magazines

Back in early October, we told you about the death of Gourmet, the smartly designed magazine that always got our mouths a-watering. It's been a strange new world without it and although we have other magazines to turn to when we're feeling those foodie urges, we certainly still miss it. We were made all the more melancholy when we found former art director Kevin Demaria's Last Days of Gourmet. It's a heartbreaking collection of photographs from those final hours while employees cleaned out their desks, everything was boxed up, and the magazine was finally shuttered. Also, in this age of constant magazine deaths, the series helps paint a good picture of the real people and places involved in these closures.

(Photos: Journal of Popular Noise)

The Journal of Popular Noise, the audio magazine founded and edited by graphic designer Byron Kalet, is a treat for the senses, from its expertly curated musical selections (distributed as a twice-yearly trio of seven-inch vinyl records) to its letterpress-printed, hand-folded packaging. Just in time to impress the design-savvy music fan on your holiday shopping list comes JPN's fall/winter edition (above), which will feature the music of Seattle band Foscil. We interviewed Brooklyn-based Kalet before he got too tired from hand-folding all of the new issues, which ship next month. Read on for the tale of JPN's origins, how frugality was the mother of great design, and why he thinks of Foscil as "the Dick Avedon to my Alexey Brodovitch."

How did the Journal of Popular Noise come about?
There were a couple distinctly different signs that all pointed in the same direction for me. I had been doing some research and had long been interested in the intersection of music and design. As a musician and designer, I always felt very strongly that the same set of rules and functions were at work in the decision-making process when creating in either medium. Rhythm, contrast, tone, are among many of the words that are commonly used by both designers and musicians to describe what they're up to. I wanted to try and very directly apply the basic compositional conventions of pop music to the composition of a magazine, as it seemed to me they were already almost one and the same. I was particularly attracted to magazines, as they seemed to have not only a close formal relationship to music composition but also an almost symbiotic relationship with pop music. Maybe blogs have that role now, but imagine what pop music would be like without Rolling Stone in the 70's, Maximum RocknRoll in the 80's, Riot Grrrl zines in the 90's, and then, well...blogs.

How did you decide upon the three-records-tucked-in-a-lovely-package format?
Early in 2007, magazines were still flourishing—as the record industry was floundering trying to navigate the new business of ringtones and digital downloads. Magazines are great because they offer an experience that one could never get from the internets, which is why I chose the most tactile and physically impressive production techniques. So with all that on my mind, it seemed obvious that this was the way to do it. There's a long tradition of record clubs, serial composition, and music magazines, from Aspen to Flexidiscs. I don't think I'm really doing anything new, I'm just doing it my way for what's happening right now.

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It's Election Day, and political types are everywhere you look, including magazine covers. The November 9 issue of New York features Marco Grob's Rorschach blot of a photo of Nancy Pelosi: wide-eyed, intense, and grinning in gumball-sized pearl earrings. An all-caps headline across her forehead brands the House Speaker "The Most ________ Woman in the United States*," with the asterisk inviting readers to fill in the blank with their choice of adjectives: powerful, reviled, effective, oblivious, sincere, plastic, or misunderstood. Less open to interpretation is the cover of the latest issue of Fortune, which has President Obama seeing the world through the distinctively hued Catull o's of the Google logo for its feature, "Obama & Google: A Love Story" (the photo is by Ben Baker, with the spectacles added by the digital wizards at Splashlight). Inside—but alas, not online—the piece opens with a dynamite full-page illustration by Stephen Kroninger of Obama embracing the Google logo amidst an explosion of hearts. "The President relies on Google execs for tech and economic advice," reads the dek. "But Obama's own regulators are scrutinizing the online-ad behemoth: Is the romance starting to sour?" Read on here to find out if there's trouble in paradise.

One of the best outlets for an American photographer to enter the international market used to be through the German publication GEO, known for their publication of lengthy photo essays and giving work to up and coming and experienced shooters. Unfortunately, Photo District News reports that the company has decided to close their New York office immediately, while also laying off their two main employees there, their bureau chief Nadja Masri and the photo editor Tina Ahrens. A sad day for sure, given the publication's outreach and availability to working photogs. Here's a bit about their history and spread:

The New York office has been in operation since 1976, when GEO was launched as an extension of Stern, a news magazine. The German edition of GEO is published monthly, and the brand includes several spin-off titles and 17 international editions.

(Photos: Sara Scamarcia)

Remember the quintet of artist- and architect-designed covers of T: The New York Times Style Magazine in celebration of its fifth anniversary? Architect and exhibition designer Ico Migliore transformed the five special T logos—created by Frank Gehry, Jenny Holzer, Jeff Koons, Doug and Mike Starn, and Francesco Vezzoli—into giant playing cards for a T party at the Bulgari Hotel in Milan during the city's fashion week. The evening was hosted by Janet L. Robinson, president and CEO of The New York Times Company; T magazine editor Stefano Tonchi, and Vezzoli, whose own T (at left) riffs on Man Ray's iconic "Tears" photo. Guests such as Tomas Maier, Frida Giannini, Neil Barrett, and Giambattisa Valli tried not to interpret the giant houses of cards as a metaphor for the media industry. Click "continued..." for an overhead shot that smacks of Alice in Wonderland—if Wonderland was full of gentlemen in expertly tailored suits.

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Designing Davids dominate this year's Fast Company Masters of Design, an annual salute to design visionaries. The magazine's October issue spotlights a mix of legends and legends in the making: David Butler, vice president of global design for Coca-Cola; architect David Adjaye; creator of immersive enironments David Rockwell (who we learn is the son of a vaudeville dancer); Pentagram information architect Lisa Strausfeld; and Alberto Alessi, who helms the eponymous factory of shiny design covetables and has recently taken up winemaking [cut to shot of him patiently pressing grapes individually using a Philippe Starck-designed Juicy Salif].

The profile of Butler offers details on Coke's new Pininfarina-styled Freestyle fountain. Developed in a top-secret project (codename: Jet) led by Butler, it dispenses "more than 100 different Coca-Cola variants, including exotic hybrids such as Minute Maid Raspberry Lemonade, Caffeine-Free Diet Coke With Lime, Orange Coke, and Fanta Peach." Fanta Peach!? Be still our hearts. "It's an audacious move for Coke, representing the largest investment in equipment innovation in the company's history—hundreds of millions of dollars—and a big bet by CEO Muhtar Kent," writes Linda Tischler. "Kent, a Formula One fan, not only approved the project but also urged the team to make the machine look 'like a Ferrari.'"

"Stopped to buy sandwich (no time to eat today)," Twittered former Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl from the Newark airport on Wednesday afternoon. "And the woman behind the counter said, 'I'm so sorry; this one's on me.'" We'll have the rest of our lives to look back in hunger at Gourmet, the 68-year-old Conde Nast title that was shuttered on Monday along with Cookie, Elegant Bride, and Modern Bride (fear not, brides, there's still Brides), but we thought we'd take this opportunity to remember some of our favorite covers. First up, the last cover (at left, October 2009), a blood-red candy apple with a wooden stake through its heart—OK, maybe we're projecting. And at right, the March 2009 cover that imparted a humble sandwich with the dreamy grandure of a Richard Misrach beach photo.

Speaking of brides, Gourmet had just the thing for them on its maximalist June 1954 cover, pictured at left. Eat your heart out, Ace of Cakes, because this towering dessert spectacle illustrated by Henry Stahlhut is studded with roses and pearls (Ouch! I think I lost a filling!) and framed by a hovering golden cherub brandishing gauzy draperies. Should the cherub become a nuisance, a Reed and Barton sword is at the ready. At right, the striking November 1983 cover featured glazed fruit on parade as photographed by Ronny Jacques at Milan's Peck market. Hungry yet?

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While France has seemingly become the home of realism in magazines, with Elle's recent "no Photoshoping, no makeup" issue, and in advertisements of all kind, with legislation proposed that would require cigarette pack-like warnings on any digitally altered image, Germany has snuck up and grabbed the "most progressive" title away from them. Or at least they've started something of a race, as the popular German fashion magazine, Brigitte, has announced that, starting with it's January 2010 issue, it will no longer be using fashion models for its covers or in any of its pieces. Instead, they'll be using friends, relatives, and staffers. This, all in a move to start showing real women and separate themselves from the culture of promoting impossibly thin fashion models as realistic (critics have also said that it'll help cut costs too). Of course, this is all well and good, but since most magazines are 90% advertising, we wonder what effect this will really have, with one "regular" person on one page and two dozen paper thin models on the next five.

What do pioneers of twentieth-century modernism eat for lunch? Kentucky Fried Chicken (extra crispy), served on a three-tier hospital-style rolling cart. That was a typical—and presumably finger-lickin' good—meal at the suburban Connecticut home of Josef and Anni Albers, according to Nicholas Fox Weber, who shared it with them on a fall day in 1970. Weber sheds new light on the life and work of the Alberses, Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in his forthcoming group biography, The Bauhaus Group (Random House). Among the delicious revelations in the advance excerpt that appears in this month's issue of ARTnews is that of Josef Albers' deep appreciation for the salad bar at a Boston chain resturant called the Plank House. "For this," writes Weber, "there were many reasons":

The clear plastic domed shield that served the purposes of hygiene while one looked at the produce was...a perfect match of a modern material with multiple goals. The array of salads and condiments thrilled him—especially the pickled beets and the various seeds, which reminded him of some of the tastes and textures of his youth. But what was best of all was the way that the serving bowls and the plates were all kept chilled. He noted particularly how the metal containers retained their coldness even longer than other vessels.

He didn't just make casual comments about these details; he marveled at them. They reflected an intelligence, a knowledge, and a clarity of thought that had, he told me, been the very essence of what he had tried to impart at the Bauhaus.

Web icon Derek Powazek, who we last mentioned around this time last year surrounding the closure of his controversial Pixish site, has returned to his magazine roots (see: JPG Magazine), albeit briefly. Following the massive dust storm in Sydney Australia a few days back, Powazek was like many of us who started seeing dozens of photos of the odd city-enveloping storm pop up on every blog and in every tweet. But whereas the lot of us clicked away, he was compelled to do something with the perhaps once-in-a-lifetime happening and dediced to put together a publication using all of these photos he was seeing. After getting permission from nearly every one of the photographers responsible for all those photos the world was seeing, he quickly designed Strange Light: Photos from the Great Australian Dust Storm and ran it through Hewlett-Packard's MagCloud self-publishing venture. All of this within 48 hours. Here's a bit about why:

Why would a Web guy like Powazek slave over an old-fashioned paper product? "Magazines are my happy place," he says. "I think print and the Internet complement each other more than people realize." Certainly, there's something about once-in-a-lifetime occurrences that cry out for print. It's as if holding something tangible is a more satisfying way to process and mark big events than bookmarking a page.