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Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Sempé Fi: Head Peace
Filed under: Sempé Fi Tagged: Alexander McQueen, Ana Juan, butterfly, covers, Elle, fashion, Johanna Cox, Pollux, style
Pollux writes:
“Homage” is the title of Ana Juan’s cover for the March 29, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. This issue is The Style Issue and the cover pays homage to a designer who recently passed away, Alexander McQueen.
Juan’s cover pays homage to not only McQueen, but to one of his Spring 2008 headpieces as well, a picture of which can be seen here.
Johanna Cox of Elle asked Ana Juan why the Spanish artist had selected McQueen’s headpiece. “I think it was the most poetic as a metaphor of death,” Juan responded. “The idea was to express a certain melancholic beauty without forgetting the Spring flair.”
Cox writes that Juan’s cover “is the most economical but also the most hauntingly beautiful” of the tributes made to McQueen. Juan also manages to incorporate a common symbol associated with New Yorker covers, a butterfly, while also maintaining her own style.
Juan’s use of coal-based whites, grays, and blacks symbolize the passage into death of a designer whose life ended so suddenly and so tragically. The burst of acrylic-based color associated with the butterflies assures us, however, that his work and the work that he will inspire, lives on.
The butterflies themselves seem to pay tribute to McQueen, fluttering and collectively reminding us that beauty still exists amidst a world filled with tragedy, drabness, and death.
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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- World of Pollux
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- Carolita Johnson
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