ADVERTISING I EDITORIAL I BRANDING I ART DIRECTION I PACKAGING I PRODUCT DESIGN I CORPORATE IDENTITY I WRITING I NAMING I VIDEO
ADVERTISING I EDITORIAL I BRANDING I ART DIRECTION I PACKAGING I PRODUCT DESIGN I CORPORATE IDENTITY I WRITING I NAMING I VIDEO
I was lucky enough to be the original Design Director of the magazine from it's creation in 1991. This was Condé Nast's first magazine to be digitally made. Beauty is a wonderful subject and the freedom we were given was extraordinary.
Four of us started Paper — two editors and two designers — although we were all co-owners and co-publishers as well. The whole thing was pasted up on my kitchen table. Because of our large format it was thrilling from the get-go to see this home-made magazine nestled between Life and Rolling Stone on the newsstands.
The outdoor campaign to launch the Sony store in New York City was called "It's SO New York" and featured quintessential moments of life in the city.
Donna Karan gave me a fabulous brief: "I've got caviar, give me pizza." The "caviar" was her couture line: now she wanted a bridge line. I created the name, logo and the look and feel of the company before any clothes, employees or stores ever existed.
The original idea was that there was no one logo — the letter forms would always be strong and condensed — but that form would follow function. New York is a very three dimensional city — I felt the logo should emphasize that.
I created a book — rough plans — of how DKNY would become part of the landscape of the city using the textures and a very limited palette.
The aim was to celebrate the then new renovation, but why not make it visible from the Long Island Expressway too. Sadly, after PS1's merger with MoMa, the wall has since been changed to incorporate the additional logo so the impact is reduced.
A new set of fragrances to celebrate New York City. Luckily I persuaded Shiseido not to name them "the scents of New York" as they originally preposed.
Pre Murdoch, under Harry Evans, The Sunday Times was like a marvelous university — the magazine set a standard for excellence in all things — anything was possible. On the magazine on any given day I could cover subjects as diverse as war, cooking and fashion. This award-winning cover was made by shooting each individual bulb soldered onto a live piece of metal so the element was visible when the bulb was lit up. All hundred bulbs were then pasted together. Such an endeavour would have been unthinkable anywhere else.
The campaign that launched the makeup and skincare line. Up until then Victoria's Secret had only made bath products and used images of bottles in their advertising. Our simple yet effective contribution was to let the supermodels sell the products: a job they did extremely well.
During my time at the New York Times I designed the women's fashion magazines (now called T magazines) and the home design magazine too. The color magazines then were seen as not serious journalism: later that all changed.
I love magazines — they're exciting, contained worlds — I like the speed of their creation and their ephemeral nature.
