AIGA Design Lecture Series: GOOD Magazine

Casey Caplowe: Co-founder of GOOD and Chief Creative Officer

Today, I went to see Casey Caplowe speak about GOOD magazine. I've been reading the magazine for about a year now (not that it's a lot...they're a quarterly magazine) Here are some notes on what he talked about:

He saw GOOD as a question, and about starting things you can't possibly finish. 

• Building a brand isn't a fixed thing, it's a process or journey
• The publication is a contradiction of fun vs. serious, global vs. local
• More interestingly, the magazine has tried to encompass Brand DNA vs Society's Needs vs What people actually want

As a piece of advice, he referenced w+k's "Fail Harder" piece. For GOOD, they follow the "Let's make better mistakes tomorrow"

• The word "Good" is the 65th most used word in the English language
• In regards to their infographics: "transparency' has started working with different designers to do their infographics
• GOOD wants to create a place to invite different people into and see what kind of things they can do in the space.

It was definitely a plus that they referenced my favorite website, reddit, for their inspiration. Embracing the idea that every place should be a source of inspiration, they ecourage the community submitting content on their website and sent in to their offices.

• GOOD's website is as interactive as the print magazine and their purpose is to create experiences (digital or not)
• In the future, we'll be seeing a more collaborative venture to create content on the website

Designing solutions:

• "How do we think about design?" GOOD sees the design as not about "cool typography, cool poster" but..more about producing things that are making the world better
• GOOD's core approaches design as a means to an end and not an end to itself

Design is Making things better

• If designers make things that are sustainable in the long run, that's valuable.
• GOOD has been proud to have small steps from idea to actual execution and creation