November 13, 2008
Happy/sad
The latest work from Luke Hayman and team is a redesign of Harvard alumni magazine 01238 – cover above. The Pentagram site has descriptions and images of what was to have been the launch issue – unfortunately the title closed before the issue went to press. See a digital version here.
This closure follows the end of another recent Luke Hayman-designed project, Radar. Tempting though it would be to imply that Hayman is the link between the two closures, a more realistic link must be that the two projects were on the verge of failure and lurched into a redesign as a final attempt to survive. Wrong!
2 Comments
Comment on November 19, 2008 by Jack says:
Hi Jeremy,
The real reason why Radar folded was that its investors – Ron Burkle and Yusef Jackson– backed out after just a year, despite publicly stating that they’d back the venture until 2011. They got cold feet because they didn’t fancy print’s chances in the current economic climate (they probably didn’t find they were getting as much socially as they’d hoped from running a magazine either)… Gawker have been giving this matter some heavy coverage in recent weeks: http://gawker.com/5069306/whats-the-point-of-being-a-secret-media-mogul.
Anyway, the reason I write is to defend Maer Roshan, Radar’s editor, who I interviewed in September for our magazine, BAD IDEA. Roshan produced a smart, substantial mag that was also fun to read, and which was way ahead of its targets on sales & advertising revenue. His reward? To see the brand he’d built from scratch sold out to AMI, the people behind the National Enquirer, who immediately shut down the print mag, in favour of keeping RadarOnline.com going as a zombified, craven version of its former self.
It’s extremely unlikely Pentagram were enlisted as a last resort in the face of looming failure. From an economic perspective, it would hardly be the smartest economic choice to take on the reputedly astronomical fees of Luke Hayman & Co. if you were on the brink.
Anyway, enjoying the blog, so keep up the good work.
Comment on November 20, 2008 by Woz says:
Yes – such a shame about Radar for Roshan. I’ve been a major fan of the mag, and the premier print issues (the FIRST time round) are treasured items on my shelves. Wasn’t a fan of the Hayman re-design (see my comments ad nauseum!).
Radar is dead – long live Radar!
