Backstage Talks #5
Slovakian design mag Backstage Talks has quietly developed into a must-read for graphic designers. As well as interviewing a good selection of designers every issue, the magazine also digs up the right questions. A good example can be found on Page 23 of the latest issue.
Page 23 is the right hand page of a spread that introduces nine brief interviews with a series of designers, asking them about how they manage their time.
The double-page intro carries the three questions asked of each subject, and is itself a great example of the management of magazine time. The simplicity of this bright red opening spread punctuates the run of pages to highlight the questions before we turn over to the busy pages of answers. It’s a common device, but I love the way that this manipulation of pace concerns a story about managing pace.
Among the designers answering the three questions is Veronica Ditting, creative director of The Gentlewoman, and elsewhere in the issue Gail Bichler, design director of the New York Times Magazine, and Francesco Franchi, design director at La Republica newspaper, are interviewed at length. Plenty for magCulture readers!