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BRAND BIBLE278
(Text)

Rolling Stone



There are emotions and memories associated with
print that I don’t think you can experience without
actually holding and touching something. Consider
an old copy of one of the magazines from your
youth—that rolled-up issue of Tiger Beat that had
your groovy preteen handwriting on the love quiz on
page 12. Or your battered copy of Catcher in the Rye.
I don’t think there’s a digital equivalent for these
things. That said, I could end up caring more about
saving space, and being able to access information
immediately, than keeping all these mementos. But
I haven’t yet reached that point when my reading
material has become a burden that outweighs my
sentimental leanings.
29
How to Brand
print

Gail Anderson 
SpotCo
Reflections on
typography, entertainment,
and design as performance
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279
(Text)





In my ten years at SpotCo, I learned to very atten-
tively consider the audience. Its not that I didn’t do
that in the past when I was working in magazines. But
it felt like the stakes were a little higher when design-
ing artwork to generate an emotional response from
potential ticket buyers—that would usually be the
rst thing that they see.
In theater, there were often many folks involved in
the decision-making process, which was new for
me. And for the most part, we presented anywhere
from six to a dozen ideas for larger shows. That was a
complete surprise after rening only singular ideas
at Rolling Stone. Perhaps thats also a function of the
era when I was at Rolling Stone, where we only had a
single “client.”



Rolling Stone 

Steve Heller has suggested that since my typography
was “theatrical,” the move to SpotCo in 2002 was a
natural one. I myself remember thinking, “Well, the
magazine spreads were like posters, so I can make
theater posters—right?” The transition was actually
much more dicult for me than I’d ever imagined—
and the design part was the least of it! My world was
turned upside down, because I was used to working in
a two-week cycle, and I was now sitting with projects
that sometimes lingered for months. I had to learn a
One of a series
of posters for the
School of Visual Arts
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