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W*127's guest editor covers by Karl Lagerfeld (left) and Philippe Starck (right)

Guest editors: the covers

Lagerfeld and Starck have raised the bar with the cover designs for their guest edited issues, each pushing us (and printing capabilities) to the limit. “One of the best parts of the guest editors’ issues is working with creative people at the top of their game who don’t necessarily have publishing experience,” says W* Art Director Meirion Pritchard. “They come up with an idea for a cover that they don’t know whether it’s possible and it might be something we’d never consider, knowing what is possible. But the challenge for us is make it work.”

Lagerfeld wanted a ‘peel and reveal’ sticker to coat his cover, showing his muse Baptiste Giabiconi fully clothed in a Dior Homme suit, which peels off to reveal the model in the same pose completely nude behind. “It took about two months to get right,” says Pritchard. “We had to be careful using a sticker of that size, first that it didn’t take the paper or print behind off and second that you could put it back on.” They did this by laminating the cover underneath and using a vinyl material, called a Yupotako Sticker, which has a static, resealable stick rather than glue and, given machines couldn’t get it right, each sticker had to be positioned by hand.

Starck’s cover is similarly ambitious and involved equal amounts of experimenting to get it right to his exacting specifications. A visual incarnation of the questions on evolution he asks his chosen panel, his cover involves three sheets of tracing paper, over a blank silver cover: the first sheet has an amoeba (drawn by Tobatron), representing life 4 billion years ago, the second a monkey (drawn by HelloVon) which represents today. The third sheet has a diffused question mark (by GBH, who helped facillitate the design of the whole cover with Starck and Wallpaper*) representing the unknown about life 4 billion years from now.

The main challenge for the team was to keep the inserts (each sheet of tracing paper, and the silver cover is a separate insert) together with enough glue so when the magazine is repeatedly opened, the sheets didn’t fall out. As important was making sure the outer layer didn’t crinkle, as tracing paper is prone to do, alleviated by doubling the thickness of the outer layer.

Both covers are a Herculean achievement of technical and creative skill – innovative on both counts, eminently collectible, entertaining and beautiful. And that’s what you get before you’ve even opened them.

10 September 2009 | News

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