We Make Mags

I’m a bit late with this post about Arena magazine, which sadly closed the doors in March.

Just thought I’d tell you about the time when I worked at (previous publishers of Arena) Wagadon on an issue of The Face. That’s another story, but while I was there I was chatting to then editor, Dylan Jones, about the Greta Scacchi cover they ran in summer 1991. It was the first time they had ever put a woman on the front cover, and the issue sold out completely. This made him realise – a men’s magazine doesn’t have to have images of men on the front cover (as every issue had done before). Well, you just need to look at any men’s magazine today – to see that Arena started the revolution – for better or for worse.

It seems amazing that no-one had thought that a man might want to buy a men’s magazine that had a good looking woman on the cover – but remember, Arena was the first proper men’s magazine in the UK and there was no rule book. Even FHM when it launched was primarily a style publication for men who cared how they dressed – a far cry from the publication it is today.

It is also amazing, looking at the Greta Scacchi issue, to remember how we did things then. At Wagadon everything was typeset (even in 1991), meaning we laid out galleys of text, the photocopier was king, and the Mac that sat in the corner was used to churn out headlines on a laser printer, which we used as artwork! We only got wet proofs (printed proofs as opposed to cromalins), meaning there was little chance of changing very much. The turnaround was very tight, as were the budgets, but if you kept your head down, I guess you floated to the top. Witness the success of Lee Swillingham (design assistant on Arena and the Face at the time) – he went on to art direct POP and now of course LOVE.