• by Staff Writers , September 30, 2009

Many of the designs submitted to us though CrowdSpring were throwbacks to looks or themes from past visions of the future, perhaps following the lead of our tagline for the issue: "It isn't what it used to be." Throughout this section the designers, who span the globe, explain their covers in their own words.

1950s
"Foreseeing the future is a risky business. Stubbornly, reality keeps proving us wrong.
So, it wasn't all about teletransportation and personal flying devices but the Internet.
However - and probably because they tell more about who we were than about the future - we feel an irrepressible tenderness towards our former predictions. Let's keep throwing forecasts and enjoying the sweet disappointment of the future being not what we thought. We always arrive, but somewhere else."
Andrés Gleizer (andresgleizer.com)

1960s
"The iconic 1960s Jetsons represented the fantasy of "what the future was" and as such seemed like the perfect pop cultural reference to pull your audience into this special issue. That cartoon show made predictions for our future that were laughably inaccurate - and sometimes surprisingly prescient. So it serves as an engaging way to introduce consideration of the future and how impossible it truly can be to predict."
My hope is that this would be a fun, attention-grabbing cover with multiple layers of meaning - a combination that can make your readers both laugh and think.
Rick Slusher

1970s
"I like to use irony and humour in most of my creations. It's an effective communication tool combined with a supporting tagline as an invitation to magazine readers to go further. I like clean designs to support the main concept. As usual, nobody certainly knows the future. Thus I'm giving an ironic point of view, designing a head editor completely out of tech gear, USB cables and so on. Maybe we'll wear on all media over our head one day. Media creativity certainly has not limits."
Niko Vazquez

1980s
"When Max Headroom first appeared in 1985, he was the picture of the future - high-tech and cutting-edge. People were drawn to him, but they didn't know why. They were also confused by him, unsure if he was real or fake. In the same way, people today are drawn to social media and the user experience that Alex Bogusky has integrated into advertising, although they may not fully understand it or its potential. Max Headroom's view of the future didn't come to fruition. The jury is still out on whether Bogusky's approach to media will be fully realized."
Barry Klipp (cargocollective.com/barryklipp)

1990s
"The future of media is viral marketing, what better way to foreshadow this concept than to take it literally! Alex gives rise to a legion of viral zombies whose message unknowingly seeps into tweeters alike. Like viral marketing, B movies are a relatively low-cost method of exploiting a message."
Erik Vilnius

2000s
"On the Internet, everyone can be a broadcaster. The user has the option to assemble his offer of entertainment and information individually at any time, while it does not matter if he is consumer or producer. Many portals and applications will emerge, and all will have a common goal: the collection of data about the user. Above all, communication agencies must take advantage of this data. They have learned that a greater number of consumers feel that advertising is a nuisance. Users are not individuals anymore, they are data packets; the content is constantly changing and growing.
Even Alex Bogusky will no longer be perceived as a human being, but exists only as a person flattened to the information he reveals, just like the logo of Media magazine. And the future of media? It is set really close to you. You don't recognize it. But it will be always there."
Jens Kretchmann