Eye hasn't been hitting as many homers as it was those first few weeks, so let me apologize in advance for being less insightful than usual (unless you think I'm never insightful, in which case I will live up to my pre-established standard). In a blog post this week, Eye's writer talks about a new men's magazine called Port (or is it PORT?). It looks very expensive and classy but gets by on the cheap because the founders have a lot of talented friends. Think of it as a not-necessarily-Mizzou Mafia of the journalism world. It reminds me a lot of Eros, which Michelle discussed in our study of magazine design history. Both are somewhat foolhardy labors of love that are run by small staffs. As Eye points out, it will likely be financially unsuccessful for a variety of reasons (the economy, the death of print, etc., etc., etc.), but the creators are making a good product that they enjoy making.
One day, it will be nice to have such freedom to luxuriate in my journalistic success. Until then, the job hunt continues. Also the yob-hunt (I'm not opposed to working in Sweden)
And now, an opportunity! I work for Mizzou Media, which is the University supplier of course packets and its custom publishing division. Among my many important duties as designer is to oversee the University Classics Series of books that we print on the Espresso Book Machine. (My duties are not, however, to design promotional material, so don't blame me for the bad letter spacing in 2011.)
This year, we're holding our second (un)cover cover contest for the books. We at Mizzou Media are calling on the considerable talents of Columbia to present us with options to use for book covers (because Creative Commons art is pretty uninteresting). You can find details here, but submissions are due March 9, and you can submit one cover per book.
I think it's a great opportunity, and I'd enter five covers if I were eligible to do so. If your cover(s) get chosen, that's one more notch on your belt. If they don't, you still have a reason to generate more diverse items for your portfolio, which is always welcomed.
After all, you should always judge a book by its cover. If you didn't, why else would books have covers at all?
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