Computer Arts - UK (2020-04)

• 98 -

MARGARET NOLAN

Margaret is an award-

winning creative director

with nearly three decades

of luxury drinks experience.

Staying true to her first

love, she is still a hands-on

designer as well as creative

lead for the Denomination

teams in Sydney, London

and San Francisco.

denomination.com

“I began my design career in the early 80s,

with no computers in the studio and no

internet. To keep in touch with the fashion

and design world, you read magazines.

Luckily, the 80s was the heyday of great

titles: The Face, i-D and Andy Warhol’s

Interview magazine had, as contributors, the

most exceptional talent in art direction,

styling, photography and design. Names like

Ray Petri, Nick Knight, Neville Brody, Herb

Ritts and Bruce Weber were producing some

of the most exciting editorial design,

photography and styling I had ever seen.

The power of these magazines is hard to

imagine now when millions of images and

articles are available at the tap of a button.

I remember the thrill whenever a newsagent

had a new issue of one of my favourite

magazines, and the early editions of

Interview were avidly collected. Printed on

thick, uncoated paper in an extra large

format, the production qualities of the

magazine were exceptional. Above all, it was

the amazing work of a young and talented art

director that made Interview so exciting and

so unique at the time: the now legendary

Fabien Baron. I think his work was the thing

that began my love affair with type. Fabien’s

work in Interview embraced bold, brave,

beautiful typography: he loved playing with

letter forms, cropping and connecting the

typography with the imagery so the whole

spread worked seamlessly. These layouts

weren’t just about looking fantastic, they

enticed you to read the article with intriguing

pull-out quotes. Everything was meticulous:

the layout, the photography and the writing.

This spread for Interview from 1990 is

still fabulous. Madonna was at the peak of

her fame and the article featured amazing

photographs by Herb Ritts. Fabien’s layout,

utilising a cropped M, encapsulates

Madonna’s strength and boldness, but the

letterform also complements the image. The

sub-text is just two lines, but that’s all that is

needed to get you reading more.

Fabien’s work introduced me to a whole

world of stunning typography and powerful

visual language. It taught me not to be afraid

of type; how important a great image is; the

power of language and, above all, telling a

story with every element you have. Thirty

years after it was designed, this spread still

has me wishing I’d done it.”

DESIGN CRUSH

MARGARET NOLAN ON FABIEN BARON’S MAGAZINE WORK

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Interview magazine

spread 1990. Art

direction, Fabien

Baron; photography,

Herb Ritts. Spread

from Fabien Baron:

Works 1983-2019,

Phaidon, £150,

phaidon.com