When the iPad and magazine apps were launched, there was a lot of enthusiasm in the art director world, but with the rise of replica apps, a lot of the initial energy has dissipated. Many people feel now that app work is basically production work. Is there a future for art directors who are interested in creating apps?
Mario García: I think that there are great possibilities for creative art directors, but I admit that those possibilities may still be greater, in terms of freedom with the canvas, in print. Digital design can have a lot of creative input, but one must adapt to the realities of templates that facilitate production. It is, in my view, the quintessential 60% formula, 40% surprise. But the surprise element is there for the creative art director to explore and to enjoy with gusto.
Josh Klenert: Right now various business rules are probably getting in the way of products that are designed more for a digital medium than print. That said, we’re still in the early days and as we are still seeing with the web — the rules continue to change. I would not throw in the towel just yet. The cliché “change is the only constant” comes to mind. I lean towards digging in and being apart of this ongoing evolution. There is certainly still opportunity for exciting development — most likely stepping away from being bound so closely to print.
Joe Zeff: There is enormous potential for those with entrepreneurial spirit, as the playing field is flat. Large publishers have few advantages over individual designers when it comes to creating content for tablets. In fact, the burdens placed on publishers to support mulitplatform ubiquity give individuals and small studios a decisive edge.
Our latest project, Spies of Mississippi: The Appumentary, started with a blank sheet of paper, not a mandate to create weekly or monthly issues on five different platforms. If you approach app work as production work, then that’s all it will be. If you approach apps as a way to deliver immersive, intuitive multitouch experiences that leverage the capabilities of tablet computers, you may just change the world.
Jeremy Leslie: We mustn’t let initial app production experience dilute the bigger message — the digital future for editorial designers is online. Well-designed digital editorial is inevitable, but probably won’t be apps.
How will the magazine app publishing scene be different a year from now? Will we be having an “apps are back!” roundtable next year?
Josh Klenert: My best guess is that there will be bigger shifts on the business side that will allow for more scale. Platforms like Zinio, ISSUU, and Next Issue will reach massive scale with ecosystems to consume magazine content no matter where users are will thrive. Think of YouTube for videos. Videos can be watched on YouTube or be embedded anywhere. Publishing ecosystems that don’t allow for this will disappear.
Big publishers may go the way of the music industry and start to unbundle content (think singles vs. full albums) — possibly with a fremium model. Content a user consumes will become more passively personalized for the user. Its like adding elements of a personalized Flipboard-like experience which shows the content you are most interested in.
For example, I read lots of movie reviews from Entertainment Weekly; well then I should start to see more entertainment content from Time appear in my magazine. I bookmark a story about summer suits in GQ; well then I should start to see more fashion content from Details appear. These apps need to ultimately become native to their digital platforms and evolve into utilities that people go to on a daily basis. In order to do this, like the web before it, the direct connection to a printed publication cycle needs to be broken.
