apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

(a trifle envious of the mailing lists you are on!!)

An early peek at some pages revealed the aesthetic is way fem. I don't think they want any male readers. Kind of disappointing. Don't expect a cool Dwell vibe. Think more a sort of modern version of Victoria.

i think their look is def. fem, but don't give up on them just yet- they've got one heck of a market editor with a great eye for design. despite the fem layout, they are sure to have some great stuff inside.

i'm gonna be there for sure.

;)

design*sponge

This magazine is not courting a well-informed design crowd. Natutrally, they are expecting a predominantly female readership. Serious misstep with the name and logo, but the guts look great.

I'd never buy it but I'd flip through it in the airport.

i think they are definitely courting a well-informed design crowd. that crowd just happens to be female (i'm not saying it's the best decision to skew your audience that way). perhaps THEY (the magazine) are misinformed to think that all design fans are female- but it doesn't mean the crowd is uninformed.

d*s

seriously, conde nasty is putting out this magazine. a media conglomerate like that does their research. they really do. if they are gearing this magazine to design savvy women, it's because that demographic is real and is presumably large enough to sustain it. why is the gender of the audience an issue anyhow?

aren't all magazines, by nature, shopping magazines?

they called you 'apartment theory'
tee hee

Seema, depends what you mean by the gender being an issue. If you are talking about what Max said then it is an issue because, whether ppl like it or not, if a mag looks like it is catering to a female audience (by whatever measure the average guy uses) then the average guy won't buy it. Look at Cargo and Lucky for examples of how the same publisher changes the look (without even getting into the content) of a magazine for the different sexes but with the same subject.

If you are talking about what chipster said then I think he simply made a clumsy mistake with the juxtoposition of those two sentences. It sounds as if he is wrong also on his first sentence anyway. I look forward to seeing what this will be like. I think Dwell is the best US design mag out there by a long way so another addition to the ranks will be welcome if it gets close to Dwell.

I'm definitely willing to give Domino a shot and consider a subscription(and not just because I have my fingers crossed that Alpha's stuff will be in there). I do think the comments are right that it has a kind of feminine bent and I don't know if I agree with that. This website is evidence enough that there are designs that both genders respond to and I also find that there's stuff covered in Cargo that I wish was covered in Lucky or Shop Etc. Women buy TVs and iPods too.

I am a little disappointed that Alpha is not on the party list. Sniff, sniff.

ugh, I have a feeling I'm not going to like this.

jamie pup - i guess what i'm responding to is the notion that a magazine is misguided by virtue of the fact that it is designed to appeal to a female or feminine readership. granted, the frou-frou design might not be the best way to appeal to design-savvy women, but why shouldn't a magazine be directed to a gendered readership? anyhow, it's all academic, since i've only seen a couple of pages. and, i'm totally willing to change my mind on this. i feel like a college student right now. sigh. (i do LOVE dwell, though!)

I also interpreted the initial comment to mean "misguided because they linked design savvy/interest with an exclusively female audience". Which, as a non-female design enthusiast, does in fact irk me.

There is, can and should be a difference between skewing to an audience and alienating another.

I don't mind when a magazine caters to an audience when it is fact the audience that makes up the content (Men's Fitness, or Parenting being two examples).

But assigning gender roles to universal things like design, architecture, technology or shopping makes me CRAZY, in the same way I cringe when I hear a nervous parent admonish a kid for selecting something that is "too girly" or "oh, that's a boy's color." Aiiiiiiiii.

(and yeah, I am guessing they are more than just slightly skewing female from the poll on the homepage of their website-- "Is your home modern, boho, preppy, or girly?" They may have lost me as a reader already...)

Oh, but btw, they show coral-inspired items in two places on their preview places. You heard it here first! ;)

other patrick - i see your point. really. to be completely honest, i'm a design-savvy woman (or so i like to think) and the magazine doesn't appeal to me at all. good design is for all!

I knew I liked you! ;)

Shrink shrink, blinkity blink
gonna go 2 ma sink, n vomit
clean it up wit Comet
Earth Is My Planet

B-Rad G in the Hizzy

Werd

whoa. what's up with B-Rad-G?

it looks like a lower spin-off of the looks in living etc or elle decoration uk