About
For more than two decades, Edward Leida has been one of the most influential art directors in fashion publishing, overseeing the look and feel of W magazine, as well as the stable of consumer and trade publications under Fairchild, including Details, Jane and Women’s Wear Daily. Part of the original creative team that developed W, a longtime broadsheet under WWD in 1991, Leida has been one of the guiding forces of the magazine, which today is a tour-de-force of fashion publishing. In 1991, Leida, redesigned W from a broadsheet to a large-format perfect-bound magazine and redesigned it once more in 2005.
During the course of his design directorship of W, Leida maintained a visual course that maintained a fashion tradition that was steeped in history, yet was always on target and in touch with the vanguard of the fashion world. No matter the subject matter—whether designing around celebrity portraits, beauty accessories, styled products or experimental fashion photography—the hallmark of Leida’s tenure at W has been his range in crafting content-driven pages for the magazine’s wide-ranging subject matters, and creating a resonant interface to W’s influential readership.
Beyond fashion, Leida’s range also extends to his complete design of Details magazine in 2000, which captured the zeitgeist of men’s fashion and revealed a contemporary, type-driven approach to magazine design. With custom typography and taking cues with the increasing influence of web design, the format and look of Details became widely imitated and became a touchstone for graphic designers worldwide.
Trained as both an Industrial and Graphic Designer, Leida has, over the course of his career, done extensive work in the areas of Editorial Design, Corporate Identity, Branding, Book Design and Advertising. Tradition, history, craft, and contemporary values are what continue to inform his art direction and design.
His design of W was nominated by the National Magazine Awards for Excellence in Design in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005 and was nominated Magazine of the Year in 2007 and 2009 by the Society of Publication Designers. He is also the recipient of numerous design awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club of NY/NJ and The Society of Publication Designers.
During the course of his design directorship of W, Leida maintained a visual course that maintained a fashion tradition that was steeped in history, yet was always on target and in touch with the vanguard of the fashion world. No matter the subject matter—whether designing around celebrity portraits, beauty accessories, styled products or experimental fashion photography—the hallmark of Leida’s tenure at W has been his range in crafting content-driven pages for the magazine’s wide-ranging subject matters, and creating a resonant interface to W’s influential readership.
Beyond fashion, Leida’s range also extends to his complete design of Details magazine in 2000, which captured the zeitgeist of men’s fashion and revealed a contemporary, type-driven approach to magazine design. With custom typography and taking cues with the increasing influence of web design, the format and look of Details became widely imitated and became a touchstone for graphic designers worldwide.
Trained as both an Industrial and Graphic Designer, Leida has, over the course of his career, done extensive work in the areas of Editorial Design, Corporate Identity, Branding, Book Design and Advertising. Tradition, history, craft, and contemporary values are what continue to inform his art direction and design.
His design of W was nominated by the National Magazine Awards for Excellence in Design in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005 and was nominated Magazine of the Year in 2007 and 2009 by the Society of Publication Designers. He is also the recipient of numerous design awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club of NY/NJ and The Society of Publication Designers.
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Giving Thanks
Beauty is for everyone/Beauty is forever/You and I are one
You will be missed Mr. Jobs
Edward Leida has been nominated by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s 2011 National Design Awards for Lifetime Achievement and Communication Design.
The only awards of their kind in the nation and the museum’s largest education initiative, the Awards celebrate design excellence and innovation, and also serve as …a critical gauge of the impact of design on the quality of American life. Their unique contribution to America’s cultural life was recognized by their designation as an official White House Millennium Council program in 2000. First Ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and Hillary Clinton have hosted White House ceremonies celebrating the Awards program.
This year is the twelfth anniversary of the Awards, which will be bestowed at a gala award ceremony in New York City on October 20, 2011. The categories include Lifetime Achievement, Design Mind, Corporate and Institutional Achievement, Architecture Design, Communication Design, Fashion Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, and Product Design.
Knoll for Lufthansa circa 1960’s
Edward Leida Design created this years National Holiday Campaign for Bloomingdale’s. The “PEACE LOVE HOPE” message was written and developed by Edward Leida Design as well as the execution of Taxi Advertisements, Shopping Bags, Catalogs, Signage and a host of collateral materials.
Video produced for Society of Publication Designers Speaker Series at FIT
