judges’ picks >> john bielenberg
1. PENTAGRAM DESIGN, SAN FRANCISCO
Judge John Bielenberg, partner at C2 in San Francisco, selected volume 11,
number 1 of @issue not to reward this issue specifically but to honor the
magazine’s legacy. “I think Kit is a genius,” Bielenberg says of Pentagram
partner Kit Hinrichs, “and certainly he’s been acknowledged for what he
does, but I think that often, designers don’t understand the level he’s operating
on. That’s why I chose this piece.” Eleven years ago, Hinrichs and
editor/writer Delphine Hirasuna, together with the Corporate Design
Foundation’s chairman Peter Lawrence, launched the magazine to communicate
the value of design to a readership of businesspeople—picking
up not a few readers within the design community along the way.
Its deceptively simple design seems an exercise in restraint.
In fact, it’s a direct response to the needs of @issue readers. “You
don’t read this like
The New Yorker,” says Hirasuna. “You thumb
through it, look at the captions and imagery, and if you’re interested,
then you read the stories. With
@issue, if you read only the
captions and look at the visuals, you can understand the stories.”
Bielenberg most admires the fact that
@issue—with its refined balance
between image and copy—achieves clarity of message and
visual drama simultaneously, flying in the face of the misperception
that designers can’t have both.
“He’s the master as far as editorial design goes,” says Hirasuna
of her long-time collaborator. “More than any other designer
I know, Kit really respects content. He has a very strong desire
to communicate more than style, and that comes across clearly.”
Hinrichs glosses over any such accolades, focusing instead on his
next set of goals for @issue: Find a third sponsor, increase circulation,
and expand to include an additional case study per issue. He
says that the magazine’s quizzes—which lightheartedly test readers’
design IQ on everything from emoticons to logos—are widely
well-received. “You don’t have to take four years of design classes
to understand them,” Hinrichs says. “I think that’s the best kind
of communication.”
And although he’s speaking specifically about the quizzes, the
statement perfectly encapsulates the magazine’s approach in making
design more accessible to more people—pedigreed or not.
Tiffany Meyers
Pentagram Design, San Francisco
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Kit Hinrichs
DESIGNER: Takayo Muroga
EDITOR/COPYWRITER: Delphine Hirasuna
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Barry Robinson, Timothy Hursley
ILLUSTRATORS: Gerard DuBois, John Mattos
CLIENT: Corporate Design Foundation
CONTACT: www.pentagram.com
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