The next EDO event will take place on Tuesday 9th February 2010, when we will be returning to the London College of Fashion for another DIY Exhibition, exhibiting examples of the best editorial design from 2009.

Like least year, the evening is a thank you to members for their support and for renewing their memberships.

Those of you who joined us for last year’s DIY show Exhibition will know how it works. In case you didn’t make it along, the evening is a chance to have a few free drinks and share your favourite pieces of editorial design from the past year. In keeping with these financially stretched times, the exhibition consists of tear sheets from magazines, print outs of work, or carefully copied/scanned files. The work will be pinned to walls rather than framed and hung. The resulting exhibition will be an informal snapshot of our industry’s 2009 output. There will be no winners/losers, no awards, but last year’s show proved to be an interesting insight into industry trends.

We are, therefore, inviting all members to select a single piece of editorial design from 2009 – one spread, or a single cover/page – and send it to us, at the address below, for exhibition. You can choose anything you like – your own work, your team’s or someone else’s. It can be from the UK or abroad. The only criteria is that it is editorial design (magazine, newspaper or web) and first published during the 2009 calendar year.

This is all we ask you to do:
• Select your favourite piece of work
• Cut it out from the magazine, print it out, or CAREFULLY photocopy it. These are the actual pieces we will exhibit.
• Write a brief note giving the name and issue date of the magazine, your name and job title, and optional explanation why you made your choice.
• Print your note in 12pt Verdana on a single A4 sheet of white paper.
• Paperclip the pieces together
• Deliver/mail to the following address by Friday January 29th:
Dominique Sedar
EDO Administration
137 Hale Lane
Edgware
Middlesex
HA8 9QP

Entry to the Exhibition will be free to all renewed EDO members (unless you joined after October 2009, your membership is now due for renewal) or £20 for non-members and £10 for student non-members. The membership renewal form is available from edo[at]gillbranston.com. Please do be sure to send this back to us as soon as possible with your membership fees to ensure your free entry to the Exhibition. As we expect this event to fill quite quickly, you will still need to reserve your place by completing the attached booking form and returning it to the EDO Administration at the address above.

Thank you everyone who made it along to our events over the past year. Here’s a quick visual recap:

Last February’s DIY exhibition at the London College of Fashion kicked off the year with a fascinating selection of the best work from 2008, as chosen by EDO members. Stand by for news of our next DIY show early in 2010.  Following its success we are doing the saem thinbg again for 2009. This event will take place on Tuesday 9th February at LCF, further details to follow by email.

In April we welcomed Scott Dadich, creative director of the US edition of Wired to the Soho Hotel for a stunning overview of his team’s work. Great work, great speaker, great presentation.

We featured four designers talking about their various projects in June, from left to right above: Erik Torstensson from Man About Town, Matt Willey from Studio8, Jon Butterworth from Camouflage and Violetta Boxill and Cecilia Lindgren from Architectural Review.

October saw a group presentation by Wallpaper*, providing insight into the production and design process that go into making a monthly at the first event at a new venue, the Pentagram office in west London.

And finally, the recipient of this years BSME Mark Boxer award, Andy Cowles (that’s him in the dark, top) talked about cover design. Andy used a willing assistant to demonstrate the difference that carrying various magazines brings to people’s impression of you.

So that was 2009. The new year will bring a new chair and another exciting series of events, several of which are already being lined up. Details to follow early in 2010.

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas and thanks again for your support.

Jeremy Leslie, EDO Chair, 2009

This year’s D&AD Awards are now open to entries. The Awards cover many, many areas of design and creativity but have always provided a good record of publishing design, right from the charity’s origins in the sixties.

This year, the judges for the Magazine and Newspaper category include John Belknap, Marissa Bourke and Jeremy Leslie from the EDO committee, plus a broad range of other experienced editorial specialists from all areas of the industry  and several countries.

Entries cost £80 each, the closing date is January 27th. Check previous winners on the D&AD website here.

Andy Cowles is our next speaker, bringing his extensive magazine experience to bear on the subject of front cover design. Expect insight, laughter and a little bit of theatre.

Tickets cost £5 for members and student members, £20 for non-members and £10 for students/tutors. This is the last event for 2009, and all memberships will be due for renewal after this one. New memberships purchased now will be valid through to the end of 2010.

It takes place from 6.30pm on Wednesday, 16 December at Pentagram, 11 Needham Road W11 2RP.

For further information and to book your place/s please contact the EDO Administration at edo@gillbranston.com.

After a break for summer, EDO returns with a new series of events plus some changes to ticket pricing.

We plan to alternate events between LCF, where we’ve held most of the talks so far, and the offices of Pentagram in west London. Pentagram have been very generous in providing their function space to EDO and enabling us to offer significantly reduced ticket prices.

Tickets cost £5 for members and student members, £20 for non-members and £10 for students/tutors. New memberships purchased now will be valid through to the end of 2010.

It takes place on Thursday, 29 October at Pentagram, 11 Needham Road W11 2RP.

For further information and to book your place/s please contact the EDO Administration at edo@gillbranston.com.

A big thank you to speakers John, Erik, Violetta, Cecilia and Matt and chair Simon for the ‘We Design Magazines’ event last night, and thank you to those members who made it along.

As I said at the end of the evening, EDO are keen to get feedback from members about what type of event we should be holding and who we should be inviting to talk. Please let us know what you like/dislike about what we’re doing by adding comments to this post or emailing me directly at jeremy (at) magCulture.com

Our next event will be after the summer – see you then.

Our next event takes place on 18 June. ‘We Design Magazines’  is a panel discussion featuring some of London’s best young editorial designers, chaired by Simon Esterson. This will be a rare chance to hear a selection of different magazine designers show their work and discuss how they came to be working in magazines. The panel includes Jon Butterworth, Camouflage; Violetta Boxill and Cecilia Lindgren, Architectural Review; and Erik Torstensson, Saturday-London/Man About Town.

UPDATE: Matt Willey from Studio8 has been added to this event, speaking about his one-off design for Futu magazine.

Tickets cost £15 for members, £30 non-members and £5 for students/tutors.

‘We Design Magazines’ is being held on Thursday, 18 June at The Moving Picture Company.

For further information and to book your place/s please contact the EDO Administration at edo@gillbranston.com.

EDO members can get free access to a Creative Review/Colophon panel discussion in London next month.  Four independent magazine makers will show their work and share their experiences of self-publishing.

Confirmed speakers for the session, which will also celebrate publication of the book ‘We Make Magazines’, are Danny Miller from Little White Lies and Karen Lubbock from Karen magazine. Others TBC.

UPDATE: Becky Smith, art director of Lula, has joined the line-up.

It takes place 3-5pm on Wednesday 10 June. Full details at CRBlog. Tickets are £10 but there are a number set aside for EDO members, one per member. If you want to come along please email:  jeremy.leslie (at) johnbrownmedia.com

There are also a limited number of reduced price tickets available for students, if you would like one please email tara.nair-stuber (at) centaur.co.uk

Our next event will be a group event, with several leading art directors sharing their work and their thoughts on the state of editorial design.

Full details to follow – meanwhile keep Thursday 18 June clear in your diary.

The dapper Mr Dadich, fresh from judging the D&AD Awards, joined us at the Soho Hotel last week to talk us through his work on Wired magazine. And what a talk it was: not only did he show great work, his presentation, humour and insight made it one of the most inspiring talks about magazine design I’ve witnessed.

A big thank you to Scott for sharing his designs and thoughts with us – Jeremy.

Reviews and photos on Things To Look At and Eye Blog.