At Hollister’s urging Howard Richmond, Macy’s chief designer,
became the first art director of Life. With Richmond on the layout board,
the second dummy was published for the week ending September 25, 1936.
The content and design were closer to what would become Life’s trademark
design until the 1960 s: a loose grid noted for varied and often unattractive
gothic typography. There appeared to be a conscious rejection of design
nuances in favor of a jumbled tabloid look. And yet the layout seemed to be
appropriate for the stark black-and-white photography on disturbing
subjects, such as: “Hitler Speaks,” about the pageantry of a Nuremberg
Rally; “Cotton Pickin’,” about the squalid conditions of Southern black
laborers; and “Seen in Catalonia,” about the horrors of the Spanish Civil
War. Reviews came in quickly, and many were harsh even within the Time
ranks. One executive wrote a memo to Luce saying that if the potential for
a picture magazine existed this dummy was not it. “I found that I knew no
further facts nor had I added to my visualized sense of the scene....I
think any reader would finish the dummy in half an hour or less.” Another
critique came from commentator Dorothy Thompson who called the
magazine “unmodern,” and said that she expected something that would
burst upon the eye “with the sort of inevitableness which has always been
your [Luce’s] genius.”
Luce was not deterred. Richmond was given the job to design in a
matter of days what became one of the most emblematic magazine covers
in the world. Yet it was a freelance artist/illustrator, Edward Wilson, who
suggested that the cover always be a black-and-white photo, a full bleed on
all sides. Richmond added the sans serif logo dropped out of a red rectangle
positioned in the upper left corner of the cover. After much discussion
among Time’s executives it was decided that a stationary logo was better
than a movable one and it became the most identifiable design element of
Life. Richmond also recalled taking a photostat and putting it on red paper
with the paper extending over the picture. Luce liked it. The red was
agreed to because Luce believed that if it worked for Time, it would be
lucky for Life.
The first issue of Life, not unlike the rehearsal dummy, was a
photo album rather than a well-paced collection of sophisticated photo
essays in the tradition of the Berlin or Munich illustrated weeklies. This
changed within the next two years as Life’s picture editors and
photographers became more confident about their missions. But although
the stories and editing became tighter, the quality of the design betrayed a
conscious effort not to rise above basic functionalism. It could be argued
that the matter-of-fact format allowed the photographs the room to
breathe. That the no-style design style was actually consistent with Life’s
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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