On the editorial side, however, Whitney decided to take a
calculated risk by promoting two young Interiorsassociate editors to co-
editors of Industrial Design. Jane Fisk (now Jane Thompson of the
architectural firm Thompson and Wood in Cambridge) and Deborah
Allen may have been inexperienced in the field of industrial design but
nevertheless had a clear plan to introduce a distinctly journalistic sensibility
into professional publishing that emphasized criticism and analysis rather
than the puff pieces common to the genre. As it turned out, this became a
point of philosophical contention between the designer and editors.
If they had a choice the editors would have preferred an art
director who, as Thompson explained, “would have been in the trenches
with us,” a team player with journalistic instincts rather than a distant
presence with a formalist sensibility. Because Lustig designed the initial
dummy and subsequent two issues in his own studio and returned with the
completed layouts to the editorial offices, he had made certain assumptions
about the presentation of content that were often inconsistent with the
editors’ vision. “We did not want the words to be gray space, we wanted
them to have meaning,” recalled Thompson about wanting more
spontaneous design responses to the material. But instead of being
journalistically intuitive, Lustig imposed his formal preconceptions and
designed the magazine as he would a book.
Blocks of text type were indeed used as gray matter to frame an
abundance of precisely silhouetted photographs. But if there was a problem
it was more in the editors’ minds than Lustig’s design. While it was not as
journalistically paced as say,Lifemagazine,Industrial Designwas
respectfully, indeed elegantly neutral, allowing for a wide range of material
to be presented without interference. Moreover, it was what Whitney
wanted, so the editors reconciled themselves to building the magazine’s
editorial reputation through informative features written by authors not
previously associated with trade publishing.
Thompson nevertheless hated the first cover with its tight grid
and silhouetted photographs. Instead she wanted to disrupt the design
purity with a few well-composed coverlines. She further favored a
conceptual method of intersecting photography and text, resulting in an
editorial idea, not a pure design. Lustig thought coverlines would sully
the design and intersecting ideas would be too contrived. Years later,
Thompson grudgingly admitted that maybe Lustig’s judgment was wiser:
“He wanted to make a strong simple statement, which he believed
(perhaps erroneously sinceIndustrial Designdid not have to compete on
the newsstand) had to stand up against the covers of the elegant fashion
magazines.” Lustig’s design set the standard for future covers, and his
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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