Published by Cincinnati, Ohio based F+W Media, the I.D. staff was based in New York and shares an office with their sister publication Print. According to Fast Company, F+W plans on continuing the Annual Design Review competition and publishing the results online. The January/February 2010 issue will be the magazine’s last.
Sad, I suppose, but not that surprising, perhaps. I used to be a big fan of the mag while in school, but quickly became disheartened with it. Everything they published looked the same for so long. I don’t think i’ve bought a copy for at least 10 years (though do have one or two copies from the 70’s someplace). Add to that more and more cool stuff is on the web (notcot.org is one my my faves), and sites like yanko…
The end of an era…although I also haven’t bought an issue other than the Annual Design Review for years.
My first exposure to industrial design came when I found a whole pile of I.D. back-issues from the '60s in the fine arts library of the university I was attending.
At the time… I was on my way to a degree in Economics and Commerce - Thank goodness I found those magazines - I quit that semester and applied to design school.
Unfortunately, this was a long time coming, probably when I.D. stopped meaning Industrial Design. Have you ever seen any of their really old back issues? Still Amazing after all these years, they were so good. I would subscribe to ID if they would just reprinted their first 20 years again, no new issues, just set the clock back… and to me, that is the saddest thing, that they had this gem of an archive, and for whatever reason they tried to be something else.
Remember the Australian mag Design world in the early 90’s? That was a good ID magazine! They couldn’t make it either though, I suppose the web was bound to just totally annihilate these niche publications. Why pay to put a job in the back of ID magazine when you can have it on coroflot and get responses by the end of the day instead of next month?
I am sad to see it go though, I liked knowing it was there.
It wasn’t my favorite but I always enjoyed checking them out if they were around… I agree, the annual reviews were always better
The thing that always got me was that it never felt like the subscription price was too high. I think it was around $45 and it always felt like too much. Maybe I would gone for it at $ 25-30… even wallpaper was cheaper and I felt like It was much more substantial and had more inspirational images
I subscribe to “National Geographic - Adventure” and just found out that the December issue would be their last. This is the third time this has happened the the past two years. The magazines all state “due to subscription decreases, this magazine will now be available on the internet”. There is something lost reading a magazine on the internet. You might read an article or two but, you loose the tactile feel of the paper between you fingers, the ability to pick it up off the coffee table and read it at your leisure, and the gracious ability to read it… on the toilet.
You are lucky being in the UK. Wallpaper here is crazy expensive for a subscription. Even more than the newsstand price of$10 or so a copy. I think it was something like $120USD!
I blame blogs like core77, and that’s only because core77 is so good. I was also disappointed in I.D. Mag the last few years, they seemed very one note. As we all know the topic of industrial design has so much more than just pretty final pictures to offer. Also, unlike newspapers you throw away when you’re done, I like having design magazines on my coffee table and like to go back to them just for fun, so I believe there is a future for magazines in the new world of design blogs. Maybe a new magazine called Core77 should be published.
I.D., bummer. The last 18 months or so have really been sub par. Since Julie Lasky left from the editor spot. The old issues are good, I had a bunch of them from the early to mid 90’s, but I’d think if you go way older or early aughts I.D. was good for editorials and coverage. In late they have been lagging behind other magazines and blogs (obviously) by months. WAD is a good mag to look at for random ID-ish stuff, but there are a million magazines like that. It will be missed, along with the remainder of my subscription…
Rk, Wallpaper has like two issues a year with some crazy $40 cover price so if you subscribe you will save a few bucks over the news stand.
That was the first design magazine I ever bought- and I still have it! Only ever found the one issue.
Just pulled it off the shelf - Issue #26 1993.
Pretty funny…There is a 12 page feature on “Computer Assisted Industrial Design” with a full page devoted to explaining the difference between raster and vector followed up by a section devoted to surface vs. solid.
Also agree about the old ID mags. -It would be pretty amazing just to re-issue the first 20 years.
the prices I was thinking of are pretty outdated I think… I had a subscription to Wallpaper back when I was a student (10 yrs ago in the US) and I think the prices were different then. I know I wouldn’t have paid $120, or even $50! Seems like they maybe ran some subscription specials and it was $30-35?
Anyway, as good as the magazine could be, I always thought I.D. was a little too costly for what you received - especially now that there are so many great online design sites. Maybe they should have moved to the web. Too bad it’s come to this
Meh. “International Design” turned into an art magazine years ago–nothing there for me. I’ve regretted every single purchase in the last decade.
Design eye-candy is best served online. And design-process is best found in the journals like DMI Journal, IDSA Innovation, and SIGCHI Interactions. Fast Company and Business Week have done a great job covering design business lately.
I’m more upset about the loss of Gourmet magazine this year!
Wow, not surprised but as with a lot of you only kept 1-2 issues from way back. The one I know I kept was from 1987, it mentioned my corsa in it, and I thought that was so cool. Print was so much more important pre internet, and I wonder how many of us will “save” pages/url’s of our products for 20-30 years?
I am not that surprised to here this like most of you. It really started to take a dive in the past few years and I can’t remember the last time I bought one. I remember when I first started working I had a boss that was managing design, but was not a designer himself (I know not a good situation) and he would subscribe to ID and try to be the cool guy with us. I finally gave him some other tip on mags and told him not to was his money on ID. I do have to say that it was the first design Mag I ever bought. I too still have it at work and it had multiple topics, but I do remember there was a big wright up on the design of sex toys. As a freshman in college I found it quite humorous.
