“Emigre magazine doesn’t say anything, because it is still dead.” Hilarious.

JonSel, I think mocking is a bit strong for the three concepts. I think they are a bit sarcastic, while still embracing the design annual. There is nothing wrong with a sense of humor.

Team 1: Talks about the dangers of only evaluating the surface, but since STEP interviews all 100 winners, I think they would be considered one of the exceptions.

Team 3: I really don’t even see this one as even mocking in tone. It is sarcastic at best. It shows that a to be included in an annual all of the elements must line up. Don’t we all strive for perfection?

Team 4: While trends are criticized when they are overused, I think this cover embraces trends when used appropriately and not directly copied. Trends are very natural and can not help but show up in all of the annuals. This annual will also include the second installment (I think) of Nancy Bernard’s perspective on the trends that are evident in the winners.

It will be interesting to hear Emily’s point of view, as she will be the true indicator as if we have went too far towards mocking and not enough toward embracing.

it will be interesting to hear Emily’s point of view, as she will be the true indicator as if we have went too far towards mocking and not enough toward embracing.

That was a nice way of saying, “Nobody else’s opinion really matters but hers.” Just sayin’…

I think humor is a perfectly acceptable route to take. I just wonder if the cynicism is coming through too much in these concepts as presented.

Upon further reflection, here are some more specifics:

Team 1: I get the deeper context – many designs are beautiful, but not all are truly great design – but the meat imagery is so dismissive. But that could be my subjectiveness. To judge the meat, wouldn’t we have to see the inside? I wish I could say more on this one, but it just leaves me cold.

Team 2: Please don’t make this like one of those big image mosaics that make another image. That said, I am interested to see where this goes. Hopefully what submissions you get will be of use in the final design. That’s the chance you take.

Team 3: I like the wheel idea a lot, suggesting that great design is the proper alignment of so many different criteria – from type choices to client needs. Ideally, the winners of a design contest aren’t merely well-designed, but well-designed for the client. The downside I see is that it could look like designers can just pick a few options and, BAM, great design results.

I also like that this concept was presented as a pencil sketch. Go Team Pencil!

Team 4: The copy is pretty funny. Good to have the written content be important to the concept. But the big “T” looks too much like a type visual, and not a stand-in for “trend”. “Vignelli denounces the trend” is great. I really hope the younger designs know what that means. And if you are announcing that a trend is started on a STEP cover, presumably this one, it better be a good trend!

This is the perfect opportunity to just make art out of design

No, it’s not. Yes, we all love beautiful things, but this isn’t a fine art competition. The cover better look great, but it also better have a tight concept. Oh yeah, it’ll also have to sell magazines.

And let’s try to make these comments useful beyond “that sucks”.

JonSel, Thanks for the additional comments. The are very insightful and helpful. I didn’t really mean that only Emily’s point will matter, just that it will be interesting to see if she thinks they are too cynical. Emily will be reading all the comments, so everyone’s opinion does matter.

Thanks for the truly constructive criticism.

Cover 1:

I like the meat. I like that it is all pretty much the same slice of beef and one arbitrarily get’s picked as “Grade A.” It makes me think that designers are all pretty much the same and being led to the slaughter. Maybe there are some other “cow” direction that this could go besides just steaks. Branding? Kind of trite. Cowboys, herding, barbeque. What if you showed different stages of beef from the butcher to the grill representing the process of going from concept to award show? Just throwing out ideas. I think it is a good metaphor, but right now there isn’t enough irony or something. I would like to see another twist on this idea.

Cover 2:

The next couple rounds will prove whether we can do something visually engaging with our collection of photos.

Cover 3:

Knowing these designers, the execution of this one should look pretty cool. I think it is a pretty good idea, and it has the potential of being pretty funny in an “inside joke” kind of way.

Cover 4:

The writing is interesting, but right now, the cover doesn’t make me want to pick it up and read it. The next round is going to have to do something to engage me. Maybe an interesting visual could be pulled out of the text. Or maybe you lose the “T” and set the text beautifully or in some unique way.

Good job everybody! Looking forward to round 2.

JonSel, Finding a new trend would be nearly impossible, but we could give it a try. Maybe we can just try to incorporate every trend imaginable (while still remaining beautiful and cohesive) and make that our trend. I was thinking of making it more hand drawn and ornamental, but of course that is not a new trend (we will see where my partner takes it). Maybe we should make a disclaimer at the bottom. “This is not the trend setting cover, this is just a tribute”

Matt, A tall order indeed. Man, this is tough stuff. Thanks for helping us push it as far as we can.

ChirsM70, Thanks for keeping this ball rolling.

Here is my attempt at constructive criticism.

TEAM 1: The stark images of meat, make me think too much of advertising and not enough about design. It seems too much ad club and not enough AIGA. I’m just thinking it needs a little more style for the meaty concept. Maybe that is just me. Am I making too big of a deal about style this early on? I know our concept is going to gain a lot more style and fine tuning as we go along.

TEAM 2: Hopefully you could integrate the photos with some more additional elements. Typography, illustration, negative shapes, etc. I’m sure you are planing on that already, but I had to throw it out there.

TEAM 3: I’m interested to hear how you will render this in the end. Are you thinking illustration, photography or a combination of both? I agree that the hand aspect of it as this point is very appealing. Don’t lose that aspect in the end.

Just a quick comment for all of us involved in the STEP-Off, very much Nate and I included:

-Why is each team only showing a single concept on this project? I know any of us that are educators would likely have nailed a student that chose a single direction right at the outset and then hoped it would make it through the first-round draft pick…

I’d encourage all of the teams to put up at least 2-3 “sketches” in the next round so that our process opens up a little more - I agree with the comment above that right now it feels like all of us are thinking we nailed it with our single sketch and not allowing for a wider expression / exposure of the ideas we’re contributing by backing them up with supportive visuals.

P. Berkbigler, The reason everyone only submitted one concept is because that is what we asked you all to do. I think the challenge was to distill it down to your best concept. Personally I thought there would be way too many concepts on the site if everyone submitted two or three designs. From my past experience the more things you include in a blog post, the less it encourages people to discuss. Maybe I am wrong here and we should all include 2-3 sketches, but I think it would get too confusing. What does everyone else think?

Of course you can always just post a new idea next round.

Concept 1: While I understand the rationale behind this concept, it’s been done before, by us. STEP’s 2004 Design 100 Annual featured meat on the cover with the cover line: “Prime Cut.” Granted, the image we selected came from one of the winning pieces inside. Perhaps the designers could take this idea in a different direction using a different metaphor … not sure.

Concept 2: This idea intrigues me. I’m interested in seeing what kinds of images are submitted. However (and I’m speaking of all the concepts here) the designs need to accommodate cover lines and none of the designs I’m seeing so far are lending themselves to that. Cover lines are run on the top left side of the cover and must be easy to read in the sea of magazines on the newsstand.

Concept 3: I think this concept is too abstract—i.e. if you’re looking at magazines on the newsstand, it’s not immediately known what we’re trying to communicate. It might be too clever. There needs to be an immediate connection between the newsstand browser and the cover. perhaps there’s a way to simplify this concept? It’s an interesting idea, but I think it will be lost on the newsstand.

Concept 4: The idea of setting Trends is a cool idea, and there will be an article about Trends in design in the issue, based on the 100 winners. Again, though, this is very similar to a cover we ran in 2005 designed by Sean Adams for our Type Annual (May/June). Perhaps this is another case of taking the concept and using a different metaphor or image.

All in all, this is a great first round. There are some interesting ideas floating around here and I think the input from readers will help steer these in the right direction. This is what I call “Design in Action.” Great magazine covers (i.e. covers that sell well) are usually not the most beautiful covers—this is something I’ve had to learn the hard way and sometimes it’s difficult to grasp from a design point of view. Covers are marketing tools—you need to get the newsstand buyer’s attention, make them want to open the magazine, and ultimately purchase it. With all the competition on the newsstand, this is a heavy task. Of course, having said that, we are a design magazine, so we have the double-duty of appealing to a fickle audience that expects good design as well.

Cover 1: I was going to say that this concept of picking the best cut of meat seemed typical. But now, with Emily’s note that this is too similar to last year’s cover, I should probably offer some suggestion. I’m thinking of other selection processes, like produce or an illustrator picking the right tool/brush/pencil. But I don’t think my examples have the depth that you described in the initial post. Did you have other ideas? Try representing it dramatically, with an exaggerated sense of scale. At least that’s what captures my attention, as in the “T” in Cover 4. I like the thoughts that went into your initial description.

Cover 2: I have to admit I was not sure about this. Maybe it’s the risk in this idea that makes me uncomfortable. I’m sure our readers can be creative with “100” but how many good submissions will you get? On the other hand, Flickr does have the potential to get 100’s/1000’s of people involved. The idea of group participation is nice, as long as the final layout of the 100’s is interesting. You may want to—if you haven’t already—compare/contrast the STEP Nov/Dec 05 cover with the CA Design Annual 46 (Nov 05) cover. One thing I take away from each of these covers is that each piece has to be really great. I know, I know, this is a no-brainer, but it’s different than the BA Photo Collection where you can afford to have some ho-hum photos. Yet, I like the BA photos. I suppose it all depends on how many 100 photos you fit on the cover, with room for cover lines.

Cover 3: My first reaction was that I liked the texture and hoped that it would turn out to be something colorful and hand-manipulated like the Jan/Feb 06 cover of STEP. I, too, thought it was confusing for a cover. If you could work some labels in there, that would help. I wasn’t sure what Small/Medium/Large was referring to. However, this is a first draft. You may have already accounted for the necessary clarifications.

ChrisM70’s notion of using those hand-made paper fortune tellers is interesting. Those were so fun as a kid! The challenge would be to make it serious/respectful enough to represent/highlight the 100 best designers. Off the cuff suggestion: take great pieces of the winner’s work (color, type, style, etc) and draw them in pencil on the paper fortune teller? I dunno—could still be too abstract.

Cover 4: I thought this one was headed in a great direction. I like the color combinations, and look forward to seeing what becomes of the central letterform. The type was a joy to read: hilarious. Would I read all that type if standing at a newstand? Perhaps—depending on what the big text on the cover said. *Maybe some of the timeline text could be larger (but probably not so large that it competes with the cover lines)?

Those are my ramblings, err, constructive criticism. All in all, this was a good first step, in my opinion. Keep up the good work.

I don’t like #4… is this type 2 class?

Anyway, that is my 2 cents.

anonymous, You are not the first to notice, but you are dead on. We are sorely lacking in terms of female designers. There is no real excuse and we would love to remedy that. Here is our only justification. We invited several female designers do be authors in the very beginning and one jumped on board. She was a great addition to the team, but she was a designer, a very active artist and much more. She just didn’t have enough time for this endeavor as well. After our first initial invitation, we haven’t actively sought out any new full time authors. This is something we hope to fix.

To be honest, my wife should be listed somewhere on the author page. She reads every post I write and if any of my posts are concise and meaningful, it is because of her unwavering revisions. As an artist she has a great perspective. She dedicates a lot of time to this site and should be given credit.