My trip back to Meredith Corporation on Friday was an interesting one. After spending the summer there as an editorial intern in the food department at Better Homes and Gardens, being back there for the day made me want to go back for good all the more. My experience over the summer was amazing...the people, the opportunities, the city (surprisingly enought), the food, the events, everything...I got so much more out of the experience than I ever could have imagined.
And even though I was working in editorial, I was lucky enough to dabble in quite a bit of design work. The girl who was the magazine's food/garden graphic designer was two years older than me and was a graduate of Drake. She really helped mentor me, and it was encouraging to see someone who was just two years older than me doing exactly what I eventually wanted to be doing as an entry level job. Along with my work at Meredith, I was able to spend a week as an assistant to the creative director on a shoot for a holiday baking story. When I went upstairs to say hi to some people at Better Homes on Friday, my editor Nancy gave me a couple copies of the new recipe annual (a compilation of all the recipes that appear in BHG over the year), which featured the cake from the shoot that I'd been on over the summer.
Here's a photo of the cake (although a different version appears on the cover of the annual:
P.S. The cake is HEAVENLY, so if you need a yummy go-go chocolate cake, here's the recipe. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.
/recipes.bhg.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeId=R092051
So it was really great to catch up with everyone I'd worked with over the summer, and I even had the chance to chat with the BHG Art Director about possible jobs. I'd absolutely love to go back there, so although I don't have an official offer or anything close to that, I have quite a few people pulling for me and some great connections from the summer. It's true what they say...it's all about making connections.
I wanted to briefly comment on two other things from our trip. First the cover meeting with the home group. I really enjoyed this, especially because I'd never been to one of these meetings, and it was especially interesting to see this from SIM. I agree with what some other people have commented on, and I found it true over the summer. Meredith doesn't take as many risks as a lot of other magazines out there. But it's also important to look at their audience. Better Homes and Gardens, for instance has an average readership of 50+, so it's important that the images relate to them. Like many people, I loved the image of the castle-esque kitchen for the "Dream Kitchens" cover, but I knew the second that flashed on the screen that it just wouldn't happen. It's just not Meredith. I think it's good that Meredith has these "formulas" but I would also like to see the company branch out in the future...which I think they are starting to do. After observing the re-design at BHG over the summer, having lunch with CEO Steve Lacy, and hearing John Riha speak, I think this company knows that they have an aging readership and they are going to need a more youthful component to keep the company thriving. That's encouraging to me (especially since I'd love to work there).
I was also really excited after our meeting with the Balance editor about the possibilities for this magazine, although I worry that the audience the pub class is looking at right now might be too broad. My other concern is that it's looking to be a Real Simple clone. Nonetheless, I'm excited about the amount of freedom we have for this project. I have some ideas...I'll probably be posting about those in the next week or so.
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