Bauer
Design and launch the world’s best music magazine.
If tone is everything, then the launch of Q Magazine had it all. Created to give the regular Englishman an alternative to the tribal rock press of the day, it quickly became a publishing phenomenon. Bitingly funny, beautifully written and with a presentation to match, the brand gave male readers in particular a sense of identity that few contemporary titles have yet to equal. I drew the Q, designed the first 29 issues, and over the next ten years designed thirty-odd more covers along with several major redesigns.
Q delivered its promise to become the UK’s biggest and best music magazine. It won innumerable awards, sold by the bucketload and made the careers of many of its editors and contributors – Danny Kelly, Andy Pemberton, Andrew Collins, Andy Gill, Adrian Deevoy, Paul DuNoyer and Tom Hibbert all spring to mind.
In particular, it cemented the reputation of founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth as the best rock writers of their generation. Mark’s excellent biography Rock Stars Stole My Life is out now, as is David’s brilliant musical history of 1971.