Mag Men by Walter Bernard;Milton Glaser;

Author:Walter Bernard;Milton Glaser;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LAN008000, Language Arts & Disciplines/Journalism, BIO025000, Biography & Autobiography/Editors, Journalists, Publishers
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 3)
Published: 2019-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

A GROCERY’S TOC The aisle index displayed at the entrance of Grand Union is essentially a “table of contents” page, applied to a supermarket setting. It’s a wayfinding device derived from magazine design.

Photo by Benno Friedman

THE GIANT PEAR I took every opportunity to inject something amusing for the customer, whether in packaging design or in the giant fiberglass pear installed outside Grand Union’s flagship on Eighty-Sixth Street. That delightful sculpture by Jordan Steckel became a beloved neighborhood icon and escaped vandalism for many years. For a magazine feature, I was photographed hugging a smaller prototype of the pear.

The end of New York magazine presented an opportunity to start something else. I maintained my personal relationship with Walter and Clay and continued to see them on social occasions. But I admit that I had lost interest in magazines at the time of the takeover. I feel nervous about doing the same thing day after day.

I don’t remember this time as being terribly traumatic, but it probably helped that my attention was focused on another big project. In 1977, I was in the thick of a top-to-bottom redesign of Grand Union, a supermarket chain owned by Sir Jimmy Goldsmith, who incidentally, once entertained the idea of acquiring New York.

Those years as a magazine designer informed my approach to supermarkets. The word for “magazine” is derived from the French magasin, meaning storehouse—a word that could also describe a supermarket. An idea lifted from editorial design: Why not put a “table of contents” at the entrance of Grand Union? It was a reversal of the old supermarket design principle: Make them walk through the entire store to find things to buy along the way. Mine was: Make it easy to find everything. Customer will like the experience and come back more often. Being on the consumer’s side provided the philosophical basis for this job, as it did for New York readers.

The key to designing magazines and supermarkets is affection. You have to make the people feel that they like it, almost in a personal way. The emotional dimension of communications is very powerful. You have to offer something beyond the functional purpose. It’s a simple idea; you’d think more people would consider it.—MG

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