75 and Up

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 3/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

So. Here we are, releasing to the printing press the issue that commemorates our 75 years of magazine publishing—a magnum opus that sometimes had me feeling year 76 could start none too soon. Revisiting seven and a half decades of design through Interior Design's eyes has meant, in effect, mixing it up with hot and cold wars, macro industrial shifts, and sea changes in customs. Think atoms, moon walks, binary code. The weight of the past sits so very stubbornly on our collective shoulders. And that is sobering stuff. Still, the task of crafting this anniversary presentation was often full of love and glee, as we cracked open every single issue, all the way back to our beginning in April 1932. The most recent years have clearly been a Golden Age of design, but let's not forget the rambunctious '70's, the revolutionary '60's, the industrious, resolved '50's and '40's, and the infinite possibilities almost tangible in the '30's.

The stories in this special edition meander through three quarters of a century, greeting figures both famed and forgotten, hailing landmarks and exploring obscure corners. Far from offering a neat summation of design in the modern era—a claim that would, anyhow, be bordering on fraud—our diamond-anniversary issue is essentially an anthology of moments that seemed to us indispensable. They're organized with the chief intent of being quintessentially evocative for any of us as editors, designers, or manufacturers. In the end, we all own this past, which affords us a wide window on our future. On a more personal note, that's a future I intend to continue sharing: With our crack editorial team, headed by my treasured executive editor, Elena Kornbluth. With my beloved art department. With our partners in sales and marketing led by Mark Strauss, our publisher and my personal patron. And, especially, unequivocally, with you, our readers.

—Cindy