Does design make the world go round? That’s debatable, of course, depending on whose world you’re talking
about—but from the perspective of
I.D.
magazine, design is the core around which an entire universe revolves.
Making the pages of this magazine is a prestigious accomplishment for graphic, furniture, industrial, architectural
and digital designers.
I.D.
successfully strives to find the most elegant and innovative ways to display examples of
design excellence, building tasteful, smart layouts around simple images of products.
WHY IT WORKS:
Brilliantly simple backgrounds, creative photo editing and placement, and electrically charged colors and type team
up for a sleek, modern gallery of designers’ work.
I.D.
The International Design Magazine
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far left Funny and startling, the bright pink cover
line for a focus on robotic vacuum cleaners leans to-
ward streaks of light for a flashy product portrait.
Color and type create an electric atmosphere that ani-
mates products.
left A battered pair of Converse sneakers is a com-
fortable symbol of influential design. Literally inter-
preting the theme of the article, cover lines with
apparent distance and depth play off the headline
“Giant Steps.”
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Published since 1954 and originally a trade publication
focused on industrial design,
I.D.
has evolved to cover
the “art, business, and culture of design” around the
world. “In its early years,
I.D.
mirrored the excitement
of the post-World War II American design scene,” says
executive editor Jenny Wohlfarth. “Since then, the
magazine has blossomed to become more interna-
tional and eclectic in its scope,”
In 1988, the magazine shed its strictly trade image and
revised its tagline to read “International Design Maga-
zine,” reflecting both its global reach and its coverage
of a wide scope of design topics ranging from architec-
ture, industrial design, and graphics to fashion, interi-
ors, technology, and design culture. As a hybrid trade/
general-interest magazine,
I.D.
is as accessible to the
design-curious consumer as it is to trained artists.
Global Design Focus
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60
Long based in New York City, the magazine was pur-
chased by F&W Publications in 1999 and moved its ed-
itorial headquarters to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2001.
I.D.
continues to stretch its tentacles around the globe; fur-
niture and gadgets from Milan and Berlin mingle with
those from the vibrant Manhattan design community.
“
I.D.
is to the design industry what
Wired
is to technol-
ogy,” Wohlfarth says. “It pushes the proverbial enve-
lope—both in content coverage and design—exploring
the most primitive and fascinating kernels of design-re-
lated topics while philosophically scrutinizing their sig-
nificant implications on culture and society. Its greatest
strength is its own dichotomy: It’s both provocative and
simplistic, serious and sassy, focused on details while
always revealing the bigger picture.”
I.D.’s
readers fall into three categories: designers who
want information about the art and culture of the de-
sign industry; business executives who want to take ad-
vantage of the positive impact that innovative design
has on their business; and design aficionados—nonde-
signers who love great design and who understand and
appreciate the importance of aesthetics.
above The sensual
curves and angles of Ital-
ian furniture are silhou-
etted dramatically
against white space, not
only showcasing the
products’ design but also
creating a lilting white
space across the spread.
left What body parts
are we looking at, and
what are those padded
things on top of them?
The strangely staged
photograph nets some
long stares before read-
ers turn to the article
about the award-winning
Japanese handbags.
right This article show-
cases an interactive Web
game, a choose-your-
own-adventure idea
using simple lines and
text. Rather than enclos-
ing a screen shot in a
picture box, designers
transformed the layout
using the site’s colors
and images.
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In fact, products or design work often take on lives of
their own. Many pages simply feature silhouetted pho-
tos on blank white or tinted pages, with small blocks of
text placed strategically.
The way
I.D.’s
designers manipulate these images
makes them truly effective. For example, designers
may blow up an image until it’s absurdly out of pro-
portion to its perceived importance—vacuum cleaners,
sneakers, and humidifiers all get their day in the sun.
Or they may use repetition to parade products across a
spread, as they did with an army of toothbrushes mag-
nified beyond life-size proportions. The pages are rem-
iniscent of an old science fiction film or a surrealist
painting in which inanimate objects come to life—but
the images are frankly, purely true to form.
In other instances, cropping, magnification, or angular
approaches accentuate features of objects that may be
overlooked when they’re shot straight on. Photos home
in on the sly curves of a cord on a hanging lamp, the
delicate texture of a woven chair, the humble design of
a control panel for a common household appliance.
“Images define and drive the design in
I.D.
, reempha-
sizing the magazine’s mission to bring attention to the
designs of products being featured and not the design
of the magazine itself,” Wohlfarth says. “
I.D.’s
design
seeks to be noteworthy without being too noticeable.”
above and left The in-
tricacy of an everyday
product is the theme of
this feature on high-tech
toothbrushes. The first
spread gets in your face
with blown-up photos of
the contoured bristles
and gentle curves, while
the second uses even
repetition to impress
readers with the inven-
tiveness of design.
Playful Image Placement
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above In the hands of
Marcel Wanders, this
chair looks like ordinary
furniture—but on the
opposite page, it’s a web
hanging behind the text.
I.D.’s
propensity for
imaginatively magnify-
ing, cropping, and organ-
izing photos creates
unexpected perspectives.
above Andy Warhol
would be proud: This lay-
out pays tribute to a
packaging concept that’s
ordinary and rarely rec-
ognized. A bright red box
with white type reverses
the modest red printing
on curved salt packets.
left This climate control
unit received a nod for ex-
cellent design in
I.D.’s
an-
nual review; a closeup of
its sensible white inter-
face also mirrors a white
page of text for a mini-
malist and elegant layout.
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The use of contrast is an important technique for call-
ing attention to the excellent design of featured prod-
ucts. This is accomplished largely through the use of
negative space.
The front of the book is more compact than the expan-
sive feature well. “Expo,” a roundup of design and
technology news, projects, exhibits, and excursions, is
compartmentalized using different colored back-
grounds to create simple divisions of short articles.
Next is “New & Notable,” an exquisitely designed ex-
ploration of the latest and best-designed products for
work, home, and play.
In the feature well, editors keep article length to a min-
imum, so text never dominates a spread. Short blocks of
text swim in a sea of negative space, surrounded by a
few large images. Despite the liberal use of negative
space, however, pages stick closely to a grid, again
keeping in tune with a classic, Swiss design approach.
Images take on interesting and diverse relationships
with text, but they are always neatly disciplined.
above Plastic-happy
colors act as backdrops
for an article on designer
and filmmaker Mike
Mills, who is inspired by
American suburbia. The
background color adds a
campiness that helps
readers understand the
tone of the article.
far left Bright orange
dramatically backlights
the snaking cords on
these Italian lamps, an-
other example of
I.D.’s
use of contrast.
left Adding black back-
ground color to negative
space gives these prod-
ucts a space-age look.
I.D.
is especially strong at
using negative space to
build dramatic contrast.
Contrast Through Space
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