This is a fact: Magazines once had balls and Ralph Ginzburg, the only American publisher to be imprisoned in a Federal pen for publishing a magazine (Eros to be precise), was the one who shined them to a bright finish. One of his most ballsy magazines was Fact, designed by Herb Lubalin, and devoted to pealing away the facades on many corporations, politicians, and religious institutions. And as you can see from the covers above and below, it was smartly designed without superfluous conceits.

 

The "Goldwater" issue below prompted a libel lawsuit from the conservative senator and presidential candidate.  Ginzburg, an astute advertising-man-turned-journalist, could always produce recorded "fact" to support his controversial claims. But this time he erred. A federal jury awarded Goldwater $1 in compensatory damages (indicating his reputation had not really been harmed) and $75,000 in punitive damages, to punish Ginzburg and the magazine for being reckless.

 

Why revisit Fact now? As magazines increasingly fall by the wayside, leaving what's left, mostly in a neutered state, it's good to remember that hard-hitting, issues-oriented journalism was possible when an iconoclast took the lead. 

 

 

Steven Heller is the cofounder and the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts. He writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review and the Graphic Content blog for T-Style.  He is the author, coauthor, and/or editor of more than 120 books on design and popular culture, including the forthcoming New Ornamental Type (Thames and Hudson).