Wirepaper

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On the left, the January 2007 issue of The Wire: on the right, the July 2008 issue of Wallpaper*.
Great minds think alike?

thewire_jan07.jpg

The Wire cover (above), photographed by Korner Union and art directed by James Goggin, was for an issue looking back at the highlights of 2006: hence its use of all 12 issues from the previous year, sliced up.

wallpaperjuly.jpg

The Wallpaper* cover (above, photographed by Matthew Donaldson) is for its Secret Elite issue and comes with light-sensitive ink on the masthead and cover line that changes colour in direct sunlight, revealing a “secret” web address on the spine to access extra info.

The Wire’s editor-in-chief and publisher, Tony Herrington, is not happy. “We know that imitation is supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery, but this is daylight robbery,” he alleges. “Someone call the style police.”

However, Wallpaper* art director Meirion Pritchard denies copying The Wire: “I was referencing our 100th issue cover, the stack with the 100 punched out [shown below]. We used the shreds on the contents as we had done with that issue too,” he says. “It was originally going to be a bigger stack but took ages to cut, so I kept it small. The idea was that the mag, being the Secret Elite issue, was so top secret that it was instantly shredded after it came off the printer. I can see where The Wire are coming from, but I think in the context it makes sense. Just as NEST didn’t own die-cutting (which was one blogger’s comment when we did that) Wire don’t own shredding. It happens a lot, people come to similar conclusions from different routes.”

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Comments...

Who cares!
i love this blog, but am starting to get really tired of all the “who copied who” stories. Everybody copies everybody all the time.
Work doesn’t deserve to be higly praised if it is as unoriginal as this, but it’s not like we don’t all do it to greater and lesser extents every day.
You show me a truly original piece of work, and i’ll show you a genius.

tom
17/Jun/08, 5:36 pm

i prefer wallpaper’s one, the concept is sound and what on earth would they have to gain by knowingly ripping off wire?

katie
17/Jun/08, 5:50 pm

maybe the art director/designer changed his job - from WIRE to Wallpaper :)
Great Article, thank you for that.

Westfalia
18/Jun/08, 12:23 pm

is wallpaper the worlds most boring magazine? maybe its shaded by ‘Practical stamp collector’ or whatever, but its just sooo turgid and anal and joyless and self concious and just terribly terribly over-thought. it looks like it put together by people who iron their underwear. there is just no energy or excitment to it. it should be different. it should be a thing of real excitement to hold a new copy of it. but it never is. am i wrong?

that said, i think the wallpaper one is better. makes the wire cover looks rather flacid and underwhleming in comparison. and come on, shredding/destroying a cover on a cover isnt not new… in fact its a cliche.

wallpaper should have known better but i guess theyve got their heads down worrying about kerning, quirky rule work and stand-up cap sizes to look around and see what else is going on in the world. but thats what happens when graphic designers edit magazines i guess..

dadif
18/Jun/08, 4:40 pm

this is a simple coincidance, and i think the wallpaper representative defended their idea well. Now THIS is plagiarism: http://impostoria.blogspot.com/2008/01/banksy-en-una-galera-ecuatoriana.html (it’s in spanish)

The first two images are from an Ad campaign for a contemporary gallery of art called “La Paleta” in Guayaquil, Ecuador, made by this agency: http://koenigpub.com/ I highly doubt they licensed these images from Banksy. As it seems, the ad even has won several ecuadorian “creativity” awards and stuff, featured as “highly creative” in national magazines. They probably thought nobody would notice. But they are wrong. They have to be denounced, because blatant & true plagiarism should not be accepted in any form in our medium. I tried to inform this through banksy’s website but i couldn’t find any sort of contact info (understandable of course). I’m pretty sure these advertising pieces fall under the category of plagiarism, but correct me if I’m wrong. Maybe you can answer a question, since Banksy’s art is urban and in public space, and he himself is a pretty anonymous individual, can anybody use it without permission for any reason? I guess not. Please help me denounce this so plagiarism won’t go unnoticed.

PS: I’m in no way related to the blog that I first linked to. I got informed through that blog of these plagiarisms, but I’m totally acting “solo” here.

Thanks in advance,
AnonymousEC

Anonymous Ecuador
18/Jun/08, 7:15 pm

Good on Wallpaper! It’s a far stronger execution.
Not to diss James. Because he really is a fantastic designer - but I really don’t think he is the right art director for The Wire magazine… The layout and photography really lacks the dynamic energy the magazine needs.. Not everybody is cut out for editorial design..

Action Man
18/Jun/08, 10:12 pm

Frieze mag started all this with their 100th issue. They used strips from the 99 previous covers laid side by side to create a really striking yet simple cover.

blank
19/Jun/08, 9:54 am

Any art director worth his/her salt, soaks up visual stimulation from all around them. At worst I’d say this was done with a subconscious memory of having seen The Wire, but probably purely co-incidental. They both look good, and when the concept fits, you should use it. Hey, why do think those books about nicely designed mags are such big sellers?

Gary
19/Jun/08, 3:57 pm

Why does Action Man think he needs to comment on Goggin’s abilities re editorial design - left The Wire months ago, and Action Mans’ comments are not only outdated but unfair. I’d defend his work while at the Wire, but seeing the aesthetic Action Man clearly prefers, won’t bother. He’d probably be more offended he this person liked it!

Also, it’s worth pointing out that the image on The Wire’s cover was not conceived as a single visual but as the first of a series of images of the pile gradually coming apart inside the mag. It was a concept that worked and was visually interesting. They are 2 completely different things which shouldn’t be compared. I bet James just thinks it’s funny.

*
22/Jun/08, 8:36 am

i agree with action man as it goes. a post non-format wire was one of the toughest acts to follow and i think he went the right way with the ultra-restraint. but alas i think the execution was just boring. minimalism works in most design fields, but in editorial, unless the photography is brilliant or the paper/printing is unique (which is isnt in wire in both cases) it just looks like you dont have any ideas. non-format was like listening to sun-ra, this current look is more art ensemble of chicago. you know?

dadif
22/Jun/08, 11:08 pm

Well, no one can please everyone! I am one amongst many who thought that The Wire’s photography, and overall look over the last couple of years was brilliant - subtle, personal, clean. Beautiful shots that spoke quietly about the artists they reported on. Brave choices for an independent music mag, but ones that worked. And I don’t think that subtlety and typographic precision spells minimalism, or that it looks like there are no ideas involved. It’s just humble, and lets the content speak for itself - both characteristic of Goggins work.

*
23/Jun/08, 9:18 am

are you james goggin’s mum? such a passionate and intimate defence of his work..

i have nthing against him as a person or designer or the wire even, BUT subtle, personal and clean this design may be but its also boring, repetitive and uninspired, which is fine but its not even boring, repetitive and uninspired in an especially committed way (like the new yorker for instance).

give me the non-format over this one anyday and I cant believe for a moment that many would disagree with that descision.

other than close relatives of james goggin.

especially his mum.

who you may be.

dadif
23/Jun/08, 2:48 pm

Did anybody notice the similarity between last month’s Computer Arts Projects (Logo special)and just about any old copy of CR?

Spooky!

EM
27/Jun/08, 1:15 am

Stuck up Euro cry babies the Wallpaper version is executed far better, ideas should be shared and not held on to by pretentious art directors with some insecure sense of self entitlement.

“It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.”

EE
14/Aug/08, 2:44 am

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