To celebrate its 75th anniversary edition, Esquire magazine wanted a truly standout cover.
As you’ll see from the embedded video below, they certainly achieved that despite the limitations of the animation, which resembles one of the earliest animated gif banners.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKS12PMdJ6w&hl=en&fs=1]
The limited edition cover came at a cost. Although the official figures have not been released, the cover price was $2 more and it was co-funded by Ford who released animated magazine ad inside the front cover. The work involved to reduce the batteries to a suitable size is rumoured to have cost a six figure sum. Good job they last for a minimum of three months and a projected average of six months to help the purchasers display some serious table top eye-candy for their extra investment.
Despite the cost, Esquire have created a memorable cover to celebrate their anniversary, which has generated a great deal of buzz from people uploading a video of their copy to YouTube to the inevitable technologists taking the e-Ink technology apart and posting the results online.
What’s interesting about this beyond the first-mover ‘gimmick’ is the potential convergence between print and digital. E-Ink also provide the screen reader technology for the Kindle and once the technology advances, it is not unreasonable to expect video and wi-fi to provide the a/v content and real-time updates that makes the web so competitive to print.
jake
Interesting. Lame and cool at the same time. Lame animation may reduce others doing it as cost/novelty factors don’t work, although may do in other markets. Once technology improves can see others chipping in.
Chris Kindle
Just came across your blog on Google. Interesting post, you bring up a few good things to think about. Good luck with the blog.