New Yawk magazine
The recent Style issue of New York magazine received a lot of attention for its cover image, Bobby Docherty’s vivid shot of a model dressed in a collection of the city’s finest branded souvenirs. But alongside the photo, many will have overlooked the one-off name change.
For one issue only, New York became New Yawk. What started as an in-house joke developed from there, as the magazine’s Design director Thomas Alberty explained to me.
The cover image referred to Stella Bugbee’s fascinating story about the latest fashion trend in the city – New York itself. As the piece went through the editorial process it came to be known as New Yawk style, in reference to the local accent (you can read Bugbee’s piece here).
‘The city and this style inspired it and it felt like keeping in that spirit of irreverence and fun. A lot of vintage T-shirts that play off New Yawk or Noo Yawk. The story had been slugged internally as New Yawk style,’ explains Thomas, ‘Then Photo Director Jody Quon suggested changing the logo and we all kind of laughed. And then we were like, why not?’
‘It was simple enough to quickly fake it, but when Editor David Haskell was keen to give it a go, I had the logo adjusted by Christian Schwartz, who was kind enough to give it a go. And it turned out fantastic.’
It’s a reminder that a magazine logo is as much shape as word.
Not everybody spotted the change straight off — I didn’t — but that’s part of the joy of such subtle games. ‘A lot of comments were that it takes a minute to see it,’ says Thomas, ‘which is what we wanted.’
Look out for a new range of New York magazine ‘New Yawk’ T-shirts and hoodies coming soon.