"W" October 2007 issue - "Cate Blanchett - How the Regal Aussie Became Hollywod's Most Wanted Women" - photographer Michael Thompson / style Karl TemplerBought yesterday the latest issue of "W" magazine. Used to be one of my favourite glossy magazines. Now, I don't know. First of all, drowned in ADs, the magazine contents is very hard to follow. For instance, I think that placing an "easy-to-find" summary section become a great problem of graphic design for glossy magazines today.
Right after the cover, you find yourself lost in a bulk section of unnumbered AD pages. You scroll, you scroll and then - bingo - the first summary page. But after that, it doesn't follow the second page of summary section, but, of course, more ADs. So, in this issue of "W", at least, the summary pages are lost in a big bulk ADs section (full pages, single or spread). It is very hard to use the summary as a guide (as it supposed to be) of orientation through magazine. Each time you want to come back to summary, you must search it again thoroughly. Or you must use one of those cardboard stripes made for books. It is very annoying and impractical.
The main reason I bought this issue of "W" it was because they had Cate Blanchett on the cover. I love Cate. But the photo is very... uh... shall I use "radical honesty"? Yes, it is very bad. Big shadows on her eyes, under her nose and chin. Her eyes are almost closed, because she was obviously deranged by the cruel sunlight. Almost unrecognizable. You have such a beautiful woman, with such beautiful eyes and intense gaze, and you do THIS kind of image?
OK, the shooting session was on the beach, but can't they just use additional lights? Fill-in flash ? Reflected lights, maybe? Or can't they just choose another moment of the day, when the sun in not right above her head? Then I went searching the feature about Cate. Again, scrolling tens of ADs to find the summary, then to find the summary page where the feature was pointed... Finally, I found the feature: page 342. Black & white photos, quite "artsy", but is this really Cate? Almost unrecognizable, again. Could be anybody showing a very light resemblance with Cate. Again, the same use of natural light, strong contrasts, big shadows ruining her recognizable portrait. No further comment.
Last but not least, on the upper right corner of the cover, it is written: "The I-List W picks this years most influential people in style". I said to myself it would be a kind of dossier on theme. I went back to the "summary expedition" to find out the page number: 215 up to 242. Well, no dossier here. After the opening cover on page 215, the whole section is fragmented again by full-page ADs on every right page. No coherence, no unity, not a single spread. Finally, I remembered that when I first turned over the whole magazine, I did see those pages, but I was not aware it could have been the supposed feature-dossier "The I-List", and that's because this ambiguity in graphic-design.
I didn't count, but I think more than 60% of this "W" issue is only print ADs. They are placed in a way that is ruining the lay-out rhythm. Its like a continuous "drums & trumpets allegro march" banging your head until the fashion editorials section begin. And this is page 282 - out of 364 pages.
But the main question remains: what's the point to put on the cover such a star like Cate Blanchett in a photo that you could hardly recognize her?
And talking about cover now. If they cut Cate's knees and left arm fingers, why they didn't assume this decision moving the whole image a little more to the right, so we don't have all those titles squeezed between the left margin and Cate's body? We have a very busy left part of cover and a very "aerial" right part, but on the other hand, big "Cate Blanchett" photo and name are placed right in the center... The ideal situation would have been to have Cate's full figure smaller in the picture, so not to cut her knees and fingers and to have more space around it for titles and headlines.
Sorry boys, not one of your best "W" issues...
Right after the cover, you find yourself lost in a bulk section of unnumbered AD pages. You scroll, you scroll and then - bingo - the first summary page. But after that, it doesn't follow the second page of summary section, but, of course, more ADs. So, in this issue of "W", at least, the summary pages are lost in a big bulk ADs section (full pages, single or spread). It is very hard to use the summary as a guide (as it supposed to be) of orientation through magazine. Each time you want to come back to summary, you must search it again thoroughly. Or you must use one of those cardboard stripes made for books. It is very annoying and impractical.
The main reason I bought this issue of "W" it was because they had Cate Blanchett on the cover. I love Cate. But the photo is very... uh... shall I use "radical honesty"? Yes, it is very bad. Big shadows on her eyes, under her nose and chin. Her eyes are almost closed, because she was obviously deranged by the cruel sunlight. Almost unrecognizable. You have such a beautiful woman, with such beautiful eyes and intense gaze, and you do THIS kind of image?
OK, the shooting session was on the beach, but can't they just use additional lights? Fill-in flash ? Reflected lights, maybe? Or can't they just choose another moment of the day, when the sun in not right above her head? Then I went searching the feature about Cate. Again, scrolling tens of ADs to find the summary, then to find the summary page where the feature was pointed... Finally, I found the feature: page 342. Black & white photos, quite "artsy", but is this really Cate? Almost unrecognizable, again. Could be anybody showing a very light resemblance with Cate. Again, the same use of natural light, strong contrasts, big shadows ruining her recognizable portrait. No further comment.
Last but not least, on the upper right corner of the cover, it is written: "The I-List W picks this years most influential people in style". I said to myself it would be a kind of dossier on theme. I went back to the "summary expedition" to find out the page number: 215 up to 242. Well, no dossier here. After the opening cover on page 215, the whole section is fragmented again by full-page ADs on every right page. No coherence, no unity, not a single spread. Finally, I remembered that when I first turned over the whole magazine, I did see those pages, but I was not aware it could have been the supposed feature-dossier "The I-List", and that's because this ambiguity in graphic-design.
I didn't count, but I think more than 60% of this "W" issue is only print ADs. They are placed in a way that is ruining the lay-out rhythm. Its like a continuous "drums & trumpets allegro march" banging your head until the fashion editorials section begin. And this is page 282 - out of 364 pages.
But the main question remains: what's the point to put on the cover such a star like Cate Blanchett in a photo that you could hardly recognize her?
And talking about cover now. If they cut Cate's knees and left arm fingers, why they didn't assume this decision moving the whole image a little more to the right, so we don't have all those titles squeezed between the left margin and Cate's body? We have a very busy left part of cover and a very "aerial" right part, but on the other hand, big "Cate Blanchett" photo and name are placed right in the center... The ideal situation would have been to have Cate's full figure smaller in the picture, so not to cut her knees and fingers and to have more space around it for titles and headlines.
Sorry boys, not one of your best "W" issues...
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