Mr. Magazine

There is nothing new under the sun and there is nothing new in the creative work of magazine designers and chief creative officers. When I saw Niche Media’s city magazines (Gotham, Ocean Drive, Boston Common, et. al.) use the famous art work of Peter Max to illustrate their magazine covers this month, I had a flashback to Oct. 2009 when Where magazine used Peter Max to illustrate 20 of their 37 titles.

I asked my friend Haines Wilkerson, Chief Creative Officer at Morris Communications*, publisher of Where magazine, whether he thinks imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. His “creative” answer:

“Peter Max is amazing with how much he can do when focused on a single theme, even when revisiting it years later to expand upon the idea. At Where®, we loved working with him on our network-wide “Where® Covers America” set in 2009. We all marveled as each cover art piece arrived, eventually coming together as a box set of 20 destinations, all released simultaneously with our October issues of that year. It’s great to see our friends at Niche having the same fun, to the Max.”

See six samplings of the Where covers from 2009 and the corresponding covers from Niche Media’s 2014 cities below and judge for yourself.

© Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni, 2014.
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* For the record, I work as a consultant for Morris Communications but had nothing to do with the Peter Max covers. They were Haines Wilkerson’s idea and execution.