Rolling Stone^113
Fred WoodwardWhen he was thirty years old Mick Jagger
predicted that nothing could be more
embarrassing than singing “Satisfaction” at
age fifty. Today the elder rocker eats those
words. “Satisfaction” has become such a
classic that it remains in the Stones’s
concert repertoire. Likewise, in the 1960 s
few would have imagined that Rolling
Stonemagazine would still be publishing
after all the other counterculture rock
magazines had folded. But having endured
rock music’s various fads,Rolling Stoneis
editorially vigorous and smartly designed.
Like the Rolling Stones,Rolling Stoneis
an institution that sets standards.
Rolling Stonehas changed
through the years, though not as a slave to
fashion. In each of its incarnations, during the tenures of art directors John
Williams ( 1967 – 1968 ), Robert Kingsbury ( 1968 – 1974 ), Mike Salisbury
( 1973 – 1974 ), Tony Lane ( 1974 – 1976 ), Roger Black ( 1976 – 1978 ), Mary
Shanahan ( 1978 – 1982 ), Derek Unglass ( 1982 – 1987 ), and Fred Woodward
( 1987 –present), the magazine has steered its own course through design
fashions and trends. When it premiered in 1967 , psychedelia prevailed in
Rolling Stone’s home town of San Francisco, but the only concession to this
popular style was the hand-drawn logo designed by psychedelic poster
artist Rick Griffin (which was replaced in 1976 ). The rest of the magazine
appeared in classical dress, down to the Oxford rules framing each page.
When compared to the anarchic layout of most other underground
newspapers Rolling Stonewas not alternative, it was progressive.
When the magazine approached middle age in the late 1980 s,
Fred Woodward (b. 1953 ) decided to reprise many of the classic design
characteristics that had been allowed to atrophy over time, such as Nicolas
Cochin type, Oxford rules, and woodtypes. This was not nostalgia.Rolling
Stone’s design direction does not retreat into the past for safe and easy
answers, but rather builds upon imaginative typography and iconic
photography. What distinguishes Rolling Stonefrom most other magazines