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Speak magazine

Every now and then a genuinely special magazine comes along, and in its time (1996-2001) Speak was one such title. Founded and edited by Dan Rolleri in San Francisco, Speak attempted to achieve the impossible. As a subscription page in issue 18 explained, ‘$12.00 gets you four issues of interviews with people you’ve never heard of, articles that seem to go on forever, and an unparalleled editorial-to-advertisement ratio’. Speak ignored the demands of advertisers and set its own agenda, hoping to find a body of readers that shared its founder’s interests.

That hope was to remain unfulfilled, but in the process of attempting to succeed a wonderful magazine happened. Which other magazine can boast interviews with book designer Chip Kidd, musician Mark E Smith and film maker Atom Egoyan, alongside Steven Heller’s assessment of modern designer’s use of Nazi symbolism and photo-reportage from Northern Ireland?

And which magazine can further boast that this vibrant mix of subjects was put through the visual synthesiser that is Martin Venezky, Speak‘s art director for all but one issue (issue two was designed by David Carson)? Venezky’s designs were easily pigeonholed as Carson-esque, an inevitable comparison given the dense complexity and anti-structure approach the two shared, but in my view Venezky’s page designs are far more intelligent and human. Venezky was unafraid of loading a page with very personal references, but never let the design overwhelm the content. Unlike Carson’s RayGun, Speak was a magazine of content AND design.

The final issue of Speak featured a lengthy piece in conversation form about the magazine’s rise and fall, featuring Rolleri, Venezky and other key staff. It is vital reading for anybody looking to launch their own self-published magazine. Read it here.

Here are the front covers of issue 18 (Christmas 1998), issue 19 and the final issue, 21:

The final cover features an ashtray and a spent book of (21?) matches. The matchbook reads ‘Courteous service for 21 issues’, and the barcode features a couple of appropriate messages for the reader:

Below are some pretty random but representative spreads from various issues of Speak, starting with a rare example of American coverage of the racist murder of British black teenager Stephen Lawrence. The first spread features stark wood block typography, setting a strong visual style that follows through to the second spread. This features a full bleed photograph of suspects arriving at court, a disturbingly violent image much-seen in the British press at the time. The addition of bold black graphic shapes accentuates the malevolence contained in the image.

The following four spreads ran consecutively in issue 18. We start with quite a standard full page image opposite a page of text. OK, perhaps not that standard, there are typical Venezky touches in what looks like an image blown up from a found advertisment for a book, an apparently irrelevant arrow and the use of the New Yorker headline font. And the use of irregular columns of text opposite is unusual. But the image page vs text page is pretty standard:

Then we have a double page image spread that acts as a summing up of the article. In another magazine this might have been used as the opening illustration – the piece is about the sources for and influences of Moby Dick:

On the third spread the text continues, but this time each paragraph is presented as if it were a classified advertisement:

Turn the page again and the visuals appear continuous, the article seems to carry on. Nothing, though, is that simple in Speak. This is the start of another article, about working at The New Yorker. The design of the first article blurs into a loving copy of the precise columns and fonts of The New Yorker:

Back issues remain available at the website. Whether this small selection appeals to you or not I recommend seeing some real copies.