1994 AIGA MEDAL
Creators of beloved family-run visual culture magazineCommunication Arts.
For almost half a century Communication Arts has
provided a consistently revered forum for the best work created by
the visual communication industry. Since it was launched by Richard
Coyne and his partner Bob Blanchard, this magazine, that continues
to be edited and published under the guidance of Coyne's wife Jean
and their son Patrick, has been driven by the desire for
improvement. Much of the profits from the magazine are channeled
back into the business to enable various production-related
enhancements such as better paper, more color, and bigger
issues
The first issue of CA was published in August 1959. It was the
first U.S. magazine printed by offset lithography. It was also
perfect bound. Since there were no commercial perfect binders
available, the binding tape and cover were applied by hand at
Stanford University Press.
Within six months, paid circulation grew to 10,000.
CA's annual competition was launched in 1960 and received
5,000 entries. It continues to this day to provide a visual index
of the strongest work in the U.S. Advertising, however, was slow to
pick up and CA was carried through many periods of financial stress
by the sheer determination of its founders. After Blanchard left to
go into business by himself Coyne, with only a small staff to help
him, continued to write the copy, design the layouts, and even to
do all the litho stripping.
Despite the long hours, Coyne found the work exhilarating. In
1969, he wrote, “What a decade it was. One could find little
argument that this was probably the most important decade in the
history of visual communication. Design, advertising, film, all
were buffeted by extreme change.”
Jean Coyne, who met her husband while studying art and design at
Cornish School, began working full-time when their youngest of
three children reached school age. By 1984, circulation had grown
to 50,000 and the staff to 10.
In 1986 Patrick Coyne joined the magazine and encouraged the use
of digital technology in the magazine's production. During this
transitional period Dick Coyne was diagnosed with lung cancer and
succumbed to the disease on August 30, 1990.
In 2001, recognizing the potential for the web to become an
integral part of the business, and continuing the magazine's legacy
of continual self-improvement, the Coynes launched a three-site
online network that includes an information resource for creators
of interactive media, a customizable job-listing service, and an
interface for the magazine.
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