Jack is hoping to reinforce its presence as a men’s magazine as part of a complete re-design by new creative director Ash Gibson.
Editorial in the June issue has been re-jigged and a new strap-line “Men Read Jack” has been added to the cover.
Editor Michael Hodges said it would remind potential readers who aren’t familiar with the title that Jack is a men’s magazine.
It replaces previous strap-lines such as “A Giant of a Men’s Mag” that drew attention to Jack’s smaller size. “It was kind of funny to have on a magazine that was smaller than the opposition but a cover is not a place, in retrospect, for in-jokes,” he said.
The Most Talked About section at the front has been expanded and will adopt a newsier approach. Hodges said he also hoped to introduce more original illustrations into the fashion, and “life changing moments” which signal the journey from boyhood to manhood.
New type-faces, grids and graphics have been added to complement the page size, which Hodges said would allow the team to use space, text and image in a way they had not been able to before. “When you have a more coherent design it allows you to be more coherent in everything else you do in the magazine,” he said.
Former Arena editor Greg Williams has also been signed up as a regular columnist.
Jack underwent a re-launch last October in a bid to boost sales and widen its appeal outside London.
The revamp saw the introduction of a bigger format and more pages by Jack’s previous art director Steve Read.
Gibson took over the art direction after Read left to join IPC’s men’s weekly Nuts.
Hodges said there was no change to the magazine’s format this time. “We are now of the opinion that we are definitely perfectly formed. We are going to stop snipping off centimetres, we are very happy with these dimensions and they really suit the re-design,” he added.
Gibson, who worked with Hodges on Maxim and Maxim Fashion, said he wanted Jack’s design to “follow the tradition of great style magazines, mature, lively and contemporary”.
The June issue also includes a photographic supplement created by novelist Martin Amis and photographer Stefan De Luigi, as well as interviews with Ray Winston, Carmen Kass and Bob Geldof.
By Ruth Addicott
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