" for inspiration but this one get's a frown from me for being so blatant.
;-(
Funny how in this type of situation the copycat is never executed as well as the original. Theoretically less time on the concept should mean more time to improve it, that's optimistic though.
dp
I'm soooo interested in the back story here! That "take a break" line seems almost too obvious a wink to the NY cover! Was the design director some how forced into reproducing the NY cover and this note is his subliminal way of apologizing to NY mag? (Did their consumer marketing team learn that the thumbs-up cast is news stand gold and they couldn't NOT do it? Did they sell ad space to a powerful medical supplies company that month and part of the deal was getting their cast on the cover, maybe thats a celebrity hand model in there and they had a "cover only" contract......you never know!)
Seriously though I'm convinced that there's more here than meets the eye. The part of me that believes all art directors are full of ambition, creativity and above all integrity knows (okay make that HOPES) that a blatant rip-off like this doesn't happen through laziness...
Nice thought Neil, let's hope there's more to it. It would be great to hear the story.
I'm always jealous of your resources over there, if this situation was here in Australia, it would literally be the editor and art/creative director to blame.
dp
Cheers Dan, more resources doesn't always seem to garner stronger work though, often means more speed bumps. Heres to being more ambitious with limited cash (and thus more ambitious and creative...hopefully!)
Judging from past issues of Seattle magazine, which were blatant rip-offs of other NY Magazine covers, Esquire spreads and numerous other pubs, this definitely seems like a blatant rip-off.
http://nymag.com/nymag/toc/20090105/
http://www.seattlemag.com/pages/index.cfm?PAGE_ID=14&KEYWORD=Search%20this%20issue&ISSUE_ID=40
I figured it would be best to go directly to the source. I e-mailed the art director to let them know about this debate but have not heard back and no comments on this forum as of yet.
Maybe someone from SPD would have better luck?