Designs by Neil Feigeles

HACHETTE FILLIPACCHI MAGAZINES

Art Directing every aspect of a magazine's editorial can be daunting task, especially when you're a one man art department

PART 1: THE HOME PLANS GROUP

Art Directing at Hachette Filipacchi Magazines for their Circulation and Promotion Division was a blast, but I was craving more. One of the reasons I got the gig at HFM was because I had launched my own magazine, OFFWORLD (discussed in previous post) a few years earlier. That happily seemed to impress a few people, besides myself. So when the opportunity came to Art Direct The Home Plans Group, I jumped with both feet.

The HFMPG published 4 titles under this umbrella group: Best Selling Home Plans, Home Magazine’s Home Plans, Metropolitan Home Plans & Woman’s Day Favorite Home Plans. Totalling 17 editions a year, four of which were collections which ran 320 pages in length. And in this job, I worked on every single page, including the ads.

Unfortunately when I took over, the magazines were pretty much a nightmare. The previous Art Director who I met with before I decided to accept the job, had told me that she spent approximately 10 hours a day at work. Well I'm pretty fast, when I get going, and figured I could get that down to 8. Well what she hadn't told me was after she got home, she also spent a good 4 to 5 hours there finishing up the days assignments. I discovered this after I took the job, by the Production Manager. So point blank, I was lied to, so I made it my mission to fix this titanic of a mission.

Mind you my fixing up all the mess, was occurring while I was also working on the issues, getting them to press on time. So approximately 3 months into the gig, once I finally got the magazines organized and on track, I talked the Publisher and Editor's into allowing me to redesign all the elements of the four titles, including all of its FOB and BOB sections.

Each month I got the chance to design all the editorial pages in the magazine. What I thought was interesting, was when discussed designing the covers and doing the photoshoots for the editorial sections, our editor was surprised, she thought that as editor that was her job. And when I explained to her, well, my title was Art Director, so shouldn't I art direct the cover and cover story?

I guess I proved my abilities, because eventually they also let me help set up the shoots, and I got to go and really play. Which was so much fun, getting a day away from the office. They would choose one of the houses that were built using one of our floor plans (which we sold in our magazine). So we got to visit the house, meet the family living it. Set up the shoot, add the props that would improve the visual and shoot a ton of images, that I would eventually take and design our editorial pages with.

Another fun part of the job was I got to hire freelance illustrators for certain FOB sections, so I got to really sit down and play with the editorial layouts. Sadly, even though I am an illustrator, I was informed during my interview that I could not hire myself to do any of our editorial art. Supposedly it was company policy. But I could hire whomever I wanted, within our budget restraints. So, I got to hire illustrators I liked, including a few of my friends. As these three examples showcased. The art was done by the very talented illustrator Laura Freeman, a friends who I met going to the HS of Art & Design.

As mentioned above, I also got the chance set up photoshoots for the magazines, but even when I didn't, I was supplied the photo's to use. For the most part when that happened, I got the chance to choose which images I thought would work. And since I was doing the layouts I got to basically showcase the images as I pleased.

The other big part of the job was the selling of the Home plans in the magazine themselves. Which was what the publication was really for. You see, thats how it paid its bills. Including the cover and editorial pages, each magazine we published, was really a catalog for selling blue prints. My job was to showcase in the best way possible why people might choose one. So for example whatever was the cover home for that edition, we would also promote it in the ON THE COVER page.

So in addition to the editorial pages promoting its blueprints. the magazine for the most part featured its HOME PLANS pages, both in black and white and full color single page ads. Part of my job was to organize the thousands of plans we had either in computer files, in portfolios, and from old editions of the magazines. You see, depending on sales figures, our editor chose which plans made each issue. So I spent many an hour recreating old floor plans and revising blueprints.

Each issue, would consist of 20 to 30 pages of editorial, plus 100 to 200 pages of floor plans. Sadly the way our template was designed, depending on what page that floor plan fell in the page count, the layout of the page, needed to be reconfigured to be on the left or right hand page. So, it wasn't just a simply cut and past thing. The colors of the banners would change, the foot folios would change. Half the time I would need to fix the blue print section, fixing measurements that were wrong, and if the square footage increased or decreased the banners on top of the pages might also have to change. Plus, since we used the same floor plans for all 4 titles, I also needed to style each plan to suit each magazine's individual styles. Just saying, it wasn't as simple as it looked.

I also designed its promotional material and internal ads. And for the remainder of my time at The Home Plans Group, I spent happily designing to my hearts content. Everyone seemed to be very happy with me. I seriously thought I had found a place I could be for the next decade or so, or until my next big break occurred.

Sadly approximately two years into the job, that dream ended. Turns out, I did such a great job of organizing, redesigning and getting our magazines out on time, under budget with profits exceeding what they had hoped for, that eventually the Home Plans Group was sold to another company, out of state, and I was out of a job. I guess I should mention, that no I wasn't offered the gig, so no I never had to make the decision to move across country somewhere in the middle of no where. I've always wondered if I ha been asked, if I would have gone.

PART 2: WOMAN'S DAY SIP DIVISION

So, I was giving a time frame of a few months, to finish getting the magazine's out before the big bye bye, and while that was happening, I was allowed to find a new job internally at Hachette Filipacchi, or I would be out of a job. Eventually I was offered a position at Woman's Day Special Interest Publications, or simply Woman's Day SIP, and even simpler WDSIP, as a Senior Designer and I got the chance to showcase that I could alter my sensibilities to match what this division was putting out.

Under the umbrella group, Hachette published 37 editions a year. As senior designer I was responsible for the interior sections, including its contents page, FOB and BOB sections and its editorial articles of four of them.

And like my position at the Home Plans Group, I was also allowed to hire freelance illustrators during my time at WDSIPs. As showcased below, I really got the chance to work with some really terrific artists. I mean watching them send me their sketches, seeing them tweak them to suit what I needed for my layouts was way cool. And when the original finished art arrived, man what a great moment to see them in person. It was always a great moment when i got the chance to bring the finishes to my supervisors, to see their smiles simply made me feel I did good and hopefully showcased that yes, I knew what I was doing.