Design Observer :: Join the Discussion http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/ en-us Design Observer Group 2010-07-01T04:19:16-05:00 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0
Visit My Blog Directory ]]> Mark http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-07-01T04:19:16-05:00 Pat http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-27T08:52:56-05:00
Let me share some grief with you to sooth the pain of the demise of ID magazine. Items, the Dutch design magazine I'm editor of, also came into turmoil last year after the publisher went bankrupt. Apart from pain of the unpaid bills, the existence of the magazine was in jeopardy. But we are lucky. Max Bruinsma, the editor in chief, and Pao Lien Djie, the managing editor, pay much effort in saving the magazine, and with the help of some friends and friendly foundations Items has made a restart.
The magazine wasn't the cause of the bankruptcy, but bad management of its owner, a printer and wouldbe cultural entrepreneur from a small town in the Dutch bible belt. He even had a little theater next to his printing house, where the late Willy DeVille once played. They are still talking about it there.
The ponytailed printer bought Items in 2007, because he said he loved it, though he never read an article. His biggest contribution to the magazine was an idea to sell eight or more pages to designers, they could make at will without editorial interference. That's not making a magazine, we said, but he didn't understand that. Then Items had a near editorial-office-has-to-go-to-Cincinnati experience. To cut costs the printer-publisher announced he wanted to move the editorial office from Amsterdam to the town where his printing house was. Soon he dropped that plan and made a 180 degree turn. Now he wanted to move his printing house to Amsterdam, because he wanted to be near the creative community (Willy DeVille had left his small town by then, so there was no reason for him to stay). He asked a famous designer to make sketches for his new printing house and rented a large space in Marcel Wanders' Westerhuis, because he couldn't wait to have his pied à terre in Amsterdam.
That was in February 2009. Three months later we all got a letter from the official receiver telling we probably won't get our money and Items moved to a smaller and cheaper office. The staff, the writers and the designers stayed loyal to the magazine so three issues could be made already without a publisher.

BTW: For some immediate comfort you have to visit the exhibition "Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves" at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. That exhibition ran in my town until last month, and it was a blockbuster. It's a unique chance to see the finest illustrations from the late Middle Ages. An era without printers or publishers.

Marc Vlemmings
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
]]> Marc Vlemmings http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-21T10:59:22-05:00
]]> Kyle http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-20T22:07:30-05:00 Parnell Zigelli http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-20T15:03:38-05:00
Everyone is quick to blame the Internet, economic conditions,changing reader habits, etc. as the root cause for the demise of print publications. While all those things are contributing factors, the reality is many publications have suffered from years of neglect and mismanagement. ]]> Tom http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-20T10:02:19-05:00 Debbie http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-18T15:08:05-05:00
Julie, thanks for telling your story. As you know, I can relate. Meeting with the F&W people in Cincinnati after that awful, imagination-less company bought I.D. was among the most depressing periods of my life. The writing was on the wall immediately. You were brave to take on the project, though it sounds like it was a struggle all the way through.]]> Bonnie Schwartz http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-16T09:00:18-05:00
I would like to acknowledge for bravely fought, and hold the space as long as you were there. To be frank, I couldn't afford any when I was a student of a local college in Malaysia, however, it has always been my comfort zone whenever I hit the library (at least a good 3 hours per day , max 12 hours).

That comfort inspired me daily, what it is like to be creative, which what I have always wanted to be since I was 9.

Again Thanks Julie.]]> razifohnas http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-16T02:35:09-05:00
As a designer wanting more that to hunker down and do one thing I got a chance to dream of the possibilities in design in its many forms and what other thinking people with talent were problem-solving.

I for one will miss this magazine—I think that a lot of us will—not only for its exposure to new design methodologies, its great writing and images but also for the good friend we had, now gone, who gave us great insight and sound advice. So long I.D.]]> Alwyn Velasquez http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-15T14:21:48-05:00 Richard Downs http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-15T01:35:18-05:00
What you describe was exactly what happened; I was one of the staff who got the axe the day before your friend started his one year stint at the magazine. It appalls me that this type of mismanagement dragged on for a decade.

ID was responsible for a new way of looking at the everyday and magazines like Wallpaper picked up on and became very successful with, because they had experienced publishers and resources behind them. ]]> miranda dempster http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T22:42:52-05:00
It's that simple. The writing was awful. Each article hyped Karim Rashid-like substanceless design. The photographs tried to mimic Rolling Stone circa 1994, with out of focus, poorly cropped material.

It was garbage for the last fifteen years.

A lot of magazines are failing because of the economy. This isn't one of them. It failed because it sucked. ]]> Phil Swift http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T21:00:01-05:00
The writing has been on the wall for print media (magazines, newspapers) for close to a decade. Problem is nobody bothered to look.

If ID magazine had applied "design thinking" to its own situation, it would have realized it needed to evolve to remain relevant. As a printed publication, they were simply the middle man between the content and the reader. Sites like Core77 got it and became aggregators to content as well as facilitators for people to share their own findings and content via blogs and discussion boards.

While I enjoyed ID Magazine in the pre-Internet era, I am not shedding any tears for its demise. They had ample opportunities to do something about it.]]> Sergio http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T15:41:57-05:00
julie - you were a trooper and did your best given the circumstances. i need not tell you my own personal relationship to the entire saga, suffice it to say, i feel your travails and then some.

there was no "better" decade. ID was always great. it held the bar (of recognizing design quality) pretty damn high, so now we have to continue to live up to it even though it's gone. i think we can, but maybe harder for ramon.

g
]]> Gong Szeto http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T13:45:19-05:00 nancy http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T09:55:54-05:00
OK: Then why do we have Design Observer?

Blogs and the ad crunch would quite possibly have been enough to do in a magazine whose editors always seemed to believe themselves stewards of design (people who “make sense” of it) rather than, as Lasky disingenuously claims, mere chroniclers of it (in “bound... journals”).

Design criticism: Still a T-Rex wondering what that bright light in the sky might be.]]> Joe Clark http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T09:34:16-05:00 With people utilizing internet access more and more for information, blogs and sites that update daily keep attention (and stay on my mind), while in comparison ID magazine only came 8 times a year...

]]> Drew Downie http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T09:34:09-05:00 The last decade has been an easy time to make money. Some company's have forgotten
Magazines are about making a great product not huge profits.
Gradually reducing quality to make more money is not very clever.
If its not giving the reader value they won't buy. ]]> MK http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T07:02:21-05:00
While it takes a concerted effort—often by a number of determined, imaginative, and talented people—to create anything of value, its destruction can generally be accomplished quickly and easily, whether through maliciousness, ignorance, stupidity, or—occasionally—careful consideration of the trade-offs involved.

My sympathies and best wishes for the future to all of those who worked diligently to build I.D., and my thanks to Julie Lasky for sharing her story.
]]> Peter J. Wolf http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-14T02:13:03-05:00 “...a sports-loving guy who used a lot of basketball metaphors”

Sad:
“In six years was any notable investment made in a dedicated sales staff, reader research or web development for I.D.”]]> Mark Kaufman http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T19:25:10-05:00 Sean Moran http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T18:49:49-05:00 Julie Lasky http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T18:42:16-05:00 Gordon Kaye http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T16:48:15-05:00 See the New York Times Business videos –
"Flipped: How Private Equity Dealmakers Can Win While Their Companies Lose"
Another example of the need for finance reform.]]> Jim L. http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T16:32:36-05:00 Jesse Marinoff Reyes http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T16:11:20-05:00 Ari L http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T11:59:21-05:00 ramon http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T11:41:14-05:00 Matt http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/ids-executioners/12367/#comments 2010-01-13T11:36:39-05:00