PUBLISHER’S PAGE

This has been my first face-lift operation, and I hope it’s my last. On this month’s cover, you see a new and exciting design that will be D Magazine’s look for years to come. I hope.

The editors made the decision to overhaul the cover design and logotype of the magazine eight months ago. We wanted a bolder, more progressive, more striking logo for the magazine. We wanted a visual statement of our editorial stance. We wanted a look that said “Dallas” in its style and attractiveness. We wanted a lot more things, too – but up until a few weeks ago we didn’t have any of them.

Changing your name is like changing your face. In many ways a magazine’s cover design is its face. It’s not hard for me to understand now that the first sensation experienced by people when they begin to consider a face-lift operation is one of stark, unmitigated fear. Changing your face – that old, dear, comfortable, slightly worn face – means changing your self. At least it means changing that part of your self that the world knows you by.

So we took our time. We dawdled over suggestions, asked for modifications, worried over revisions. We did everything but make a decision. Within a few months one wall of my office was literally papered with suggested logos of every conceivable shape and configuration. Art director Alan Neuschwander, whose heroism under fire had its limits, was seen one Saturday afternoon in the mailroom Xeroxing his resumé.

Salvation arrived in the nick of time when Barbara Chapman stepped off the plane from New York with an armload of drawings under her arm. The former associate art director of Seventeen magazine, Barbara had taken on the task of design consultant with our magazine in the late summer. We show you her face on this page because she’s responsible for our new face. The new logo was selected in one day, and within twenty-four hours we had rushed it into preparation for its appearance on this, our second anniversary cover. We love it, and hope our readers will too. If you don’t, please have the grace to refrain from mentioning it for at least six months or until I’m fully recovered from the operation.



Our second anniversary is marked by more than our new design. The magazine’s paid circulation has now jumped to 40,000 – and we’re still growing. In celebration of our anniversary, we joined with Titche’s to sponsor a giant celebration sweepstakes, and at press time we’ve received more than 12,000 entries (if you haven’t tried your luck yet, use the card on page 97). Getting down to serious business, last month’s issue carried more pages of paid advertising than any to date, and this month’s carries more color pages than any we’ve published. And, for those who measure these things, we’ve made a slight adjustment this month in the size of the magazine, reducing it by three-eighths of an inch to a more standard magazine size. We made that change more for aesthetic reasons than economic, although I know you won’t mind if it also shaves a few cents off our extravagant paper costs.

This month also marked another event of importance to D Magazine and its readers. We’re introducing the first comprehensive guidebook to Dallas, with information and tips on everything from how to choose a bank to where you can get your antiques refinished. Inside Dallas will be hitting the newsstands shortly, perhaps by the time you’ve read this magazine. To save you the trip, we’ve included a convenient order coupon on the next page. I recommend you buy it, because I know you’re going to use it. Inside Dallas was produced under the capable direction of Susan Hoffman, with the help of almost everybody on the magazine staff. Susan will be embarking on more publishing projects for us in the near future, as we continue to help our readers enjoy Dallas a little more by knowing it a little better.