Colors Magazine, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 1992 : Benetton [Design: Tibor Kalman]

Colors; a magazine about the rest of the world, No. 2, Spring/Summer, 1992 edited by Oliviero Toscani and Tibor Kalman. Benetton Group SpA, Treviso, Italy with editorial offices in New York City. Four-color broadsheet, 13.5 x 21.75 (flat), pp. 64 with English and French text. Design by Tibor Kalman at M&Co in New York City.

Colors was a quarterly print magazine funded and published by Benetton, the Italian clothing company. “[Tibor] Kalman’s intentions as editor of Colors were openly didactic. He was sick of designing the packaging for someone else’s product; now he wanted to use his skills as a communicator to “change the way things are.” Taking issue with the uncertain meanings and visual complexity of 1990s design, he argued, in defiance of fashion, for graphic design’s “higher purpose” as a medium for “telling the truth.” In Luciano Benetton, he had found a client and patron who, for the thirteen issues he was editor, would give him complete freedom to determine the magazine’s direction and content according to his idealistic beliefs.” (Hall, 1998, p. 237)

This early issue was published as an expensive and “impossible to navigate” newspaper broadsheet covering themes that influenced future issues: Snacks, Aphrodisiacs, Sports, Tribes, Fakes, Cars, Television, Music, Heroes, Garbage, Clothed to Naked, Games, No Country, Travel, Hair, Religion, Miracles, Chickens and The Yellow Page.

You should buy this magazine for the design, typographic language and for being idealistic; for the multi-cultural and anthropological content and persuasive ideas; dual languages and non-conformist size; diagrammatic approach and innovative examples of collaborative and “shock” advertising, which some criticized as a form of “cultural and economic imperialism,” and much more — you shouldn't be disappointed.

A very good early issue of this pioneering publication with only light handling throughout. Would make an excellent teaching aid!