Scott Dadich, Wired Magazine

Okay. Hi, Scott.

Hi. How are you?

Good. So, I wanted to begin with… if you could tell me a little bit about the voice of Wired magazine. What's the point of view of Wired magazine?

Wired is a journal that focuses on how technology improves our lives and how technology is improving our lives. We look at everything from science to technology, to politics, to sex, to religion, and figure out the ways in which our lives are changing and examine that change. Because we're about change and because we're about the evolution of technology, we try and keep the look very fresh and continually moving.

A lot of magazines will go to a sort of signature style, or design and then stick with it for a number of years, and we try to compress that evolution into a shorter timeframe. So, we're continually refining, continually searching out new people, new contributors, new photographers, new illustrators, and looking for new ways to present our content. Because the brand is about innovation, it would do our readers a disservice not to innovate, ourselves. So, we try and put that into the pages and put that into the design in the photography, and look of the magazine.

And how far and advanced are you thinking about imagery for an issue?

It can vary from a month to a year. The J.J. Abrams issue that we just put out this May, we worked on for a year. So, that's an extreme end, all the way into something that can happen within a couple of days. A story will come up just as we're going to press and we’ll want to squeeze it into an issue. And we may… last minute.

How much time do you usually give a photographer for an assignment, typically?

Typically, it's a few days of planning and research and production time and then it can be as much as a week before the shoot. And then once the shoot happens, we try to compress that pretty quickly. We like to shoot film a lot, still, and so we'll want to get contact sheets really quickly or white gallery going of that and then make selects within a day or two after that and then order prints.

And then would you do retouching or changes on the imagery from here, or do you have the photographer go back and do that for you?

It depends on the artists; some photographers prefer to do their own and are very good at it, and some … we do the retouch. So, it really depends on the vision of the artist and the needs of the piece and what we're trying to accomplish.

How much art direction do you give on a photo shoot?

Quite a bit. Because we're often dealing with subject matter and subjects that are well known in a general sense but we're talking about a specific angle of that subject. We try and zero in on a particular approach for the photography, a particular look or setup, and are fairly specific with our attraction in just about everything that we do. It's fairly rare that we would just say, “Go find the shot for us.” That's fun and that's important for us… more often the case is that it's a pretty tightly controlled set of art direction.

And how many people would be involved in choosing the artist, the photographer, from here? How many photo editors? How many people?

We have three full-time photo editors and at the moment, one freelance photo editor and the four of them work continually on researching new people and trying to pair those up. I, as a creative director, work with those photo editors to select which photographers are best for the job and our design director Wyatt Mitchell and our art directors … and Christy and Carl, all also offer opinions. But ultimately it's my selection list with the photo department.

And how about illustration, is there a different team that works on illustration?

Exactly. It's the opposite where it's the art directors that I’m working with primarily on that. In the front of the book, in our “Start” and “Play” sections, it's Christy Sheppard and Margaret Swart. They've really got their fingers on the pulse of new and inventive illustration out there. So, we're always looking at sort of pair things up with the right story mix.

And we assign illustration in the front of the book with different philosophies. Our “Start” section is much more natural media, a little more toothy where our “Play” section is slicker… and so we assign with those things in mind.

Do you discuss “This is a person we want,” and then you call that one person, or do you have a selection and then you call a couple different people and then talk to them and decide from there? What do you usually do?

In terms of illustration or photography?

Either one. Like, do you usually know, when you've made that call, have you already decided if you want to use them or do you…?

Yes. Yes. For us, it's a matter of seeing the work and then either literally or mentally bookmarking that person for later. Knowing that that was a great piece and we want to work with that person or collaborate. And we'll keep that in mind and think of appropriate place later on. That's typically what will happen.

Right. So, by the time they actually get the call, it's like, "We're really interested in you. Would you do this assignment?"

Absolutely. And that could be a year after seeing their work. We all just sort of keep up on who's doing what and who's appearing in what magazine or what piece they've recently worked on. So, there's definitely a tabs kept on people and then it could be, you know, the next day like, "Oh, that's perfect for what we're doing right now or something later in the year."

Do you have a set budget when you call them, you say, "This is how much we have. Are you interested?" Or do you negotiate with them?

We do a little bit of negotiation but we do have a pretty strict budget especially nowadays with budget tightening every place. But we have a set budget for every magazine and if we go over budget on one magazine, it means we have to come in under on the next to balance the books. So, we try not to do that and we try to be as fair as we can with all of our rates, with all of our illustrators.

Has there been a change in the style of artist that you've been using since you've been here?

Yeah, we use an entirely new set of illustrators and photographers than we used before I started. Part of that is my personal style. Part of that is the personal style of the people that we've hired in the last couple of years and the changing needs of the magazine.

What's the difference between a contributing photographer, illustrator who appears on masthead versus one that you just call up for an assignment?

A contributing artist or photographer is someone who goes above and beyond for the magazine and continues to do it on a regular basis. That person may not contribute [every issue], they may be in the magazine once a year but the level of their commitment to Wired and to people in our department is extraordinary. It's above and beyond. They've really shown a high degree of involvement and creativity… you know, we’re not able to pay large fees so it's a smaller way that we're able to recognize the people that we really enjoy contributing and collaborating with.

Do you find that you need to have a relationship with the artist, somebody in here needs to know them? Or could you see a promo and say, "Oh, that looks great" and then just call that person out of the blue and say, "Here, go do this."

Yeah. And that happens every month that will see a promo or see something online that we love and we'll seek that person out… collaboration and the best work that we do is with people that we have personal relationships with because it will end up that, through our friendships and through the communication over the year things will come up, I’ll have an idea for something… maybe you want to bookmark it for later or you know it's a late night phone call.

“I was thinking about this. What would you think about trying something like that?” So, I know I speak for both the photo and the design department when I say that the best work comes from those relationships.

And when looking at work of somebody you don't know, does the fact that they've produced other editorial work matter to you or is it just about the imagery?

Editorial is a whole different animal than online or book because especially for Wired, it is highly change-intensive and highly art directed and their ability to collaborate and to respond to fact and editorial and artistic changes that are perhaps requested by the needs of the story or the needs of the art director, it's crucial that they have a good relationship and are willing to have that back and forth and that ability to change and move quickly.

Some of the artists we've had that are newer to editorial struggle with that a little bit, and it's a difficult transition for them. But… if the work was good and the relationship was good, they have a great attitude about it, we're going to be willing to help them along and bring them into the fold.

Do you think an artist should have a different editorial book than advertising book? Like, if you see a portfolio and it has a lot of advertising images in it, does that turn you off in any way?

Yeah, it does because editorial for us… we live in an advertising environment. Editorial pages are banked next to advertising. And that's great and that's a symbiotic relationship that we need to have. And our readers come to our magazine, not only to read the magazine but to also to see the ads. But the fact remains that we need to keep a clear distinction between those two and we don't want our editorial pages to look like ads. We need to maintain the legitimacy of our reporting. So, we definitely try to draw a line there between those two and keep an independent look between them.

Does the magazine have any control over the images that are in advertisers’ ads?

No, we do not. We have a set of company guidelines and our publisher has some guidelines. But we, in the editorial side, do not have any say or control about what goes into an advertisement and they don't have any say… in editorial pages.

Do you keep promotional pieces that you receive?

I don't anymore. I will keep them for a few days on my desk and sort of make a mental note of them and then look them up online and then bookmark them and then I'll probably toss them.

What about receiving emails, do you like getting email promos?

Absolutely do not like getting email promos.

Well, there you go.

Because especially here at Wired, we deal in… I probably get 350 emails a day and getting anymore on top of that, I’d find annoying. And I find that artists typically will ask me to click on a link or embed a graphic into the email, which are two things that slow me down… but I actually don't enjoy.

Is there a way you prefer to be contacted by artists who want to show you their work?

I still prefer a mailing. I cringed when I see wasteful mailers like big, heavy cardboard… A simple postcard or a series of postcards is always my preferred way. And that's definitely some way that we find new artists but to be honest, it's rare that we will publish an artist based on one postcard, one promo piece. I like to see their work in the world whether an editorial piece or an art exhibit, something like that.

And from there, do you need to call in the physical book or looking at their website – is that enough for you?

The website is enough for us. Sometimes with photographers, it helps to bring in the book or for the photographer to come by and our photo editors will interview them and get a sense of their personality type because often it's as much about personality as it is their skill set. If we have a prickly subject that needs a little more sweet talking, it's going to be important that the photographer have the right attitude. So, personality is a little more important with photographers than it is with illustrators.

And how important to you is the design of the website? Is it okay that just that there are good images on there or does a whole thing affect your work with them?

To an extent that it's clean, easy to navigate, simply designed. Those are the most important things for us. We don't like Flash because it's not searchable and it takes time to load and it takes time away from our day. If we’re looking through a list of 40 photographers that afternoon and your website takes an extra 3 seconds to load, chances are we're going to click off and move on to the next one. So, we prefer HTML. We prefer fast loading, light pages with good size images and that are quick to load.

Are there styles of photography that you like but you don't get to work with for Wired magazine?

Oh, absolutely. I think a lot of the photographers that, say, shoot for Martha Stewart Living or Real Simple, I think there's some beautiful lifestyle photographers out there, architectural photographers at, say, Dwell… there are times when we get to collaborate with them. Food photographers at Gourmet… there are rare sections of overlap where we do get to collaborate with them. But I wish those happened a little bit more frequently.

And is there a magazine now or in the recent past that you particularly like the images in, or the design of?

I love New York Magazine. I think Jody Quon and Chris Dixon do a remarkable job with that and the photography is always so fresh and so immediate. And you feel like a New Yorker… subscribing to that magazine. I love GQ magazine. I think that’s just put together so well, so beautifully designed. Photography is always really strong in that. Those are some of my favorites. I love New York Times Magazine. Blender was really great while it was still around. I think Blender was doing some really great things with photography, in terms of that immediacy and then freshness that really translated from the music that they were covering.

Is there a connection between the different magazines? Do the people who work at the different magazines actually know each other, or do you just watch each other through the magazines?

Absolutely we know each other. We all sort of meet and collaborate through SPD, which is the Society of Publication Designers, and that's a great community. In the 10 years that I've been involved with it, I've met some of my best friends and collaborators through the Society. So, I would definitely recommend that any illustrator, photographer looking to get into editorial work become an SPD member and check out their website and go to those events because it's a great community of collaboration. People looking to help each other and looking to improve and solicit advice and give advice. And it's a great forum for teaching and networking.

Are there other places you like to go to find talent or to hear about talent?

There's a great blog called magculture.com. That's by Jeremy Leslie in London, and Jeremy has his fingers in the pulse of new magazine talents, mainly in Europe, but around the world. So, I like to check back there and see the sort of innovations going on there. Been finding a lot of really interesting European illustrators and designers right now. I think there's a…

Would you work with somebody who's not in this country?

Absolutely. Probably half of the people we work with are international contributors, Australians, Londoners…

But this is your only office, right?

This is our only office. Well, we have an office in New York but we have a few editors there and our publishing staff is there. So, no, we work with people all over the world. We did a big project… artist last year in Tokyo. Geography is not an impediment for any collaboration.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you very much for your info.

Thanks for having me.