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Get Me Out Of Here
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 2 February 2009, 11:44 Permalink Comments (16)
Jeremy Leslie thinks that Disappear Here, James Brown and Peaches Geldof's new venture into youth publishing has a great name. Unfortunately that isn't enough to detract from its empty editorial and confused design...
As a fully paid up member of the magazine obsessives club it takes a lot for me to dismiss a new magazine. So I surprised myself when I did just that about a new title announced at the end of last year.
Disappear Here arrives courtesy of Peaches Geldof (C-list celebrity daughter of Sir Bob) and James Brown (the man who bought us Loaded magazine back in 1994). I mentioned its launch in a brief post on my magCulture blog late last year. While admiring the name of their magazine (more of which later), I slipped easily into the assumption that any magazine from those two would be disappointing. How could 19-year-old Peaches and the quietly fading Brown create anything genuinely innovative? I added that their description of the project (“a magazine about music and fashion and everything you love”) made it sound hackneyed.
The one thing I did like was that title. Naming a new magazine is always one of the toughest creative tasks, and while not the most easily presented or descriptive name for a magazine, Disappear Here is a great title. It sets a distinctive conceptual tone for the project and demonstrates that the people behind it understand what a magazine can be – a world apart, a place to escape to. The best magazines offer their readers a unique world to submerge themselves in, be it the sheer escapism of Vogue, the intellectual stimulus of The New Yorker, the conceptual experiment of independents like Kasino A4, or indeed the full-on hedonism of Brown’s Loaded. Disappear Here tells you little beyond that, and is a clumsy phrase for the designer to build a logo from. But a clever name nonetheless, a good start.
In response to my post, Brown, not unreasonably, suggested I should check out their pilot issue before passing further comment. Meanwhile, to my amusement, a quote from my post (“what a great name for a magazine”) appeared on the magazine’s website.
It was left to art director Stuart Tolley to mail me a copy of the pilot issue. A quick flick later and two things were clear. Firstly, my initial cynicism was correctly placed. Disappear Here is a mess of a magazine, featuring the worst sort of self-regarding insular content completely lacking the vital glue of an editorial concept to hold it together. It lurches from Geldof interviewing Vivienne Westwood to reportage from a Norway rock festival via a column from Tony Benn and endless pictures of teenagers snogging. The lead feature of the pilot issue is that most tired magazine cliché – 50 Things We Love, number 42 of which is “Silky knickers in lurid colours”, because, “We’ve got lots of them. Literally millions of pairs of knickers. Where do they all come from? Sweatshops full of children of course, but you know what we mean, right?” Believe me, this is not a world many will want to escape to.
Secondly, and in response to the confusion of the content, Tolley has had great fun playing with this editorial mess. Too much fun. One of the basic premises of editorial design is that content and presentation should reflect one another and he has risen to this task without fear. Every page looks different, borrowing from early i-D, RayGun and a thousand other indie mags. This is editorial and design chaos with none of the refreshing novelty of its sources.
Geldof and Brown seem to be under the impression they’ve created a super-cool youth fanzine, when the actual result is a half-baked melange of ideas that could have been knocked out down the pub. There probably is a decent magazine somewhere within their thinking, a magazine that might reunite a young audience with print, but with this pilot edition they’ve singularly failed to prove it.
This article appears in the February issue of CR. Jeremy Leslie is executive creative director of John Brown, co-curator of the Colophon independent magazine festival and author of the magCulture.com blog
16 Comments
Vice + Raygun ÷ Peaches Geldof = Disappear Here
2009-02-02 12:40:04
I was really disappointed.
I follow blogs, I read magazine and listen to bands on myspace.
This magazine doesn't show me anything i haven't already seen.
I mean 'The Cobrasnake'? Whatever, how long have they been kicking around!
2009-02-02 20:21:06
Took me a little while but eventually realised that the cover line was '50 things we love' rather than a squirly mess with 'things we love' embedded in it, therefore proving it's a poor design. As for the inside, it's typical of a graphic designer all very groovy but impossible to read (See also Q mag). I also find it very interesting that Jeremy Leslie is called upon to comment on magazine design and have always wondered what he thought about conventional magazine design like 'Now' or 'Anglers Mail' rather than just the "cool" stuff...
2009-02-03 14:45:15
May be if you interview the target audience for the magazine it would have a better response. Who cares if the critic dislike it if it sells well right? Sometimes I guess.
2009-02-03 15:43:58
Actually, while I agree the mag appears a bit boring in content (Youth Lifestyle/Community is one of the few things that the web does better than mags), I was very impressed with Patrick's comments on what a magazine is all about: "...a world apart, a place to escape to. The best magazines offer their readers a unique world to submerge themselves in". This is so true and so many magazine forget this simple premise to success.
2009-02-04 08:35:03
"Took me a little while but eventually realised that the cover line was ‘50 things we love’ rather than a squirly mess with ‘things we love’ embedded in it, therefore proving it’s a poor design."
Alex Trochut is one of the best designers of our time, some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen come from him. Poor design? mmm nah Your taste is really bad I must say. Do read the NY post I bet you like that.
2009-02-04 15:13:31
Hi Lime
You're right - it's about taste, but design is about communication and this is poor. If you were to say Alex Trochut is one of the best 'artists' of our time then that's fine as art is subjective. Bottom line is it's difficult to read, like it or not.
2009-02-04 16:05:57
Lime, Alex Trochut is NOT one of the best designers of our time. You know why? Because hes an ILLUSTRATOR. And while he is very talented, the 50 *IS* difficult to recognize. Lime, you are a boorish boob.
2009-02-05 06:17:03
Agreed. There is a fine line between fine arts and design. The readability in this case proves that this is not that great of a design, on the other hand it is a nice piece of art work.
2009-02-05 21:18:17
[comment deleted by moderator].reminds me of something off behance.com...proper dated lacking progression...naff...
2009-02-06 14:19:08
my first thought on seeing the cover image (which I liked) was 'Hmm.. I bet this in no way reflects the look of the magazine inside.' A quick scroll down and it looks like I was right - EVERY SINGLE PAGE seems not to reflect the one that follows or precedes it. I mean, I get it - youthfull energy and lack of attention span, the tyranny of design etc, but it just seems to me an ungodly mess.
Byt hey, I'm over 30 so I'm probably too old to appreciate it.
2009-02-06 16:09:37
Can people please stop giving Peaches Geldof the impression that she has anything to say in the hope that she will eventually stop saying the stupid 19 year old things that make her look like an idiot when they are put in an adult context. This is cruelty on the level of Jade Goody.
Of course the magazine is dull and derivative, it's created by a child and a relic. As for 50 Things We Love, who ok-ed that as the lead feature? For a first issue! Seriously?! Idiots
2009-02-06 16:55:40
I agree, a great name for a magazine. Doesn't look like the magazine itself is for me, quite frankly, but the true test is the marketplace. Is Peaches credible enough among her peers to get them to log off and internet and read it?
2009-02-09 09:14:43
Hi,
Do you know something about Alex Trochut??
http://www.alextrochut.com/
Best Regards
2009-02-12 17:21:39
I wasn't going to comment, as I actually quite like the design of the magazine. I don't have enough knowledge of the history of publishing to be able to call it derivative (although I didn't see the 50 until it was pointed out as such!), and I quite like the style. However, I tried reading an article and I couldn't (http://disappearheremag.com/features/article/vivienne_westwood_peaches_geldof_interview/) - those sentences! By the time I get to the end of one, I forget what point it was making and have to go back to job my memory!
I'm normally quick to jump on the "hating things like this" bandwagon, but I can easily justify it here!
2009-02-15 09:12:49
That was meant to be "jog" my memory, sorry.
2009-02-15 09:13:59
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