There are two new occurrences happening right now in the men's magazine world. Of course I am very intrigued by it all, since I love men's fashion and publications. And they are correlated with each other in an interesting way... Firstly, GQ recently won SPD's Magazine of the Year award. Across the pond, Esquire UK has gone through an overhaul- complete with a new look, new size and new Editor-In-Chief.
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| January through December, here are GQ's 2010 covers. If you're wondering why there are more than 12 covers here, it's because in August they had a tri-cover (Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, and Tracy Morgan.) |
Regular readers of Eloise probably already know that I am a big Esquire fan. I love the graphic design, amazing type, snarky writers, etc. So I've never given GQ a real chance. Honestly, I've only flipped through a couple issues a few times. But now they have won SPD's most impressive award: Magazine of the Year. According to SPD's website, GQ has actually done consistently well with these awards with this being the third Gold award for Magazine of the Year for GQ. The other finalists for this top award included: Wired, More, W, and Bloomberg Businessweek. (a.k.a. Really good company!) So, it looks like I'll have to pay a lot more attention to GQ.
On another note with GQ, I actually do visit their website a lot more than Esquire's. They keep their online content really up-to-date, with plenty of things to look at and amazing photography. I'm excited to delve into the world of Gentlemen's Quarterly.
NEXT, we have...
Esquire UK and their redesign. I went into Barnes & Noble to look through it myself,
and there a few things I thought about it.
1. I read through the (new) Editor's letter, and Alex Bilmes seems like a really cool, funny guy... a really great writer. He seems to realize he is the outside man coming in (he did come from British GQ as the features editor), but is prepared to try his best and take Esquire in a new direction.
2. It's bigger. Literally the size of the magazine has enlarged. I don't know how I feel about this.. it's heavier, the pages seem more bendable, and altogether a bit inconvenient. Esquire and GQ US are more compact, light and carry-able.
3. Their "Ask a Style Expert" section (I can't figure out/find what the columnist's name is), is pointless. Esquire US's advice person is snarky but smart and clever with his answers. UK's new writer is just plain mean, malicious, tries too hard in his answers, and sometimes doesn't even answer the submitter's question at all.
4. Some pages are wonderfully designed. It's definitely more brighter & bolder (which is what they wanted to do), and I love the use of low-opacity colorful boxes. Makes things lighter and more fresh. Also with font choices things seem more digitized, like it could be made for online content as well.
5. They promise "more sports, girls, humor, fashion, culture, sex, tech and food." It seems as if they are delivering on that so far, but check it out for yourself. These are from maketheman.com, and enables us to compare the old to the new design:
NEXT, we have...
Esquire UK and their redesign. I went into Barnes & Noble to look through it myself,
and there a few things I thought about it.
1. I read through the (new) Editor's letter, and Alex Bilmes seems like a really cool, funny guy... a really great writer. He seems to realize he is the outside man coming in (he did come from British GQ as the features editor), but is prepared to try his best and take Esquire in a new direction.
2. It's bigger. Literally the size of the magazine has enlarged. I don't know how I feel about this.. it's heavier, the pages seem more bendable, and altogether a bit inconvenient. Esquire and GQ US are more compact, light and carry-able.
3. Their "Ask a Style Expert" section (I can't figure out/find what the columnist's name is), is pointless. Esquire US's advice person is snarky but smart and clever with his answers. UK's new writer is just plain mean, malicious, tries too hard in his answers, and sometimes doesn't even answer the submitter's question at all.
4. Some pages are wonderfully designed. It's definitely more brighter & bolder (which is what they wanted to do), and I love the use of low-opacity colorful boxes. Makes things lighter and more fresh. Also with font choices things seem more digitized, like it could be made for online content as well.
5. They promise "more sports, girls, humor, fashion, culture, sex, tech and food." It seems as if they are delivering on that so far, but check it out for yourself. These are from maketheman.com, and enables us to compare the old to the new design:
VS.
VS.
Here are some more great designs from their June issue:
I found some interesting online conversation about this redesign as I was researching this post. Some people feel like Esquire UK looks a little too much like GQ US now. Here are some comments I found most-intriguing on magculture.com's post on it:
"Oh. Oh dear. One of my favourite UK magazines, one that differentiated itself from the competition by treating its readers as adults, has now reverted back to nineties ladism. If I wanted to read about boobs and pasties, I’d be one of the eight people who subscribes to Nuts."
"Completely lost it’s identity, and dumbed down, I thought the market for mens magazines was getting more mature, obviously mistaken"
"Jesus, the insides look exactly like American GQ, even the photography."
I wouldn't say it looks exactly like American GQ. There are differences, but this is Esquire UK's first go at their redesign. I think they have time to find their footing and discover their own unique style. Plus, even if they were drawing inspiration from GQ, it's a little understandable considering their recent Best Magazine win. Plus, British Esquire's July cover looks very original... but more about that on my next US versus UK magazine cover post!
What do you think of Esquire UK's redesign?
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