Can you post a grab? BTW, on a similar magazine demo REAL SIMPLE is quite well designed as well. Having been a Mag AD in a past life I know this work is near total hell so props to these design teams.

I'll scan a page tonight, it's at home. I don't wanna be caught reading Martha Stewart on the subway, it's not very manly. I might get bullied.

I wonder what it's like to work there, seeing their several open AD positions as well as others.

Maybe someone can post a horror story, or dispell my negative assumptions.

Both Font Bureau and Hoefler have done stuff for Martha. The new font is likely from one of the two. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll go have a look-see soon.

Oh, and can I be a real punk and request more descriptive and representative entry titles? “YEAH, SO?” doesn’t tell me much about what I’ll be reading about if I click on it from the Recent Comments list.

what a real punk!

Thanks for the comment. Will do.

I know Robert Valentine, The Valentine Group, NY, NY was the designer of Martha Stewart Living and her catalogue Martha By Mail. His other credits include Real Simple magazine and the new STEP inside design(formerly STEP by STEP). www.stepinsidedesign.com

Some samples of the type are available here.

Tom Cox, about time don't you think?

Corey, I applied for two design jobs at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia sometime in the Spring/Summer of this year. Never heard back. No letter, no email, no nothing. Unprofessional in my book, I don't care if you had a billion dollar market cap.

It's beautiful. Reminds me of Nick Shinn's Bodoni Egyptian.

It's beautiful. Reminds me of Nick Shinn's Bodoni Egyptian.

Indeed. I always get all choked up when I see wonderfully subtle ball termini. The lowercase italics in the bottom-most scan look especially tasty. I'd dearly love to see a larger character setting.

> people say there is nothing left to explore in typeface design.

Whoever says that is retarded. We're just warming up.

hhp

to answer and clarify some comments.

it is very lovely to work at martha stewart and i agree with Kiran...HR dept is unprofessional.

Robert Valentine worked on one magazine a long time ago (did not design it) and some books, but did not design martha by mail either.

Lastly, Hoefler designed the font...called archer.

More on Archer (and a bit about Surveyor)...

While Jonathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere-Jones spoke at the SPD Magazine Design conference in NYC this past spring, they mentioned that while they were working on the new typefaces for Art Director Barbara de Wilde and the rest of the Living gang, Martha herself got in the mix. She helped give them direction by sending them (via fax) a sample of a typeface that she found particularly charming, one that she felt they might be able to use as inspiration.

The font in question was Courier.

Hoefler explained that the goal of the Living folks was to incorporate two new complimentary typefaces into their new layouts. These typefaces would need to be simple and elegant workhorses. They needed to be just as nice when used for heads as they would be for body copy. They wanted a slab serif with flexibility and grace, one that could be used a million ways. One that italicized nicely. It needed to have chameleon-esque characteristics while still looking fresh in many different applications.

From "In the Redesign Kitchen with Martha" at foliomag.com:

In late 2000, de Wilde began talks with font designer Jonathan Hoefler, of New York-based Hoefler Type Foundry. “We needed a font you could use — small, large, and throughout the front of the book,” she says. Also, although MSL doesn't use boldface type — because “we don't shout,” explains de Wilde — the designers do favor italics. “The italics looks like a voice, or a quote.” She decided that two fonts would be needed: one front-of-book workhorse, and an elegant, classical-yet-modern font for the feature well.

Hoefler ended up getting inspiration for the more heavily used typeface from some antique maps that he dug up. A true genius, he was able to incorporate all of the criteria into one of the best fonts out there -- Archer.

Martha's no dumbie.

Apparently she had the final say, and gave her okay in the same manner as she gave initial direction for the project... a sign-off via fax. Surveyor was completed not long after.

Thanks Joy.

I'm glad my love of MSL is validated and shared by so many people here. The editorial team that Martha has assembled is indeed incredible.

And I have an issue of an interior design mag that showcases the current headquarters of Omnimedia -- what an incredible place. So clean, so well-designed -- yet, not cold or sterile. I'll try to find it and post some spreads. I've seen my share of design offices -- and theirs is tops to me.

You know what I refer to MSL for the most? The process color builds in their layouts. Finding good combinations of process solid colors is an art -- especially build combinations adequate for type.

From what I have heard, even before the "scandel" working there was a not-so-pleasant thing, unless, of course, well... she liked you.

My old roommates uncle works/worked there, and I guess the turnover is outrageous because unless she likes your design sense, and it somewhat matches hers, or for some off reason you can convince the staff it is a good idea, you will not last long.

yes, the design of the magazine is great, and the content competitive...but who would want to work in an envir. like that - well, I guess it is only meant for certain people.

> My old roommates uncle works/worked there, and I guess the turnover is outrageous because unless she likes your design sense, and it somewhat matches hers, or for some off reason you can convince the staff it is a good idea, you will not last long..but who would want to work in an envir. like that

I've heard similar stories. But it's really no less demanding than in any top-notch agency or other editorial. Excellence in our profession is usually driven by love or fear -- and in extremes, rather than in moderation.

And you're right -- MSL is probably a cruel environment for most people. But consider the opposite -- working in a firm where everyone's nice, but your boss/AD has no design vision, and all the work is forever doomed to mediocrity and the client's will. I'd consider that to be a lower level of hell.

But I know what you're saying.

I know hell. and I would go for either of the above...

Where I am at now is not condusive to me at all. There is a lot of freedom in many ways, but there is no sense of team, and there are very few moments where I feel proud of what I did. I am needing to, and will be striving for a completly different type of design job in the future - where there is even a small amount of communication, a sense of family and challenges (design and otherwise).

This place just plain sucks... the big one. Is not for me anymore.

I agree though, I would rather the nagging challenge and debate over the lack of design-sensibility.

Tan sprach:

But it's really no less demanding than in any top-notch agency or other editorial. Excellence in our profession is usually driven by love or fear -- and in extremes, rather than in moderation.

I’d like to offer an alternate thought -- that an important element of the path to success is self-knowledge and the ability to convey that knowledge.

An example:

My first big-timey job in design was in the creative department of Cosmair’s Designer Fragrance Division (DFD). We were the ones who packaged fragrances for Armani, Paloma Picasso, Ralph Lauren and the like.

At that time, we were developing packaging for a new Ralph Lauren line called �Notorious’. The creative director, Alain Filiz (very talented and relatively unknown to the general design world), had come up with a series of purple glass �bottles’ shaped like asymmetrical rough gem stones and gun-metal caps which continued the angular lines of the bottle. Truly ahead of their time, but not very �Ralph Lauren’.

Being a young’n, and male, I was given the job of lugging the prototypes to Ralph Lauren’s office on 55th Street with Alain and the then president of DFD, John �something’ -- I forget his name. Anyway, John kind of liked me and spontaneously invited me to sit in on the presentation.

We were led into the sanctum sanctorum: wood paneled, beautiful cabinetry, nautical prints, and many scale models of obscure vintage cars along the window sills.

After our initial presentation, Ralph made comments along the lines of “Love it”, “Beautiful, like a jewel”, “This one, I don’t like as much”. To get another opinion, he called his #2 -- a woman named Buffy (of course) into the office. Her comments were exactly Ralph’s: “Love it”, “Beautiful, like a jewel”, “This one, I don’t like as much”.

A third woman was then called into the office and her remarks were “Love it”, “Beautiful, like a jewel”, “This one, I don’t like as much”.

The scales fell from my eyes. What makes people like Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart so successful is their knowledge of who they are, what they represent and their ability to focus and communicate that idea. Ralph’s people may have been like the Stepford Wives, but they were all on the same page.

We can all titter as a group at Martha’s typographic naivete, but it’s important to understand that she recognized a quality in Courier that had resonance with �Martha-ness’.

I’ve been to the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia headquarters. Beautiful Victor Schraeger prints are hung along the entrance hall. The floors are grey, the walls are white, the partitions are white, the desktops are white, the coat hooks and hangers are white. The windows are big and allow bright white sunlight in. The environment is very �Martha’ and encourages conformity to the Omni Vision.

I suspect there is little design debate. It is either 'Martha' or it ain't. Simple as that.

Great point and story, Mark.

Good CEOs (at least the ones I've had a chance to work with) have amazing instincts and an uncanny ability to keep a focused vision on who they are (and what their company is about) and where they want to go. And they're very decisive about their decisions too -- there is no debate. That means in our case, selling them on a design or idea that didn't fly the first time is often futile.

It's going to be interesting to see the journey of Martha's brand from this point forth.

The magazine IS beautifully designed. The photography, typeface, layout, all of it. There's something to learn from that mag.

I never thought I'd have anything to do with "the ultimate housewife". But I must admit I fell in love with the MS color-schemes a while back.

As I understand it, Martha Steward herself has a degree in art. So whether it is her , her staff or a combo of both- they do a good job.