Face Up: Good

This Month: Good

Concept: Culture and society newcomer GOOD debuted in September on a crowded newsstand. For weeks, the magazine’s team went back and forth on cover ideas trying to find something text-driven and manifesto-like to grace the premiere issue. “The line that GOOD is ‘a magazine for people who give a damn’ was one we had thrown around conversationally for months,” says art director Casey Caplowe. “That’s the core ethos to our whole enterprise.” Caplowe came up with the concept of leaving a blank space before the words “like you give a damn,” which he says is an invitation for the magazine’s readers to join in the conversation behind the cover. “We felt like the first issue was one of the few times you could get away with something like this,” he says.

Production: Staff members taped various cover designs over magazines at the newsstand and asked nearby shoppers to comment on which one they thought was best. Caplowe’s idea won and design director Scott Stowell ultimately designed the cover. With a large portion of the cover printed in metallic gold ink, the magazine’s printer was concerned with how it would reproduce on the recycled matte cover stock, but the image turned out fine.

Our design panel says: “‘GOOD’ is not bad, it could be better. Unfortunately, this issue looks like it could go directly from mailbox to garbage pail because it takes too much work to figure out its purpose. The logo and everything else is ‘good.’ Try another image…The concept is a little too hard to parse. The cover lacks the funkiness of the interior…I like the use of cover lines listed next to the magazine title. This is a fresh approach that I think works with the distinct division of the cover. The personal manifesto is a bold statement, but it doesn’t give very much info about the magazine, or its content.”

The Panel: Thoralf Tollefsen, Northstar Travel Media; Robert Sugar, AURAS Design; Steven Dixon, Home Channel News

Have a unique “cover” story? Contact Folio: assistant editor Linda Zebian.

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