Page 32 - INTERACTIVE MAGAZINE

DESIGN N THINGS.
September/October.
32

using its own his- it was a bold move. At the time New York JL: What else did you look at in the research go with the journey and see where we land.
What's tory. The editorial was just another city magazine. The covers phase? JL: Moss is a visual person. Is that rare among
would be like ‘Cheap Hamptons getaways’,
and design ideas
editors?
CD: Early US Esquire featured in our re-
developed
The it still reverberate ‘Weekends upstate’, things like that. Then I search for the covers; for general design it CD: He’s one of the more visual editors. He
heard he’d hired Jody Quon as photo edi-
was a mix of things, including Mark Porter’s
through the mag-
tor, whom I’d worked with at The New York
Big azine world, not Times Magazine. I’d worked with Adam, too, then new Guardian redesign. It made great would develop a story but unless there was
a visual solution that brought it life it would
use of graphics, the front page combined
he was the editor when I was there. And then
least in the new
Idea Vanity Fair. he hired Luke Hayman as design director. I great news photography with silhouetted be dropped. He saw it as a 50-50 relationship.
He understood design would skew the story
entertainment images. We looked at classic
by Leah Collins With Hay- knew Luke socially, and he’d interviewed me sources of infographics like Edward Tufte, but a certain way. He would say we have a ten-
man’s 2007 de- when he was at Brill’s Content. I emailed him page story on some topic and we would do
parture for Pen- asking if he needed a deputy. We talked a few Adam loved Spy magazine. a design system for it and he would say this
tagram, Dixon times, then I met with Adam, and I started Spy subverted the language of infograph- looks too dry and essay-ish, it should be fun
In terms of inspiration, Dixon became design soon after. Luke had been there two weeks
doesn't exclusively look to ics; they were satirical infographics. Their and have energy. So we would change the
other magazines, though he director. Edi- and Adam about four. tone matched what we wanted, our content whole mood. Other times we might start out
mentions UK titles including tor and design wasn’t serious, we weren’t doing weather crazy and fun, with lots of colours and design,
men's magazines Port and director were JL: That was an impressive team, built to
British Esquire. "I still think carry out what turned out to be one of the graphs. The claim has always been that Spy and he would say, no no, these are our best
New York magazine is doing content to man- most significant redesign projects of the past invented the floating head, the cutout head writers, we need a bookish feel.
really great work — even age a smooth decade. How did you go about achieving that floating on a chart. We embraced that a lot,
without me," he jokes. "I just transition. ‘If you especially for the Intelligencer section. JL: Any magazine is about team work; at
sort of look everywhere," he on a weekly magazine? Adbusters you and Kalle Lasn were a team.
says: websites, films, book have to redesign CD: We’d split our time half and half be- On a weekly basis the new magazine had a But on New York there was a different scale
jackets, catalogues. "On the a magazine again
cover we do a lot of little after three years tween the magazine we had to put out that really good flow to it, it didn’t feel too broken of teamwork. How many people were you
detailing like little buttons. you really did a week and doing redesign explorations. We up, with some features really designed and working with day to day?
A lot of that stuff gets were finishing the magazine each week and others not. We just wanted it to flow as one
pulled from some old little bad job in the great experience. CD: There was Luke, me, Randy Minor
matchbook that we found or first place,’ Moss also having separate meetings to discuss the (who’s still there now) and Kate Elazegui …
some signage in Paris that we says. Dixon kept change with Adam and the editorial team JL: You described the redesign as an intense I guess a total of seven in the design dept.
Xeroxed." he’d brought in. All the sections had new
the ethos of the process but producing weekly issues to that Another six or seven in the photo dept. Then
original redesign names, so they were throwing up ideas for degree of detail and finish must also have the production dept. About fifteen in terms
but developed it, those sections. been very intense. of photography and design.
bringing in new collaborators and producing We brought in two freelance designers CD: It was, but Adam’s passion for the maga- JL: In a non-US context that seems a huge
some of the most memorable images of its whom we briefed on types of articles and zine and the city was the driving force. He has team to work with or even to see.
9/11 era. our visual ideas and we all just prototyped for no end to ways of talking and writing about
One reference point for the redesign of two or three months. New York City. Every week there was some- CD: There was a lot to do. We were each re-
New York had been the 1980s satirical mag- thing new to get caught up in and make you sponsible for a section or feature; we would
azine Spy, which specialised in the use of dia- We rolled the redesign out a different excited. The content was so good, the writers design it, flow in all the text, style the text,
grams, cutouts and other visual devices. Vanity section every month, starting with ‘The Strat- and photographers we were working with so and tweak it till it was done, approved, then
Fair editor Graydon Carter had been one of egist’, a whole new section editorially and talented, we could just feel the quality getting we would turn it over to production who’d
visually. Meanwhile the rest of the magazine
Spy’s founders, which makes Dixon’s arrival at remained the same, with maybe a few little higher and higher and nobody really wanting sort pre-press and proofs. We did the hi-res
Vanity Fair and his introduction of a more de- tweaks. Then [we did] the Culture pages, then to let anyone down on any aspect of it. So files. Friday mornings we’d get a giant stack of
tailed design approach and increased use of you live with the last-minute changes and the Kodak proofs. It printed Friday evening and
infographics and devices seem a natural step. the rest of the magazine. It was a very intense, late nights. We just had to hunker down for would be on sale Saturday afternoon.
‘There is an elegance and sophistication exciting and hectic time. There were many, that first year, if not first two years. Looking JL: The role of Jody Quon seems very import-
to Chris’s work that sets him apart in the many late nights, working until two, three in back I don’t know that I could do it again. ant to a lot of people here.
the morning every week.
design world,’ Carter says. With stage one of
the redesign completed, and the design tools JL: Adam Moss clearly had strong ideas JL: Some designers get frustrated by process CD: Definitely. It is all teamwork but she was
in place, it is fascinating to watch Dixon and about what he wanted to do with the mag- and timing. You always seem very calm. hugely important to the magazine. She guided
Carter make the most of a design that at last azine visually. CD: People have always said I’m calm, and all the photographers and their photographs.
matches the scope and glamour of Vanity CD: He had a very clear perspective on the appreciated that in the middle of certain situ- That crossed everything from still life shoots
Fair’s content. project. Growing up in New York City in the ations. I work well with slightly crazier people, and food to architecture and portraiture, we
Jeremy Leslie talks to Chris Dix- 1970s-80s his bible had been New York. He I balance them out. I like seeing how things shot everything. We worked really well to-
gether when I was producing all the covers.
on wanted to take it back to those great roots. can get better, not fighting things for the sake She had her perspective on design and I had
Jeremy Leslie: How did you come to join A lot of the page architecture came from of fighting them but listening to things that mine on pictures. A great collaboration.
people suggest. You reach a point where you
that original New York magazine, the 1968
the New York magazine redesign project? version. The whole front of the book, the realise you’re not always right, in fact, there re- JL: Many of your colleagues would have stud-
Chris Dixon: I remember reading some- Egyptian typeface, the rules. It also gave us a ally is no right or wrong, you just keep trying ied design straight from school while you
where that Adam Moss was being hired from certain style of illustration, again a lot of atti- stuff until it clicks. I’ve never gone at it like ‘this majored in psychology. Did you ever feel dif-
The New York Times Magazine and thinking tude and tone, a bit of humour. is exactly what it needs to be.’ I’ve learned to ferent to them?

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