New (and improved) digs for design

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 1/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

We preach, peddle, and perfect design. We do it day in and day out, 24/7. And we enjoy it. It's our calling in life, and I like to think we do it well. It's also a vocation that often sends one–even one as measured and reserved as I–marching straight up to the barricades to take a swing.

A leader is periodically required, however, to step away from the front lines, where the fight between the inspired and the unimaginative is fought daily, and take the long view on matters. This is mostly for the benefit of you, our cherished readers, and you were very much on my mind when I finally acknowledged a certain truth. We had made cosmetic changes to Interior Design's existing facade without addressing deeper, structural issues. We talked the innovation talk, but we weren't walking the proverbial walk. High time for a redesign.

Let's face it–our pages already looked pretty good. After a bit of fiddling, though, I started to experience disquieting urges for typographic adultery, urges that rapidly took hold of what I'd thought was a happy marriage with our published appearance. This only magnified my entanglement. I then had to declare my passion for oversize photography (see our new "Centerfold"), my unabashed predilection for colorist solutions, and my high-caloric taste for white space.

All of this brought on the following lowercase epiphany: If a guy from Canada could dream in waves of titanium and actually get them built as the beacon of the here-and-now in design and architecture, it was time for us to say bye-bye to Kansas, too, and open up to the lighter, clearer, newer universe of 2003.

And so we did.