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The challenge
“I generally like the TONY covers,” says reader Andrea Uva, “but sometimes I look at them and think, Who fell asleep at the computer?” That snoozer would be design director Adam Fulrath, and when he heard that Uva was challenging him to a cover-design smackdown, he was ready to rumble. The theme was “Essential New York,” and each designer created several cover mock-ups to be judged by TONY editor Michael Freidson and group consumer marketing director Niki Lathroum (as nonvoting commenters, the art department weighed in too).
Andrea Uva, reader
Uva is a book cover designer at Alloy Entertainment and a freelance design guru, and has been messing around with graphics since high school.
vs.
Adam Logan Fulrath, design director
As head of TONY’s art department, Fulrath has designed 87 covers for the magazine in his nearly two-year tenure.
Uva's covers
“The bagel as a New York symbol is played out,” says Freidson.
“A donut would have been better,” complained Fulrath’s hungry art department. “The bagel looks half-digested.”
Lathroum likes it, though—this cover is her favorite.
“Letter spacing! Tragedy!” says the art crew.
“It completely, clearly and easily says what the issue is about,” says Lathroum of the in-your-face type.
“The hole looks like some kind of Ground Zero,” says one art staffer.
Fulrath's covers
Freidson calls the text on his favorite cover “the loudest of them all.”
“The blob looks like Bulgaria,” complains Freidson. Lathroum calls the tiny map “too artsy”—she can barely read the word is.
Meanwhile, the TONY art department dubs the shape “Australia” or “maybe an organ?”
“NYC is anything but a stark white nothing! Where are the syringes? The garbage? The spoiled children?” says the art department. “White covers? Isn’t that so two years ago?”
Fulrath’s staff doesn’t like the hyphen: “All I think of is ‘ass.’”
*WINNER*
Freidson and Lathroum settle on a winner—none of the above! Fulrath’s attempt moves to the cover only after a trip back to the drawing board.
Heather
Mon, Nov 10, 08, at 10:26am
Uva provides a delicious, contemporary and fun twist that celebrates what makes NY, New York. In this modern world where covers seem to keep advancing into a more negative, realist view like Fulrath's sterile ideas, Uva sets the theme with a positive embrace with a few of the classic things that make NY, New York.
tia
Fri, Nov 07, 08, at 2:38pm
tony seems to be having an identity crisis. as i leaf through it, i don't know if i am reading a sarcastic blog or a magazine which prides itself on being a quintessential NYC staple. that said, the covers by Fulrath seem to fall into this confusion. Seeing an outsider's work (Uva) is a breath of fresh air and might lead one to believe they are not about to read a magazine with an unclear point of view. i enjoyed her covers and think would have added a much needed sense of humor. bad call tony
Cam
Fri, Nov 07, 08, at 10:07am
Fun, this should be a monthly challenge I think. Although the verdict seems dodgy, surely the girls designs were more likely to cause walkers by to double take and pick up a copy than the big red print?
Marie
Thu, Nov 06, 08, at 4:13pm
I love Andrea's main cover. I like how the bagel is too big to fit the cover. Like life in NY is too big to fit into just one essential issue. I think Freidson's things are to industrial. Some look dark or apoclyptic even.
Ray
Thu, Nov 06, 08, at 2:21pm
The best cover design by far is shirtless guy with bagel and coffee. Once you look past the NYC imagery, the greater story is the one of everything leading up to that bagel. I see this picture and I think of myself on Saturday morning after a long night at the Bowery Ballroom, trying to cure my well earned LES hangover with Kosher carbs & caffeine as I fondly attempt to piece together the previous night's events in my underwear. What story is Fulrath's blank cover trying to tell us?
Melissa
Thu, Nov 06, 08, at 1:03pm
At the end of the day, the magazine cover needs to convey what's in the magazine in a clear and fun way. Friedson's designs look like an amateur who just discovred how to change fonts on his macbook.
As a new yorker who won't touch a non-ny bagel with a 10 foot pole, the everything bagel was definitely my favorite.
Eric
Wed, Nov 05, 08, at 3:24pm
Crappy covers are like a staple of Time Out NY! How could anyone try to take that away from them? Fulrath's covers are worse than usual though - none of them seem very interesting.
From Uva's covers, I like the boxers and jeans one where he's holding the bagel and coffee most. Definitely catches your eye and looks trendy and interesting.
A donut is not nearly as quintessential NY as a bagel. That would've have been as clear in purpose.
Caroline
Wed, Nov 05, 08, at 2:55pm
Um...does your art department think that there's something called an "everything donut," or do they just not get visual puns? Either way, Uva got mugged.
