Communication Arts: 1995 Design Annual
Communication Arts (CA), long considered the bible of the design and advertising industries, recently undertook major changes in the way its editors communicated with CA’s readership. Among the changes: the final switchover to complete electronic magazine production and pre-press, a design makeover of the actual content, release of their first Interactive Design Annual winners CD-ROM, and finally, the announcement of CA’s new WWW site (http://www.commarts.com).
This issue, as in the past, hightlights breakthrough efforts in print, broadcast amd multimedia design. Coupled with the Advertising and Photography Annuals also published during the year, CA feeds the creative hunger for new concepts, bringing a wealth of ideas which can be used to jump-start the creative process and help artists produce more exciting graphics. A year’s subscription to CA pays for two of the three published creative annuals; consider the other six bimonthly issues an extra bonus.
$25 Annual subscription: $53 (US), $98 (foreign)
Utne Reader is nothing new in magazines; Readers Digest has done the same thing since the ’20s. What’s different is the focus on alternative issues, takes on current events that just aren’t covered in the mainstream press. Editors, including publisher Eric Utne, scour hundreds of weeklys, regional periodicals and small-circulation special interest magazines that most people would hard, if not impossible, to find. The results appear as excerpts and articles in the Reader.
Cover stories are written exclusively for the magazine; this month’s feature articles examine the rise of American behavioral patterns which an outside observer could characterize as fascist. Are we -- a people whose abhorrance of race and class distinctions mark us as a nation -- really succumbing to radical notions of race hatred and isolationism, or is the American creed only a white lie we tell ourselves to cover up our baser motivations?
Also in this issue: Censorship and comics. Is it just the Moral Majority’s outrage that’s casting comic artists in jail over charges of pornography, or is it a First Amendment free speech issue? Whose rights are being trampled here, anyway? And: The dangers of discowear. Were reports of hospital visits resulting from platform shoe pratfalls and flaming rayon shirts covered up in the ’70s? You decide. You can visit the Utne Reader web site at http://www.utne.com
$5.95 Annual subscription: $18 (US)
WIRED
There won’t be many viewers of these pages that don’t know about WIRED, the magazine that made real the phrase "the wired generation". Although many profess to be "wired" (VP Al Gore), most of the planet seems to be "tired" (Sen. Robert Dole), and it’s the upstart magazine’s mission to help them catch up.
WIRED’s unabashedly pro-tech slant has gotten them into hot waters; even cartoon artist Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) took a swipe recently in his strip, This Modern World. He says: "Wired is to the nineties what Playboy was to the sixties -- a magazine largely devoted to convincing young men that nothing is hipper than being a good consumer..."Maybe, but if you want to plug into the hottest trends in both cyberspace and design, WIRED is essential reading.
In this issue: MIT’s Media Lab turns ten this year. The research facility that’s responsible for many radical changes in our lives is still working on the future. What are they planning for you?
Also this month: Sorry, Scotty, we’re not beaming up any time soon...Lawrence Krauss pokes some galaxy-size holes into Star Trek’s most famous technological achievement, the transporter. Bummer. And: America Online, net behemoth, is seeding innovative startup multimedia companies to provide content. One of the beneficiaries: Harry Allen, an African-American who plans to bring hip-hop style to hypermedia. Go to Planet WIRED by plugging into this URL: http://www.hotwired.com
$4.95 Annual subscription: $39.95 (US) $79 (foreign)
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