Has Dwell stopped being a "Nice Modernist?"
Category: Commentary
Posted by: Anthony on 1/28/2005 8:54:00 AM | Digg | Stumble It! | del.icio.us
A rant about one of our favorite rags
Over in the Archinect forums, a member with the moniker Suture has written an interesting little rant about how Dwell is slowly changing from a magazine that once featured hand made coffee tables and stenciled walls to one that now features individuals tooling around in "mid 50's Mercedes" toting "$1000+ worth of luggage" and can afford "$20,000 plus worth of iconic Mies furnishings". I guess it's been a long transition because I never really noticed it, but now that he mentions it, it suddenly stands out so well.
"Where they once documented honest, affordable projects that did not strain to be trendy, they are now profiling unfinished projects (or was that a proposition for a new temporal plywood design) (p96) just so they can stuff crass advertising down peoples throat (back cover and 123), sell branded shoes (see p127), sell not very accessible or ecologically friendly cars (p 27 and they have had H2 ads before)...sadly the list goes on. I wont even touch the out of control and exponentially growing ad section in the back that is busting at the seams."
So, we pose the question: Should Dwell go back to leaning more to the Ready Made side of the fence or should they continue on their current path catering to the Elle Decor crowd? Comment below!

Link: Archinect Forums
Link: Dwell
Link: Fruit Bowl Manifesto (Dwell)

Comments Add Comments

its about "modern"
Posted by janelle on 1/28/2005 11:10:00 AM

Modern can be inexpensive or extravegant. What's wrong with hi-lighting both? Sometimes the most creative things are derived from budgets, however they are inspired by those that have no constraints. Advertising is fine, and necessary, provided the substance of the magazine remains.

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Yes, but it's also about "comfort"
Posted by Anthony on 1/28/2005 1:12:00 PM

Janelle, I agree with you that it's about "modern". There's no argument there.

One of the things I love about Dwell is the "how to make my home your home" section because it has a tendency to highlight a lot of the DIY aspects that a lot of lower-end modern homes feature (for example, poured concrete street number signs, etc). However, I somewhat agree with Suture that some of the homes Dwell features, especially those on the high-end, seem to contradict Dwell's Fruit Bowl Manifesto where they themselves say:

"We understand the impulse, the desire to show rooms that are insanely perfect. There is something compelling about an empty room or a house in which no one has lived. Something virginal. It would be an awesome responsibility to be the first one through that door. Perfection is intimidating. You have to be on your best behavior to live with it."

Some of the homes recently featured in Dwell tend to be of the trophy home, "insanely perfect" type as opposed to the "comfortable" ones they described in their manifesto. There's nothing wrong with that. I thoroughly enjoy reading about and seeing them featured in the magazine. I don't have any problems with the magazine but I do acknowledge the points that Suture was making in his rant.

And you're right: some of the most creative things are derived from those withough budget constraints. Too much low-end and they would become Budget Living. Too much high-end and then they become....?

Btw, this post was in no way meant to be a jab at Dwell. I'm still happy with the mix they present in each issue. I love the magazine and look forward to it's arrival every other month. However, I thought it would be interesting to note what others think of Dwell and also to encourage additional dialog on the subject.

Thanks for commenting! :-)
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Posted by Richard on 1/30/2005 7:48:00 AM

It's been 3 issues since I bought a copy of Dwell and a year or so since I let my subscription lapse. I hadn't really thought deeply about why - but I agree with Suture. They have left my intrests behind. I too am not making a jab at Dwell, they can cover what ever they want. I'm just going to have to look elsewhere for what I'm interested in - "Affordable projects that don't strain to be trendy" and inspire me to act.

Dwell has become another magazine I flip through at the bookstore but cannot justify bringing home.
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growing wary
Posted by Sean on 2/1/2005 8:50:00 AM

As a fan of Dwell's basic philosophy of simple modern living I too have recently been frowning about how slick they are becoming. The H2 ads say it all for me.

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Silly
Posted by Frampton on 2/1/2005 2:03:00 PM

It's silly to suggest that you won't read a magazine because Hummer advertises.
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Posted by hijiki on 2/1/2005 2:57:00 PM

i used to subscribe to dwell because it combined environmental responsibility with friendly modernism. i agree that it has shifted to the less interesting mainstream. i still read it.

h2 is one of the more irresponsible consumer products on the planet and i applaud anyone who takes a stance against it even if it is just not buying a magazine. it's not bad to use your dollars to support your beliefs... although to be effective, you might let dwell know why you're not buying. recently, mother earth news stopped taking american spirit ads in response to reader protests.
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Look at the old forum
Posted by Yep on 2/7/2005 12:36:00 AM

The Dwell forum was neglected by the mag, which was fine as the community flourished, brought together by their agreement and love of the 'nice modernist' aesthetic. However it soon became clear that the new Dwell, in the form of an acct called "Allison", was wanting to change a lot, 'cleaning up' I believe was mentioned. The community however, which most sites would work hard to create as loyal a following, was not going quietly. Dwell deleted top level links to entire sections of their forum. Members continued to post in them and even circulated direct links to them. Dwell wasn't happy and kept chiding the continued posting. As it became more clear that the 'new Dwell' wasn't interested in keeping the existing forums and threads people started archiving them locally, calling out for assistance for someone to keep alive some of the long standing threads that had taken on an almost reference level of information for some people. Eventually some bit of hope appeared in the form of Livemodern.com who offered to host the Dwell forums, including the archives of the old ones. While this has been appreciated and kinda allowed the same group of people to continue to congregate online, Dwell made it pretty clear they don't care about the community they shunted off, or at least they are not aware of how to show that they do. The "Ask Dwell" forum as far as I've seen has yet to have any sort of "Dwell" response yet.

Dwell still is a good mag, and still is better and fill a niche than a lot of the other arch mags, however its not what we originally were enthralled with. I still buy it and it will continue to sell, but its not the same, and is much like a former edgy artist who has sold out or at least lost part of their soul.
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The Alternative?
Posted by CopaceticElvis on 2/9/2005 5:35:00 PM

For as much as it may be lamented the direction Dwell may or may not be headed, it would be good to consider the alternatives to Dwell.

In my corner of the world (Jax, Florida), Dwell is pretty much the only mag that I have come across that speaks to an attainable Modernism. Without it, I would be SOL. I am not inclined to drop Dwell for their slide, but should things continue towards an unattainable focus of design, I would be hard-pressed to find an alternative.

'Elvis
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Yes..but
Posted by Baffler on 3/4/2005 11:16:00 AM

The observations posted here are accurate (and the Hummer ad especially troubling) but I'm in publishing and know that most consumer magazines lose buckets of money for years before becoming profitable and have heard that Dwell is no exception.

So the question then becomes do you want a magazine like Dwell to exist or not?

We live in a society where nobody wants to pay the true cost of the things they think are important (think taxes and roads, school, SEC regulation, etc.) so advertising supports it for us. We also have an unreasonably strong faith in the free market to determine what deserves to succeed.

This environment generates a pretty simple equation: Dwell needs advertising to exist and if none of their readers buy Hummers, the Hummer advertising will stop.

So if you like Dwell, buy it and support the affordable products that advertise. There are plenty of small businesses running in the classified section in the back that need the help.

Better yet, take the risk necessary to build modern structures affordably. Right now, it ain't easy and Dwell's evolution is probably due to this fact. However, it ain't going to get easier until a bunch of people insist on doing it and put their money behind it. One guy in Chicaog looking to build a modern house affordably is a fool. 1000 people looking to do it is a market.

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It is worse than that
Posted by Toomuchremodeling on 3/4/2005 11:55:00 AM

I would support the advertising if it keeps a magazine around. Better slick and alive than "real" and out of business.

The bigger issue is that the content is starting to suck. I think it is great that they have some longstanding passions - manufactured housing, eco-friendly, but I feel that they are starting to ignore just basic good, contemporary modern design.

I don't need 2 "Wired" magazines. I really need a magazine that caters to me, an owner and renovator of a very modern house that loves to know what great, creative people are doing.
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no-mail@example.com
Posted by some guy on 3/18/2005 9:39:00 AM

As somebody who has been in direct contact with a few Dwell employees for a couple of years, I can attest to the fact that there has been a culture change at the magazine. I did not read Dwell in the formative years, but ever since the Dwell Home Design Invitational started, I think they now look at themselves as design superstars.

Whoever said they're losing money and NEED so many ads to keep running - that's inaccurate. One editor in particular (previously mentioned above) DOES in fact tool around in a vintage car that probably cost more than most people make in a year. Yhey are SWIMMING in money. Look no further than the magazine itself for proof. Every other page is an advertisement. If I could subscribe to only the left side of the magazine, I might be happy, but instead I'm paying them to deliver a bunch of ads to my mailbox every month. You have to flip through 20-30 pages of ads just to get to the table of contents.

There's also little consistency of vision. The whole magazine is now a mess of contradictory mixed message. Just take the October/November 2004 issue. On the cover - a few psychological triggers to intrigue the potential buyer. A nice house on a great site, a child, a green field. This is the image that Dwell wants to project to the world - envoronmentally concerned, beautiful, healthy. Superimposed over the image: "Sustainability 101: It Is Easy Being Green." Then - we have the oft-mentioned Hummer H2 advertisement. Also, see the ad of the Volkswagen Touareg driving across a pristine desert. Another SUV ad (hybrid schmybrid) graces the inside of the front cover. And the Dwell Home 2? Sold as having "sustainability" at its core, yet the house itself is on a street without a sidewalk. Looks like the owners will be using their car (or their, umm, helicopter) quite a lot.

After that Oct/Nov 2004 issue, I called up my friend at Dwell and said that his magazine had finally crossed over into the schizophrenia so common in most advertisements: you say one thing, and then do another. He told me, quote (and this is a direct quote because I just looked it up in my journal): "I don't care about that kind of stuff anymore. I can finally afford the kind of lifestyle that we sell to the general public, and I'm not going to go back to where I was a few years ago just to satisfy some touchy-feely ex-hippie from Washington state who says we've sold out." Pretty soon I realized that not only the magazine, but also my friend, had been through a sea change. I stopped reading the magazine and stopped calling my friend.

Anyway, I'm pretty glad to see this post here on Land Living - I am finally glad that someone else is starting to notice.
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Evolving Dwell Magazine
Posted by Karl Call on 3/24/2005 7:21:00 AM

I for one am happy to see dwell publish the high end housing projects. As an interior designer that works with other people's money I think it is important to see inspiring design. The unfinished homes with no budgets do not inspire me for any future projects. I do however realize that value engineering will be a part of every project and some of the really nice or extravagant design features will have to be reduced to a much smaller scale or only used in focal points of spaces. Good design does NOT have to be unattainable by the masses, but I also don't believe that we have to reduce ourselves to unfinished products and call it "green design" to excuse our lack of creativity or ability to design within budgetary constraints. I do appreciate the articles concerning environmentally friendly materials and utilizing natures natural resources to heat and cool our homes. We all should be more aware of our environments and not be so selfish that we feel we must consume as much as we can during our life. Leave the hummer advertisements out. As a matter of fact I don't need any automobile advertisements, jewelry or clothing in an architectural design magazine. I do however appreciate the product advertisements in the back of the magazine. I am constantly searching for new products and innovative ways to use them within my budgetary constraints.
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Good thread, strange entry, questions and answers...
Posted by andrew@dwellmag.com on 3/28/2005 3:08:00 PM

My name is Andrew Wagner and I'm the senior editor at Dwell. First thing I want to say is that we all have read the archinect threads and this one. While we may not agree with everything said on them, I for one and always happy to see that people are interested. Suture wrote us here at the magazine and I've actually been struggling with writing him/her back for a while...there is just too much to be said and seemingly not enough time to address all the issues and concerns he/she brought up and the additional ones brought up here and also go about our daily work routines.

So why am I writing a post here and now? Because we all are curious as to who "some guy" is? Who is this person who didn't include his/her email address claims to be in contact with a number of us here at the magazine? We also wonder, in astonishment, who the vintage car tooling driver he/she could be talking about is because there are four males here on the creative staff and here are our modes of transportation:

Andrew Wagner (senior editor) - 1989 Chevy Celebrity (recently side-swiped)
Sam Grawe (editor) - 1987 Saab 900 (needs a new exhaust)
Kyle Blue (senior designer)- bicycle
Craig Bromley (designer) - strictly public transportation

Despite what "some guy" wrote in his journal, I'm also confident that no one on our creative staff ever said anything to the effect of "I don't care about that kind of stuff anymore. I can finally afford the kind of lifestyle that we sell to the general public, and I'm not going to go back to where I was a few years ago just to satisfy some touchy-feely ex-hippie from Washington state who says we've sold out" (unless it was our New York Editor Virginia Gardiner.... just kidding YV). But that was certainly a good laugh.

We really are happy to hear from the Dwell Community, both praise and criticism, so please feel free to write to me any time at the above email address. As was often the case with our previous message board there simply aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone, but rest assured, everyone is being heard. Thanks again for everyone's interest...

- Andrew Wagner
Senior Editor
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dwindling dwell
Posted by bjb on 4/4/2005 4:02:00 PM

I love this thread. Even though Andrew Wagner seems to have silenced the masses here, as often someone from Dwell will step in and do, they have issues (no pun intended) that they've never fully addressed or finished.
I used to frequent the Dwell forum for quite a long time. there were mostly GREAT people on there who would give free information for those of us looking. Greg L. is still a hero of mine and I love his designs. Christy is a wealth of link-knowledge. When they stopped their forum, livemodern.com took it over, and I've never re-committed to it. I'm glad to check out this site I just found today, but I miss all of the old threads we had at Dwell that were promised an archive by Dwell that never materialized. Livemodern is too....cumbersome in my opinion to navigate easily although I still lurk to read info sometimes.

Also, I believe it was 2 issues ago (sorry, Andrew, I don't have it in front of me) that a reader wrote in to Dwell and complained about the lack of prices in the gotta-have-this-type-pages. editor empathized and replied they'd add prices. this last month? no prices.

the editors at dwell were always kind to jump in on the Dwell boards and answer questions or qwell any paranoia that was happening when the archives disappeared. they were always very nice & eloquent. I think it has just slipped.
I wonder if the prefab is a lost cause. they just refuse to admit it might be a flop. an expensive, unrealistic flop that has already taken so many down with it they can't admit failure. or maybe the rest of us are giving up too soon. I don't know. Dwell has seemed to lose it's fire. I wish them a re-kindling, and I wish they would take the forum back over again, regardless of how much of a pain it was to them, it made many of us loyal to the magazine.

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What about the North?
Posted by Michael on 4/20/2005 3:17:00 PM

I have only read one issue of Dwell mag and felt I had finaly found something that was up my alley till I noticed not only the class bias but the fact that it seems to be soley American in it's scope. It's a beautiful magazine but it ignores the moderists north of the 49th parralel. we are out there
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Legitimate criticism & Reading Comprehension
Posted by zappapa on 4/20/2005 5:28:00 PM

I find all the criticism of dwell unfortunately legitimiazed by two facets of Andrew W.'s entry. #1 Andrew W., senior editor of dwell, took valuable time out of his very, very busy day to try and ferret out "who gossiped about what type of car his office fellows were driving" without answering any of the legitimate criticism leveled at the magazine- I guess he did not really have time for that. #2 The senior editor of dwell is rather defensive about the cars his male creative staff drives when in fact the "vintage car tooling editor" is clearly identified as "Allison" in an entry six above his own. There seems to be an attention to detail issue that I wouldn't expect to slip past an editor- even a very, very busy one.

I personally couldn't care less what car Allison drives, but I do expect the senior editor of a supposedly intellectual magazine to be more interested in legitimate criticism of his magazine's content than gossip around his staff's choice in friends (real or imaginary) or transportation.
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Bad Editor
Posted by Andrew Wagner on 4/22/2005 9:09:00 PM

I really could care less about what anybody at Dwell drives either which was the point of my post. I felt that in my post I made it clear that I (and every one on our staff) really appreciates all criticism we receive. We are all incredibly interested in the criticism we receive and listen very intently too. I also hoped that I had made that clear but apparently not.

What I was trying to say is that posting on boards like this and posting on the original Dwell board is very time consuming regardless of what "Zappapa" thinks. When the topic is revolving around your work you feel the need to respond to every single post and obviously that can't be done. I wrote Suture (the original poster on Archinect) and said I would love to meet him (or her) out one night when we could have an in-depth conversation about what we are trying to do at the magazine - believe it or not, I really love talking about this stuff. But it is really a lengthy conversation that is much easier and productive to address one on one which is why I invited anyone who cared to to write me directly. Trying to respond to 15 different people's different concerns is just too much...and, as we see, postings on boards like this are often misinterpreted.

In response to BJB...we were all bummed to have to relinquish control of our message board but it really just got to be too much to manage effectively(come on Zappapa, make another "I'm so busy" crack again...). Unfortunately I have no better answer than that. In regards to putting prices in the magazine concerning products etc., changes like this always take a little bit longer than we would like because it involves not only an editorial change but a design change. If one bit of information goes in, usually something else has to come out. So, we are still thinking about that suggestion and all the others that we are always hearing.

As far as prefab being a failure or not, it was a huge project that took a ton of time and effort and really we were taking a chance with something that no one (at the magazine or anywhere else) had a lot of first hand experience with. All I can say is that we at least put ourselves out there to start up a conversation - as far as I'm concerned, that makes it a success in my book. Was it perfect? No. But what ever is? Hopefully we (and anyone else who paid attention to our mistakes) will do better next time around. That's all we can really hope.

So, again, I have probably not answered everyone's questions, but I sincerely encourage anyone who would like to discuss these issues in an "intelligent" manner rather than just take shots at someone, please do write me. Thanks a lot...

- Andrew Wagner (the bad editor with no reading comprehension)
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Change is inevitable...
Posted by sanspotash on 4/24/2005 9:50:00 PM

I guess the biggest disappointment for me was when I realized that Dwell had moved away from any serious or meaningful discourse on design and more towards photo-based lifestyle posturing (like the holiday gift guide or the endless consumer products parade). I understand that most successful magazines are sold in that manner, I guess I am let down by thinking that Dwell was going to be different. I let my subscription lapse because I no longer am interested in what Dwell has to say. Dwell does indeed have an audience, though I fear it is becoming the same audience that also has a subscription to Lucky.
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Legitimate criticism & Reading Comprehension
Posted by zappapa on 4/25/2005 12:19:00 PM

I find all the criticism of dwell unfortunately legitimiazed by two facets of Andrew W.'s entry. #1 Andrew W., senior editor of dwell, took valuable time out of his very, very busy day to try and ferret out "who gossiped about what type of car his office fellows were driving" without answering any of the legitimate criticism leveled at the magazine- I guess he did not really have time for that. #2 The senior editor of dwell is rather defensive about the cars his male creative staff drives when in fact the "vintage car tooling editor" is clearly identified as "Allison" in an entry six above his own. There seems to be an attention to detail issue that I wouldn't expect to slip past an editor- even a very, very busy one.

I personally couldn't care less what car Allison drives, but I do expect the senior editor of a supposedly intellectual magazine to be more interested in legitimate criticism of his magazine's content than gossip around his staff's choice in friends (real or imaginary) or transportation.
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A thousand times yes!
Posted by motoguzzi on 4/25/2005 3:25:00 PM

You know, after enjoying Dwell for quite awhile I too noticed a "change". I stopped subscribing but would pick up an issue every now and then at the bookstore just to see what was up. I just read sanspotash's post and he/she nailed it. Someone earlier posted that this is somewhat inevitable if we want magazines to be around. I don't disagree, but at what point do they all look & feel the same? To be fair, Dwell is qualitatively better than Lucky, though it seems to be moving more to that demographic. Is this really why? Do magazines that are of quality really need to pander so blatantly to any and all advertisers? If the answers are "yes", then all I have to say is YUCK.
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I really do not like where they are going…
Posted by gagaworld on 4/30/2005 12:27:00 PM

I have been a Dwell subscriber from the very beginning and I got to admit, I am disappointed in the direction they are going. What I used to love and really looked forward too … is seeing and reading about other people just like myself … educated professional, creative thinkers who appreciate modern design and architecture. I live in a funky post-war ranch on a limited, but pretty average budget. I could pick up great ideas and even find designers and retailers of products that I purchased. What I used to love about Dwell is the practicality of the homes and decor featured. They was guilt free and "honest to the materials" examples of decor and architecture … I used it for research for my job as an art director and referred to it often. Now days … not so much! It has changed and going in a direction that seems too mainstream, too yuppie, too extravagant, way over the top. Good design can be affordable … which is what Dwell magazine used to represent.
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Bike
Posted by T. B. Rock on 5/3/2005 2:53:00 PM

shoe and bike tred is all that finds purchase with the fine designer KYLE BLUE of Dwell. can we talk bikes, gas, or shall we talk arch + editorial intent?
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make a better mouse trap
Posted by Maria on 5/5/2005 2:37:00 PM

I find that throwing judgmental statements and accusations creates a lot of negative energy, which is wasteful and destructive. In order to keep negativities at bay, it is wise to speak or write directly to the people involved in making decisions and engage in a dialogue about your concerns. If your opinion is not acknowledged or not catered to and it bothers you, then don't support the product financially. Support the products you value and if it bothers you so much and there are no products that fit your needs then do without or do it yourself. Start your own magazine, make your own product, let your unique ideas and values inspire you! You may find that there are many people just looking for a magazine or product like the one you could create. Best wishes to the muse in us all!
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Give me a break!
Posted by Beaune Clos de Mouche on 5/8/2005 12:42:00 AM

Maria, with all due respect, what a sanctimonious load of hooie. In reviewing all of the posts there are numerous valid criticisms of Dwell and its editorial content. These go beyond being judgments and accusations and get to the heart of the matter... Dwell has become yet another vehicle for SELLING PRODUCTS AND ADVERTISING. This is a sad turn in events for a magazine that, for awhile there, was breaking some serious new ground. Now... well, now it is those who are advitising within its pages that are breaking new ground. I will say this, though, your post gave me a good laugh. Good luck with your new magazine and your inspiring ideas! Best wishes to you (and your muse!).

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Posted by Anonymous on 5/27/2005 4:54:00 PM

I'd be happy if they just stopped putting so much emphasis on the too-bif-for-its-britches prefab movement.
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not so subtle
Posted by Jean-François Allie on 5/29/2005 10:34:00 AM

I also agree that Dwell changed, but it was not so subtle and slow. Already in the second year I started complaining to my girlfriend about the projects they chose and the kind of advertisement it contained. Of course they are free to choose any editorial directon they want, but their "new" direction is definitely not one that I would subscribe to. We still buy it sometimes for the same reasons we buy other European magazines ie curiosity and conversation, not out of any emotional tie to its content. Where is the human scale comfortable modernism now? I mean just skimming trought the June issue, you can't help but notice that there are more human beings in the ads then in the articles. I also laughed when I saw the fruits and vegetables in the Perfect Kitchen article... still without a bowl, I'm releived ;-)

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haven't been happy for awhile
Posted by Astroman on 6/29/2005 7:46:00 PM

I don't really have anything new to add here, I just wanted to see that I have pretty much every issue of Dwell from the beginning, but like many others here on this board, I have become very unhappy with it lately. It HAS become a big catalog of advertisements, which is probably a economical necessity, but it's still annoying compared to the way things used to be. Also, I think the articles have definitely changed to more high end show homes of ridiculous excess...
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Dwell-opolis
Posted by | a | on 7/14/2005 7:37:00 PM

Is it just me or are Dwell and Metrolpolis hooked at the hip? Dwell has lost focus of its 'lived in' fruit bowl manifesto to a more museum-esque image delivery. With all those families and kids and not even a water mark on the table...how'd they do that? Its now become trendy, yes I said it...trendy...if my grandma has spotted the magazine and went out of her way to tell me, I know its time to move on...
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Dwell no longer Swell
Posted by keets on 7/15/2005 7:40:00 AM

When Dwell first came out it was quite a breath of fresh air amongst design magazines. But over the past 2 years it feels as though they've run out of ideas and are just going through the motions. I used to be excited when the new issue came out, but now I don't even bother flipping through it. How long can 'pre-fab' be milked ?

Also of note, their choices of 'Hot Products' lately has been awful. That section used to be great in the beginning, but I just shake my head at the crap they deem 'Hot'nowadays. It feels as though they are trying to impress the editors of Wallpaper with their odd selections.

I recommend to all Dwell readers to ditch it and move onto a better publication such as AZURE or Surface.

Sorry to the editors of Dwell, but your mag has become complete fluff.
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dwell should..
Posted by zac on 7/19/2005 7:01:00 AM

here's a suggestion, that i'll send to andrew, too.

i think dwell would do well to treat the new dwell home like the first one, with a thorough web page that features all of the designs and designers. i know the first dwell home had and has it's issues, but i know building a house is not as easy, quick, or simple as we'd like, yet...

so that's my suggestion, put up a dwell home 2 page, so people can spend hours staring at the pretty renderings, like we did with the first one. it kept me connected to dwell, even when i wasn't at home with the mag in hand. i think that's what the message boards did when they were dwell boards, too. dwell was part of life then, not just part of the magazine stack.
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dwell
Posted by christine on 7/19/2005 2:55:00 PM

If the H2 is being advertised in Dwell, it's b/c Humvee perceives Dwell readers as its market. If we find the ads odious, let's look away. But this feels like all the hipsters that get up in arms when Ikea wants to move into their neighborhood, as if the fact that they moved there isn't the reason Ikea is coming. Get over it.

What bugs me about Dwell lately is the ever increasing per-square-foot costs of the houses they feature. Related to this is their undying - and competetly uncrtical - love of prefab. I like prefab, too, but a Flatpak house at $200 per square foot not including site work, permitting, architect's fees (architect's fees on pre-fab!!!), foundation work, permitting, and utilities (which, on a 1200 square foot house is going to add about another $40/square foot) is not cheaper than custom. I wish they would stop treating it as if it were the second coming.
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I like Dwell
Posted by Mike on 9/1/2005 2:51:00 PM

I enjoy my Dwell subscription. There is always something that inspires me when I flip through it.
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Disappointed
Posted by Scott on 10/3/2005 9:26:00 AM

I use to read Dwell religously however after not picking up an issue in 6 months I decided to buy a copy in the book store to see what I had been missing. When I picked the magazine up I noticed a substantial difference in the thickness, come to find out it was from all the additional advertising, like Chevy of all cars. I wonder what the ratio of adverising to articles dwell is now versus earlier editions? Next time I plan to sit at the bookstore and read the articles in 30 minutes and safe myself $5.00.

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That's What I Do with DWELL
Posted by John on 10/5/2005 2:10:00 AM

Flip thru lots of Ads and pick up one or two itemes at the Bookstore mag section. Less than 10 minutes so I can have some valuable reading time with other magazines!!
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Dull Dwell
Posted by Lizzy on 12/15/2005 5:06:00 AM

Every new issue of Dwell now looks almost exactly like the last, and after nodding off to sleep a few times while browsing through an issue, I FORGET I EVEN LOOKED THROUGH IT. So I don't bother anymore. I'm tired of seeing the same hip, young, politely modernist couples issue after issue -- all from the same economic, academic and ethnic bent. (Yeah, I said ethnic.) The whole magazine has the air of "hahaha me and my family are so smug and modern, too bad for you." And that Dwell house....UGH!

They ARE just going through the motions and seem incredibly insular. Dwell is what I call editors publishing for editors.

BORING STUFF NOW.
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here are the numbers to prove too many ads
Posted by Mark Hill on 12/26/2005 12:14:00 AM

Simply put the magazine is not what it was. Too many ads- no one can argue againts that truth! more than 50% is ads.212 pages in the latest edition plus backcover+ holiday booklet with ads. 93 pages of content- 7 of them have some ads on them. This includes the table of contents and the letters to the editors. 119 fullpage ads of some type- this includes the sourcing page because it is really filled with ads. In the postmodern world of no absolute truth surely nobody can argue that there are too many adds.

Remember the fruitbowl manifesto? Cant see the forest for all of the trees. I am speaking of the editors.

The content of the ads is important to note, especially if they make up 50 % of the magazine- Do the ads reflect the fruitbowl manifesto?

The impression was given by dwell that one of the qualities of modern archoitechture was that it would be affordable by all. - they longer represent that in the magazine- 200$ a sq ft is not affordable- I guess we still have the metroshed we could live in.

I originally bought dwell because it wasnt architectural digest or elle decor but if they insist on becoming just like them- why should I buy it? But then again I am no longer in their demographic or target market.

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Dwell possessed by Prefab!
Posted by Greg Berg on 12/26/2005 4:13:00 PM

I've noticed Dwell seems more than a little interested in Pre-fab. They devote more and more of their mag to prefab housing every month. They keep harping how great and cheap it is, and that it is the wave for the future, however, like you just stated, at $200 - $300 a Sq. Ft., it's anything but affordable. Come-on, who really wants to mow the grass on the roof of the house??? It might look cute on paper, but the reality is quite different. Plus they keep showing bizarre plans that don't appeal to anybody.

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asdf
Posted by chopper on 12/29/2005 9:29:00 AM

i agree that dwell has really thickened due to ads. i still like looking through a number of them, the architectural and home products. the H2? *not so much*. i can't rightfully figure out how a magazine that intends to prove that environmentally sound, modern architecture really can be made available to the masses can, in good conscience, advertise for a rich-man's tank which gets 8 miles a gallon.

but i still renewed my subscription, as dwell is still the best modernist mag around IMHO. i just don't know how much longer i'm going to believe that.

as to the editor's comments, i don't know who "some guy" is, but i don't automatically assume he's a liar. personally, i think that implication was pretty low-class.

all these comments are showing me 2 things: first, that many dwell readers are noticing a trend in the mag that they do not like, that dwell is edging more and more towards selling out, and second, that the editors don't seem to care. that concerns me a great deal.

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sTRUCTURES?mATERIALS?
Posted by buildingnow on 1/1/2006 9:41:00 AM

I have subscribed to dwell for 2 years, ever since an architect we were interviewing had a spare copy. I was hooked and immediately subscribed. I hate their politics, I don't care about their ads, i bought it for the houses. Now it seems like all they focus on is people and patting themselves and other modernists on the back. Where are the Ideas and Houses I bought this magazine for. I don't care how much money they make, I don't care what kind of car they drive. What business is it of mine if they drive a tank to work. They are paying for the gas and I have no right to jtell them hiw to live, let the market dictate. That being said, I was in D.C. for the solar decathalon and saw some great design up close. This is not the design you find in dwell much anymore. Every venture is at it's best and most ideal at startup, after success it gets fat and lazy and then goes into decline. History teaches this over and over. Anyway, we are building now and have had to cut out some modern elements due to budget. They don't tell you in Dwell that the thirty feet by ten foot aluminum windows you love either cannot be installed without a crane, don't meet energy calcs, or cost $15,000. Energy calcs? I'm paying the heating bill, it's my house, why do we insist on telling everybody how to live? Besides, you can install whatever efficiancy heater you want, or leave your windows open. Let every man build the house he wants!

PS Modern is extremely expensive. I know, I am building right now.
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We do care...
Posted by Andrew Wagner on 1/5/2006 4:14:00 PM

Just looking through this site again and was brought back to this discussion board. Again, can't get into everything here but wanted to drop a line to simply say that we (the editors) absolutely do care about what our readers have to say about the magazine and that all these comments and more are always taken into consideratiion. I hope we are not becoming fat and lazy! I certainly don't think we are. The battle we are always fighting is simply put, is it better to make no compromises and fold due to lack of funds or is it better to grow and learn to compromise without losing your voice? It is a question and conundrum we are constantly faced with. I don't think we've found the answer or perfected the balancing act that we seek to achieve daily, but we are constantly talking about it and discussing it. And from my end, if we can get people talking (like is happening here) then I think we are succeeding on some level - even if the talk is to criticize our work. I'm o.k. with criticism and actually appreciate well thought out critiques more than anything. So, with that said, thank you all for caring enough to post here and I hope that we can provide enough in the mag to keep you all reading. Anyhow, I'm also up for discussion so again, feel free to drop me a line at andrew@dwellmag.com and thanks again for thinking about what we're doing.

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Not anymore
Posted by Jason Fierst on 1/9/2006 3:24:00 PM

I still have my first Issue, with a very interesting Bicoastal designer on the cover.
I also have 5 Issue's that made it 12 months in Iraq. My wife, girl friend at the time,
sent me every issue. I was a Platoon Leader, and a tank commander, I lived on
my tank for the first 8 months and so did my Dwell. It takes a different kind of man
to admit he loves art, design, etc... especially when he is on a tank with 20 soldiers
under his command. Despite many attempts by 5.56, 7.62, 120mm, 155mm etc...
I returned home with 100% of my men, tanks, fingers, and all 5 copies of Dwell.
That being said, I was a huge fan. But, (yes I will start a sentence with but) I no
longer buy Dwell, I no longer flip through Dwell at the bookshop. It has really
gone down hill. Like so many, it happened slowly. They can keep the gloss.

I am no longer in the Military, I may just put that BFA to use. I work for the EPA,
and plan on building a eco friendly modern home in the near future. I'll keep
my research to the web, voting with my dollar.
Jason F. Fierst

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A dying breed ?
Posted by keets on 1/10/2006 5:56:00 PM

I have to say that these days i'm starting to put little emphasis on printed publications such as DWELL. The reason is the overabundance of online design sites such as LandLiving, Mocoloco, Joshspear, Cool Hunting, Designsponge and many many more. The wide array of design products and news is fantastic. Things that I come accross at any of these sites show up 6 months down the road in a printed publication which is quite sad.

Looking at the latest 'Hot Products' section in DWELL was embarassing. It was a couple of uninspired chairs and a book which I had seen back in October on a few online sites. From what i've come accross these past few months online don't even compare. I'd have a serious talk with your editor that handles that arae and ask him if he actually likes design.

I'd almost compare this trend to music downloading. Why bother with a tired medium when a universe of design is at my fingertips.

DWELL's editor hoped they weren't becoming 'Fat+Lazy', which is true......they're actually becoming obsolete.
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Definitely a zine that crosses classes
Posted by Neil Gaylor on 1/12/2006 2:52:00 PM

I am, ostensibly, a "regular joe", who really really likes modernism in all its shapes and forms. Dwell has inspired me on numerous occations to think in a different direction than I am accustomed to. However, being a "regular guy" with a "regular salary" in this era means that I cannot afford things like Natuzzi or NYLOFT. BTW, I recently traveled to NYC and visited the NYLOFT store there. I Had a very pleasant conversation with an architect who was in the store working on a plan for someone. I was also there to inspect, first hand, the fabulous interior sliding doors they build and sell. Quite a marvel of design, those doors. They are also marvelously expensive (not more than, $8k for two). That's more than I spent on my entire kitchen remodel from Ikea. My point being, they do have a balace between good design and affordability, but I see more Natuzzi, less Ikea in their ads.

-Neil
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magazines
Posted by scot on 1/13/2006 1:18:00 PM

I used to work at a magazine. The 50% ad content is right on spot. Every page of advertising pays for a page of editorial. If its slightly over 50% (as someone suggested) that's pretty much average for successful magazines. Look at Vogue or any of the other big fashion magazines, do you think they have anything close to a balance between ads and eds? Nope, nowhere near it.
So, if you want to complain about something, complain about content, not the advertising that pays for that content.
(and no, the mag I worked for was not Dwell. LOL)
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it's about balance...
Posted by keithan on 1/20/2006 10:31:00 AM

you know... the question, i think, is warranted. some of the responses, however, are a bit extreme. i think that it's about balance, overall.

i really like the bent toward green, diy, pre-fab, etc. but as someone else above mentions, the elegance of some designs is inspired by the amenities of the less economically constrained. (in fact, isn't that why we're all here anyhow?) i mean... part of me responds with "be creative"... see something that you like that's out of your range, figure out a way to achieve the same feel more economically, environmentally friendly, without compromising dramatically on the quality. or just wait and someone else just might. or commission someone!!! (i love the product adverts in the back for precisely this reason. moreover, despite the relatively overt philosophical contradiction re: hummer ad -- doesn't bother me overmuch).

anyhow, the editors have choices to make every month and i'd hate to see some interesting things not make issues because they're not in the typical "nice modernist" epicenter. on the other hand, the value in complaining is that it's a good way to "keep your editors honest" if they're listenin...
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dwell and other mags like it
Posted by Three Layer Cake on 1/24/2006 9:52:00 AM

I am not against the type of ads that are in dwell, I am against the dwindling quality of the content (if it were ever considered good). I am also not averse to the lateness with which items are published-- that's the nature of the paper-media beast. I don't buy a magazine to be on the cutting edge, but to be visually stimulated at composition in a way that digital media doesn't stimulate the eyes. That said, I think dwell has lost its focus. I feel the same about Metropolitan Home! But I gave up on Metropolitan Home a long time ago.

http://www.threelayercake.com/content/view/13/27/

I know where to go for the "eurodesigned" houses, and even though I have never considered dwell even in my top ten (for its weak content), I thought the idea was good and the largely American focus was good because I think there is good American design out there and it deserves its space. I know where to go (French, English, Italian, Australian, German periodicals, etc.) for the European furniture and accessories, but where do I go for American designers? It's not a question of "buying American" it's just a question of seeing what American designers produce, and for some reason, Southern Living and the like seem to be the best place to go to find what's going on in real America!!!! Even if those things aren't my style!

Add to this that I just had the most charming experience with a dwell editor at a trade fair who was loud and rude and -shoved- me out of the way at the new designers counter to get Press materials, and that's all I need to never buy the magazine again, not to mention never watch any of its programming on TV! (I've actually only bought one copy in my life)
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Boring
Posted by Lola on 1/25/2006 7:24:00 AM

I have to agree with all the comments, except for the fact that I don't care how many ads are in Dwell. They can have as many as they like (and I hate H2s, but it's kind of funny that the H2 media buys are so misguided and misdirected).

What I do care about is the fact that the editorial is boring as hell. It all blends together, and I do agree that all the families and homes are sort of interchangeable and bland. I'd love to read about what makes them all different.

I do think it's cool that Andrew responded to all the comments, but I do think you need to step up your editorial. It's as predictable as Wallpaper, but at least you guys are less smug.
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Dwell--keeping the riff-raff out.
Posted by Rachel Cohen on 1/25/2006 8:59:00 AM

Dwell is a consumer magazine, and the purpose of consumer mags is to make you a little dissatisfied with your old stuff and to go buy new, cool stuff. That Dwell readers feel such a personal connection with the magazine and the editors is a testament to the tone of the magazine, but ultimately the editors are going to let their readers down. Wallpaper is a little more smug but has far more of a sense of "Wow, this is so cool!--you've got to see this" wonder about it (it's also far better written), while Dwell--and this tone comes straight from the editor's notes ever month--is more interested in keeping people out than drawing them in. Dwell's a club.

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Posted by Adriean on 1/25/2006 10:10:00 AM

It seems this topic has started to spark interest on other sites. Apartment Therapy has posted this piece on their site and appears to be getting the same reponse from their readers as well.

http://la.apartmenttherapy.com/la/012406/news/dwell-magazine-006047
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Hello Again...
Posted by Andrew Wagner on 1/25/2006 12:18:00 PM

Just wanted to chime in again because, as I've stated before, I think this conversation is so helpful to us as we move along. There, of course, are a lot of comments I disagree with (that we don't cover American architecture and design - what about our "Modern Across America" issue that we do every year and that we've done from day one?!?!?, that Wallpaper's writing is better than ours - this one I totally disagree with but obviously everyone's entitled to their opinion, that we're exclusive - again, we are founded on the idea that we want to break down the barriers that have always existed between the profession and the public, etc.) all of your points are well taken and I just wanted to reiterate that these are the same types of discussions we have on a daily basis. The more we hear from you all, the more we have an idea of where we need to be going. So, by all means, keep the ideas coming and keep the thoughts (both good and bad) flowing. Thanks for thinking of us becasue, believe it or not, we're thinking of you...

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Bring on the Funk
Posted by Rachel Cohen on 1/25/2006 4:52:00 PM

"we are founded on the idea that we want to break down the barriers that have always existed between the profession and the public, etc."

What profession? Magazine writers? Architects? Professional modernists?

You guys build more barrriers--you assume, every month, that all your readers love Al Gore, earn lots of money in "creative" professions, went to "good" schools, eat only organic food and listen to NPR. AAGGHH! Wake up and mix it up.

Look for funky, weird shit not just well-designed stuff made by and for vegans who drive hybrids.

Good design isn't always about being on the side of the angels. Hitler had a hell of a graphics team.

And the writing needs to be kicked up--too many cutsey headlines and buried ledes.

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Yo, Rachel Cohen!
Posted by marketekt on 1/25/2006 5:19:00 PM

Bringing the Funk sounds great to us. So how about we chat about this.

Can you please contact us.

Cheers, LL
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Differing...
Posted by Andrew Wagner on 1/25/2006 5:58:00 PM

Rachel...thanks for your comments. I'll say only that I don't agree at all and that I think we feature a ton of exactly what your talking about - "funky" things that are far removed from any "vegan hybrid driving" agenda...
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Who would have thought...
Posted by motoguzzi on 1/26/2006 8:08:00 PM

Man, I was at AptTherapy and saw the link back here in the midst of their own private Dwell firestorm. I posted my frustrations here like almost a year ago. I still look at Dwell, though only at the doctor's office or in the bookstore, and only for something to look at. Rachel said that Dwell is a club. As much as I wish that was not the case, I cannot help but feel the magazine has in some ways become elitist... but only in an entirely artificial way.

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Serious?
Posted by blumeanie on 1/27/2006 12:09:00 PM

Is all this for real? For those who really have the hate on for Dwell, I'm surprised you're spending so much time discussing it here. But to me, Dwell fills a huge void between stodgy decor mags (e.g., House & Garden) and narrowly focused design trade mags (e.g., I.D.). It has evolved, sure - but it's better than stagnating.

And the fact that one of the editors bothers to respond here - repeatedly - is rather remarkable. I don't think you'd get that from most other mags.

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it's a dialouge
Posted by bluesteele on 1/30/2006 1:48:00 PM

indeed, i really doubt you'd find such vitriol down at the arch digest or wallpaper boards. but maybe that's because dwell was founded with such a groundbreaking message: to make modern architecture and design accessible to everyone. i think that's what mr. wagner is getting at with "breaking down barriers between the profession" (i.e. designers, architects) "and the public" (those who are moved by modern design and want to learn about it). they're trying to handle a growing circulation and subsequent market demands while keeping their populist vision. and that's a difficult balance, one that say, a free design website doesn't have to grapple with. IMHO, public discourse such as this can help alert them to the fact that they've strayed from their ideals. And they seem to be listening.
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It's Okay
Posted by mememe on 2/5/2006 7:20:00 AM

I started buying Dwell from its beginning. I used to LOVE it. I don't have a problem with the ads. I don't pay attention to them for the most part. I do see the magazine as being different now, with the feeling that they are aiming for a demographic that has a higher income than I do. I see Dwell as eye candy now and for day dream fodder.
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Glad to see the back and forth
Posted by austin20% on 2/5/2006 8:50:00 PM

I was really glad to stumble across this thread. I, too, have hesitated to renew my subscription this time around (especially since Dwell is particularly bad about sending any renewal reminders - Consumer Reports has sent me six at last count). I went through a similar struggle with Wired, and I ultimately held my nose and sent them $10 so they can pretend they're actually reaching my demographic with products I like or can afford.

My wife and I earn within the top 20% of income in the US. We can't afford a $200/sq ft prefab any more than the majority of the other posters with this axe to grind. However, I do appreciate the need for economies of scale; and I do wish the industry luck.

Choice is really what I'm about, and I'd like to choose affordable modern architecture. Here in Austin, however, there's an entire set of subtopics that would be equally worthwhile for Dwell to cover. The one truly affordable KRDB project they covered is in East Austin, an area that is rapidly gentrifying against the wishes of the current, mostly lower-income residents. KRDB and other architects are currently collaborating on another affordable set of homes 6 miles east of downtown at Agave. The problem is that the modernists with kids have a NIMBY attitude about the surrounding properties, prison, water treatment facility, etc. (see this thread: http://livemodern.com/forums/geographic/austin/275780496565). I'd have to agree, too - I've been out there to look at the sites.

A lot of the more modern new construction in the more central city area is on scattered infill lots (see http://www.metrohouseaustin.com/, for example), and the neighbors in their "affordable" bungalows are now spearheading a backlash movement against what they consider McMansions and non-characteristic architecture for their neighborhoods.

My point is simply this. Being a modernist these days certainly entails bobbing around the issues of class and race that most Americans have difficulties with to begin with. My wife and I (and our 2 year-old) would love to be able to afford a nice new modern prefab away from the 'burbs. We'd love to inhabit most of the properties that Dwell shows on its pages. We love that Dwell occasionally dips into the issues of sustainability and green architecture and materials. But there are bigger and meatier issues that modernists have to contend with to realize their visions besides cranky or unreliable contractors and flighty architects.

I don't know if these discussions would take Dwell too far into the realm of urban planning for its readership, but it certainly would make for more meaningful reading. As for the advertising content - well when it gets as bad as Wired has become I'll probably drop the subscription or let Dwell pay me to subscribe. At least they're not as bad as most of the computer mags were during the dot.com bubble days....

dm
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A possible alternative
Posted by fallscity on 2/9/2006 9:58:00 PM

I like Dwell magazine. I actually renewed my 2yr lapse subscription this Christmas, but I found another magazine that has been around a while but out of my sight. Now that I am studying to be an Urban Designer/Planner I have found that Metropolis Magazine has a lot more to offer to me than just Modern Homes. I still look forward to getting Dwell, but Metropolis is far more interesting when dealing with environmental initiatives as well as groundbreaking modern design.
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Luxe? Not.
Posted by Ronster on 2/11/2006 10:55:00 AM

I knew Dwell was evolving into something I didn't like when a company called "Luxe Pillows" started advertising its genuine, luxurious animal fur (fox, mink etc.) products in Dwell's pages.

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L+L forum topic
Posted by Adriean on 2/13/2006 10:19:00 AM

For those following the Dwell topic and the issues being raised from this, there's a new posting in the Land+Living Soap Box. Check it out and give us your opinions.
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Farewell, Dwell
Posted by RC on 2/15/2006 4:04:00 AM

Our Dwell sub is going to lapse soon. For good. Having slicked itself into fat new life as an upper class advertising boutique, it no longer speaks to us except haughtily. While there are still token gestures to the original broad social aims of modernism, they're crowded by the fawning over rich people's homes. And the ads... Hummers, in a magazine that preaches sustainability? So much for the modernism of the gentry!
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Some Inerest, Still
Posted by Patrick on 2/16/2006 12:21:00 PM

I have every issue of Dwell, except for the first two issues, and have seen it change from something that I thought would be a place for a kind of orphaned movement close to my heart, "Modernisum" in all its forms, to a modernist vision of Archictural Digest. I long ago gave up on Dwell as a place of ideas for an artist to find projects that would be instructive and informative in building that affordable living/work space we all dream about. Perhaps there is no real affordable building of Modernist dreams in California, consicering the land costs, and only the dream of such efforts. While I no longer find the kinds of articles which made me read Dwell from cover to cover the first day it arrived, I still find the occational article that inspires me to dream of Modernist archicture and philosophy and keeps me coming back to the magizine.
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can anyone suggest alternatives?
Posted by Chris on 2/18/2006 11:56:00 AM

Where does the old Dwell spirit live today? Online or in print?
I wish it were Readymade, but sorry - too much kitschy kindergarten crafts for me.
Recommendations for books of modernist diy interior design projects also most welcome...
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It's about fashion, baby.
Posted by Rick Schulte on 3/2/2006 7:34:00 PM

Dwell long ago became just another vapid style rag, geared to the same vacuous over-extended trend chasers as Vogue. Tragically, Sunset has as much innovation these days.
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now its really just metropolitan home
Posted by resilc on 3/4/2006 11:13:00 AM

dwell=metro home. no difference. it sucks now since innovation is gone and its all ads. i get more usefull info from fine homebuilding.
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random thoughts...
Posted by chris in oakland on 3/7/2006 12:36:00 PM

It's inevitable that all things must change. Static begets paralyis and eventually death. Change and evolution seem to be what's required for survival.
At least, that's how I view the world. With that said, not all change is good and once you start down a particular path, you may find yourself staring into a mirror and not recognizing the person staring back at you. To be able to change/revise/adapt/correct, in short edit and, stay true to the core message of the magazine is the art of the editor. I must confess that I let my subscription lapse this last year mainly because I felt a change that didn't ring true to my original perception of the magazine. Not to beat a dead horse but, the Hummer ads were the proberbial straw. Oh, I don't mind ads in general as they are a necessary "evil" but, some seem to be at odds with the core of the magazine... don't you agree?
As a consumer without a .com bank account but, with an insatiable need for modern/contemporary design and ideas I would like to see more features where Dwell tackles a whole renovation (big budget) or a room in a house (smaller budget) and where a high end (I just won the Lotto!) and a budget (reality check!) renov. are shown side by side with a list of suppliers and prices.
As a consumer that worries about the effect our endless consumption is having on our environment, I would like to see features, for example, on how to install solar energy in my tiny 1920's bungalow without being an eyesore or braking the bank.
What alternatives exist for painting my house without using paints full of noxious chemicals and fillers? How can I landscape my yard in a way that it's sleek and modern (without being austere) while also not needing to watse water to keep it alive?
Do you have any ideas for a modernist vegetable garden?
What new products are out there that might simplify my hectic life or, enrich it or, enhance my well-being?
How do we reconsile our current and future needs and wants (as individuals and as a species) with our surroundings so that we can coexist in harmony? A true moderninst lives in the present and deals with current issues and challenges and is not necessarily bound by mid-20th century norms or ideas. Can Dwell be relevant again to my life now in this new century? I hope so... time will tell, no?
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apologies for my spelling!
Posted by chris in oakland on 3/7/2006 2:21:00 PM

oy, I was in a hurry and never bothered to check.
peace!

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Wake up to reality
Posted by Steven on 3/9/2006 7:43:00 AM

What a bunch of reader elitist snobs. I thought Dwell is a private for profit magazine or did I miss something? Since when was Dwell ever a non-profit, socialized, modern housing organization promising 3,000 sq foot modern homes for everyone? This is what I gather from the comments of the people being left behind or "sold out".

My question to you then is: Why don't any of you work for half your wages for the good of others? If you get a promotion and a raise does that mean you sold out to your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers?

Why should Dwell limit its ad content? They have a business to run and should manage it for the core of their paying customers and ad revenue just like any other for profit magazine. A core mix of majority relevant ads to the material are very important. I find myself tearing out more ads for interesting products than articles in many other magazines as well.

It is the same in the music business. The socialist hippies love bands until they "sell out". Most hippies don't know that The Dead were one of the greatest marketing machines/profitable bands ever, selling their merch and live recordings. All while still "keeping it real." Right on!

I don't mean to come across has harsh but wanted to illustrate a point that businesses and their decisions are to be respected. Businesses find out through increased or decreased ad/subscription revenue, the right path to take. They should listen to customers to find out why customers subscribe to their magazine and why customers discontinue their magazine.

I am new to modern forums and Dwell but If I understand they abandoned a Dwell sponsored forum. I do find that a big mistake as forums are a great way to keep in touch w/ customers and create a solid loyal community. I have been to livemodern.com and they do an excellent job! It has been a great resource for me.

From reading many of the comments here, people really are not disappointed in Dwell Magazine as much as they are really disappointed in realizing they might not be able to build the neighborhoods coolest modern home on a doublewide budget. Maybe Dwell has perpetuated that idea but cmon and wake up, the coffee smells great! ;)
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Wrong, Steven
Posted by Rick Schulte on 3/16/2006 6:38:00 PM

No, I'm definitely disappointed with Dwell, Steven. I can't imagine why you would assume that people who eschew excess do so based soley upon a lack of means. Dwell's reader demographics evidently now include people who would at least consider buying a Hummer. While plenty of people who have become disenchanted with Dwell could buy Hummers, few would because they're hideous, wasteful behemoths for insecure poseurs who, sadly, outnumber the rest of us. Dwell's certainly entitled to grow their brand as they see fit, but for me the magazine is unappealing and purchasing a Dwell-branded home is absolutely out of the question.

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to each his own.
Posted by Steven on 3/18/2006 4:40:00 PM

I understand that some are disappointed and the magazine no longer serves their interest. I too would love a magazine to focus on really cool edgy mod ideas on the cheap. I love the challenge of mod living for less. My point is any business pursues more customers, larger audiences and the pot of gold. Even if it strays from its original focus. What would happen if companies never changed course? To each his own and I do have the same interest as most here for great new ideas and building methods for mod homes but at the same time I respect any business that may change for the better even though it may take a different direction from my interest.

Now for the elitist judgemental Hummer comments....lol

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exactly
Posted by Ben on 3/27/2006 2:06:00 AM

To each his own, and for those of us disappointed with the way Dwell has morphed, why can't we vent?

Don't pretend to give us a lecture on business, we all understand why it happenend, just let us mourn what it was and what it isn't now.
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it was there
Posted by neil on 3/31/2006 6:26:00 PM

I think for me the point is that they had a product I wanted to pay for and now they dont. I read from issue one on. I may have been one of the first subscribers. It was a product I wanted to pay for. I think I let my sub lapse in 04. It just looked like any other magazine, except "modern!".
I dont care about advertisements. They have to make money and I have the choice of what I read and what I buy.
Think back to the first year or two. They had a prefab house in Seattle that was built for $80,000 for 1500 sq ft. That was one of the most inspirational articles I can remember. Doing things differently for a reason.
The funny thing is, when I loved dwell I was 26 and didn't have a dime. Now that I am 32 and have a few bucks, it has no interest to me.
I remember trying to build my own plywood furniture becaue of this magazine. It turned out horribly, but it was dwell that made me want to do that.
Designs are only interesting in relation to their parameters. A toaster is only cool if it can make toast. What are the parameters of a million dollar house that demands good design?
Anyway, I miss the magazine that inspired me. Oh well.
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UNCLE!
Posted by Steven on 4/5/2006 6:45:00 AM

UNCLE! ok ok ok...i give! After reading your comments/jousting a bit about business I was paging thru the lastest Dwell I realized their current months theme "Thinking Small" is precisely what they are doing w/ their customer base! LOL

Do they sell alot of magazines to people that live on lots that are 12 feet wide? or 400 sq feet? I hardly believe that is their target audience. Those micro homes deserve a paragraph in passing and no more.

This issue was way overboard on lack of any real content. The first article was page 100 or so of a magazine. There was no "how to" in the entire mag. Most of the homes profiled are architects' homes. Not really relavant to the millions that want modern in their regular lives.

Thanks to your comments my eyes have opened a bit and Dwell is on probation! Where are the articles of the modern owner-builders? Where are the articles on the various forms of construction? ICF, concrete Sips, metal sips, post and beam, shotcrete sandwich, etc...I think there is a solid audience out there starving for this type of info.

I don't feel betrayed or sold out but I do think if they keep up the current format they'll see a decline in circulation.

Thanks for being patient w/ me everyone ;)
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Hookers 'n lobsters?
Posted by Jackson on 4/7/2006 7:07:00 PM

I think Dwell has become, much like a cigarette, a mere delivery device for lots of things you'd be better off without. In the May '06 issue, for instance, there's the pitch for the new Escalade (with 22" chrome wheels), but the real prize is on page 139, a full-page ad with what appears to be an expensive call girl in a little black dress and sky-high heels standing in what might be a kitchen, with a cooked lobster on a leash. Oh, and the lobster's wearing a diamond collar. I think they might be selling some sort of range hood but it's not clear. The meager content is completely overwhelmed by overbearing advertising.
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inspiration and dreams
Posted by lucky on 4/9/2006 8:36:00 PM

i purchase every copy of dwell...i will continue to do so. i would love to see a modern home built for $100/sq ft in the magazine, but until that happens(yeah,right) i'll be happy seeing what they offer. i for one am inspired buy the high-dollar gems. it makes me work harder at trying to design modern for less. i can find inspiration in anything, and dwell provides some of it....at least it's not the robb report.
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customer service
Posted by ian alexander on 4/10/2006 3:33:00 PM

It is always easy to criticize a mag/band/company for changes they make after they outgrow their seedling fan base. My issue with Dwell is customer service. I ordered the mag online for X-mas for myself and a biz partner. It is now April and I have received 2 issues and my partner 0. I have called 6 or 7 times and with each call I am promised that it is all rectified. The call before last my account was suspended for no reason. Another stated I couldnt get issues rushed to me and that it took 4-6 weeks. Different answers to the same question and a blase attitude about them having $50 of mine and not getting what I paid for. Change the mag all you wish but remember that you live and breath not by sales or ads but really by customer service and Dwell right now...you are on life support.
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writing
Posted by CJ on 4/14/2006 11:51:00 AM

I don't know about Wallpaper but I can give you some clues as to why Dwell’s writing is poor.

Case 1: First of all your ethics aren’t logical. Your magazine plays lip service to “Green” building somehow oblivious to the fact that retail modernism is consumerist hell and represents what is wrong with this nation and its treatment of the environment and people. Anyone with any real environmental ethics wouldn’t and shouldn’t buy $30,000 kitchen cabinets shipped from Europe. What a waste of money and resources. Let’s stop pretending we care about the environment when we are just trying to fill that void with flashy products.

Case 2: Rather than admitting that many different types of people enjoy modernism you try to paint a picture of what a modernist should be. You do this in your writing and in your pictures. Prerequisites for being a Dwell modernist: 30’s-40’s, some form of art related, college educated semi-hipster (even at semi, I use the term hipster broadly), drives European import car, buys clothes at banana republic, pays hipster lip service to ideas about the arts, design, ethics, politics, philosophy, etc. but has only a basic knowledge of any of it and would rather play elite than to have to actually think about anything. (This second case may seem incredibly mean spirited but is how I feel. My wife has never been able to read your rag because “The writers are so elitist and don’t really say anything”.)

Case 3: When you do your product articles, the Dwell writer generally repeats what the expert writer says. How boring, Dwell can’t have an opinion separate from the experts? Next time you do one of these articles have the Dwell writer write their opinion without reading or commenting on the expert opinion so we can actually see some differentiation between the two, instead of... lip service. Also your briefs about new products don’t really say anything, why have words when you can just show us a picture of the chair and a link to the web site? Or you could write something interesting....nah...

On the positive side I have noticed Dwell is trying to quote costs when they can. Since you have many readers who are still trying to reach “affordable” modernism maybe you should do articles focusing on low cost alternatives themselves. Low cost flooring alternatives, low cost window alternatives, you get the idea.

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Thanks...
Posted by Andrew Wagner on 4/14/2006 3:09:00 PM

Thanks for the helpful comments CJ.
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more musings
Posted by chris in Oakland on 4/18/2006 9:36:00 AM

Ok, so I picked up the latest issue at a news stand (feeling a bit guilty on my letting my subscription lapse) and I noticed that it almost resembled my Surface and Wallpaper mags (sans fashion editorials and hip restaurant and shops reviews, yet) all the ads were identical, BTW.
anyhow, I liked the idea of showcasing small spaces but some seem pretty unreal....
dunno, it seems that @ Dwell they either feature "micro-quirky" ala Mini or "behemoth" ala Escalade when it comes to housing... the truth is most of us are some where in the middle (think Camry) Oh, I konw, Camrys are DULL you say.. well, why not make them exciting? why can't dwellings larger than 600sq feet but smaller than 5,000 be sexy and hip? I happen to luv my 936sq ft bungalow, I just wish I could find magazines that can inspire me to do something with it that's in scale with it's size. Huge 10K Moroso sectionals are fab but 1) can't afford one and 2) if I get one, I wouldn't be able to squeeze anything else into my living/ding room...
It's nice that @ Dwell they've reviewed 10 burner cook tops (next time I open a restaurant I know which one to buy) but in my tiny kitchen I got room for ony a few burners.... reviews of walk-in refrigerators and wine cellars are nice but, some of us don't live in a chateau (even if our homes are our castles!). I like the coolest/latest/best but let's face it, often times the best ISN'T the LARGEST or most EXPENSIVE.
Oh, I konw, in America EVERYTHING is BIG, BIG, BIG 'casue then it's better, right?
I still hope to find content that jives with my, sigh, middle class existance... I guess I'll keep leafing thru magazines until I find one that resonates with me like Dwell used to.... (I still have hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised to find a small budget, eco-friendly yet stylish renov. in your pages...)
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more musings
Posted by chris in Oakland on 4/18/2006 9:51:00 AM

Ok, so I picked up the latest issue at a news stand (feeling a bit guilty on my letting my subscription lapse) and I noticed that it almost resembled my Surface and Wallpaper mags (sans fashion editorials and hip restaurant and shops reviews, yet) all the ads were identical, BTW.
anyhow, I liked the idea of showcasing small spaces but some seem pretty unreal....
dunno, it seems that @ Dwell they either feature "micro-quirky" ala Mini or "behemoth" ala Escalade when it comes to housing... the truth is most of us are some where in the middle (think Camry) Oh, I konw, Camrys are DULL you say.. well, why not make them exciting? why can't dwellings larger than 600sq feet but smaller than 5,000 be sexy and hip? I happen to luv my 936sq ft bungalow, I just wish I could find magazines that can inspire me to do something with it that's in scale with it's size. Huge 10K Moroso sectionals are fab but 1) can't afford one and 2) if I get one, I wouldn't be able to squeeze anything else into my living/ding room...
It's nice that @ Dwell they've reviewed 10 burner cook tops (next time I open a restaurant I know which one to buy) but in my tiny kitchen I got room for ony a few burners.... reviews of walk-in refrigerators and wine cellars are nice but, some of us don't live in a chateau (even if our homes are our castles!). I like the coolest/latest/best but let's face it, often times the best ISN'T the LARGEST or most EXPENSIVE.
Oh, I konw, in America EVERYTHING is BIG, BIG, BIG 'casue then it's better, right?
I still hope to find content that jives with my, sigh, middle class existance... I guess I'll keep leafing thru magazines until I find one that resonates with me like Dwell used to.... (I still have hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised to find a small budget, eco-friendly yet stylish renov. in your pages...)
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speaking of nice modernists...
Posted by chris in Oakland on 4/21/2006 9:16:00 AM

slightly off topic but, I found this interesting article about modernism in general:

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1749824,00.html
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dwell has(n't) responded
Posted by mark in tacoma on 5/2/2006 12:44:00 PM

Well, it seems this thread has been running strong for almost a year and a half now. Have things changed in that considerable length of time? Is dwell the same mag everyone seems dissatisfied with, or have they taken some of these suggestions to heart? It's for each subscriber to decide. I am in agreement with every criticism cited in this thread. I'm not renewing my dwell subscription (I've subscribed since 2002) for all the reasons cited in this thread. The magazine has run it's course for me in terms of its usefulness as a resource and inspiration in how to bring the true spirit of modernism – good, responsible, affordable design for the masses — into my life. Yes, perhaps that's a vague statement entirely based on personal taste and means, but all I know is that with each passing issue I feel more and more alienated. The roots of dwell magazine have died — the fruit bowl manifesto is dead — and it's time to look to the next entity(ies) who can carry the torch. The web has already filled my needs to stay connected to the spirit of modernism. Goodbye, dwell.
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New to Dwell, but finding the comments intriguing
Posted by Lori Barbeau on 5/20/2006 6:20:00 AM

I really appreciate the comments being made here. I just subscribed to dwell. It is not likely that my husband and I will ever buy most of the items in the magazine because of the limits of our average income coupled with our philosophies regarding where we are willing to put our average income.

My husband and I are doing major work on the interior of our 1908 run-of-the-mill 1 and 1/2 story midwest home. We both love mid-century/modern. I read dwell because it inspires me to be brave and creative within the limits of our finances. The articles and many of the ads challenge my long-held notions of 'safe' design and decorating solutions .

So, I read dwell to dream, then my husband and I funnel that dream through our finances. We are finding that what we come up with as a creative team is fun, innovative, and very satisfying.

The comments I've read clearly indicate that we need a mag that addresses the average income person, a magazine that is able to publish budgets, a magazine that tells us that we can get the hanging sliding door hardware over at Ace in aisle three, how to make a city lot more green and sustainable, ways to break the habit of using that second car, how to test solar power on a city lot, etc.

Average income is not a dwelling place of mediocrity. It really is another birthplace of creativity. Anybody out there up for publishing an online mag that posts submissions showing how avg inc persons duplicate high-end products, features, green, sustainability? (Or is ReadyMade already the answer to that question?)

Meanwhile, I will keep in mind the comments I have read here when it comes time to renew my subscription to dwell.

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modern living- in the hood
Posted by Michelle Hernandez on 5/23/2006 3:32:00 PM

I love Dwell. I was brought up in an apartment in the South Bronx where the walls were beige and the furniture all came from Bombay Company. In contrast to the dust and druggies outside my Mom's place was clean, genteel and suburban. She didn't cover the sofa in plastic but we weren't allowed to eat or sleep on her pink leather sofa either. (Yes PINK leather!) I thought this was what a house should look like till I we went to Conran's (this was the 80's)and I checked my first "modern design" coffee tabel book.
Dwell brings back that feeling of discovering what rich people do with their money. And I'm sorry but if you can spend 2,000 for a table and still spring for 6 chairs at 800 you are RICH! My mom made our 4 child house look like 1800's England on a 20,000 a year budget. For me, Dwell is an aspirational experience- total house porn. I will never be able to afford 90% of the products in their ads (which I love for pure information purposes) and I have gotten a little tiered of the photo spreads showing people with either a Nogguci, Eames or Barcelona chair somewhere in their apartment but I still get that thrill when I open the magazine- I actually ration my reading so I can make it last longer. No other design magazine is as cool as Dwell right now. There is a British magazine called Living Inc or something which comes close but the prices are in pounds so my imagination has to work harder to envision me getting the products into my closet-like apartment.
The magazine concept is consumerist/middle class all on it's own. It's made to throw away and printed on paper so I think it's unfair to expect Dwell to go out on a real limb in terms of enviromental design or green building. It's a standard I don't see applied to Architectural Digest. Maybe it's a testament to Dwell- editors your readers want more and they are the hard to please hypster type who start to hate anything once they see too many others like it.
Dwell editors here are some ideas for you- it's from a "diversity" perspective...
-A column that features self made projects to copy designer pieces.
-A column for modern solutions to rental apartments (no painting or knocking down wallls)- storage, fitting a full size bed in a twin sized room..
-A column with items under 100 dollars- not just a pillow but a bookshelf, a dinning set...
-A column or articles about public works not just the apartments that cool young architects design for themselves.
I love Dwells dedication to pre fab as well. I would love to think their design contest would help someone like me- a single girl who would like to buy a house for under 100,00 dollars- impossible dream right? I live in Broooklyn. Most of the pre fab projects look great and they are affordable but only to people making over 100,000. If I have to pay 120 per square foot to set up the frame and then also pay for land, foundation, roofing, windows, electrical, water, HVAC separately- the house does go over that mark.
Theory and critique aside- it's good to have a magazine that takes aesthetic/environment/economic issues issues seriously part of the time. I can tell the editorial staff is trying and that's all I can ask for in a product I read every month.
And I for one couldn't care less what editors drive- I don't drive- that's what matters!

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to Lori
Posted by chris in oakland on 5/23/2006 5:07:00 PM

Amen to that!
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Andrew and others at Dwell...
Posted by Neil on 6/23/2006 3:48:00 PM

Hey, just wanted to point out that in my latest issue, there was actually an Ikea ad :)

Also, I was very impressed with the section where readers were told how some of the design elements were made/bought. Like, for example, the cool top-hung sliding door that was made "from scratch" by purchasing the components online, separately. I almost couldn't believe it when McMasters/Carr was listed as the source. Now that's bringing it down to a more modest price level!

-Neil
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atten: LORI B.
Posted by j-megirl on 7/2/2006 7:59:00 AM

i love your idea for a "knock-off" diy site!!! im not the most tech savvy girl but i can modify and redesign like nobody's biz. is there anything like that online already? i blog diy info but ive not found anything catering to "make it on the cheap", with details and resources shared. does this interest anyone else out there??? as for DWELL...i would always find it in my mailbox after having the worst day, near tears, feeling failure and frustration, and there it would be, curled up, corners poking out, i couldnt get in the door fast enough! id drop everything on the floor, do the dwell happy-dance all the way to my bed.
for 1 hour, nothing came between me and my dwell. i would to start from the back and turn every page, until i reached the front cover, then go back and read every tid-bit, including the quirky ads. tears would flow while reading letters to the editor from like-minded, crazed individuals.
well, at least i have my memories and every single issue. hey lori, we could name the site "swell" !!!
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Dwell is changing, America is changed
Posted by design freak on 7/3/2006 10:48:00 PM

I agree with te majority of you, Dwell can't find its way back to where it belongs. Where does it belong? In promoting the newest washer and dryer or the new toaster, with its silly "study" on which one is better? Who cares? Is this design? Maybe, but at least is not interesting design. What happen to finding a good architect or designer? What happen to new products?
I do not agree with the fact that Dwell shows unrealistic projects for the "middle class american". Who wants to see a small little project for a small 900 sq ft home? I want to be inspired, I want a new Art deco or Craftman "era", something that pushes forward. Something that makes the "middle class american" appreciate contemporary design and architecture, because realizing these projects it's a nightmare, the "middle class americans" are afraid of the new, and when you go to City Hall to get your permits to built something "contemporary", half of your neighborood will be against you, and will force you to build another ugly "middle class american home". Do not forget "middle class America" is "ugly America", the uninspired America, look at the architecture of the last 35 years, and tell me if that's what you'd like to see on Dwell. More houses from Home Depot?!?Remember, good design and inspiration comes from big budgets, and it is up to us to be inspired, that's what a magazine like Dwell should do, inspire us. And I think it did inspire a lot of us, or at least it created an awereness for contemporary design to the mass, and that it's big! But now Dwell needs to find its identity back, and believe in what they've done, and keep doing it, if it is a succeful magazine it's because it had something good. So, go back where you belong and start finding interesting projects again, inspire us again, you have done it before, you can do it again.
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For fans of the Fruit Bowl Manifesto...
Posted by Karrie Jacobs on 7/27/2006 6:17:00 PM

You may find my forthcoming book, "The Perfect $100,000 House" to your taste. It's published by Viking and will be out somewhere between August 17th (if you believe Amazon) and the 21st (if you believe the publisher's website). It's the story of a 14,000-plus mile road trip I took in 2003 meeting with architects, developers and builders, in search of the holy grail, the great, cheap house. It's kind of a compendium of much of what I learned editing Dwell for it's first few years of existence. Ask for it at your favorite independent bookseller.

Also, the LA Times home section ran a feature on it today:

http://tinyurl.com/g3jx7 (latimes.com)

My own website, www.karriejacobs.com, should be up by mid August. I'm planning, among other things, to make it a resource for people interested in great, low cost modern housing.

Cheers.
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this is what I don't understand about Dwell...
Posted by PWZ on 8/9/2006 2:15:00 PM

I love Dwell: for me, it's like porn for the aesthetically conscious. However, something has always bugged me about it. In every issue there is an ambiguity in defining its contents (here I am being ambiguous). For example, "At home in the Modern world" Do you we really live in the Modern world? What happened to the post-modern world. And, I don't mean Michael Graves and his post-modern world. Is it possible to really build something modern these days? Maybe it's a small "m" modern. I don't know! Any ideas??????

I look at it the same way I look at a OMA project from the 80's. It's the Barcelona Pavillion bent and outfitted with exercise equipment. Post-modern-modernism. I would appreciate some alternative ideas.

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to PWZ
Posted by chris in oakland on 8/9/2006 5:07:00 PM

well, since it looks like many people in our country have very provincial views (architecturally, geo-politically, etc.) maybe Dwell can change its tag line to "At Home in the Provincial World".
then, you don't have to worry about post-modernism... the dicussion then becomes about people who are open to new ideas vs. the ones that seek comfort in conforming to the norm.
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interesting....
Posted by chris in oakland on 8/24/2006 5:01:00 PM

came across this little bit today:

Dwell magazine editor Allison Arieff has resigned after what she called "a fundamental change in the magazine's mission and philosophy."

I wonder what's afoot....
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No Wallpaper* lite
Posted by akatsuki on 8/29/2006 7:03:00 AM

Dwell really is just the home section of wallpaper nowadays. There really is a need for people to push for good design at more reasonable prices and it would be better if they just took companies like Muji, Target and CB2 for advertisers rather than Knoll and Vitra.

I would love to see a focus on inexpensive modern design that is environmentally responsible and sustainable. Feature young designers who are up-and-comers but have stuff available now. Do fix-up articles "Queer Eye" style but with a bit more mod of an outcome.

Karl- there are plenty of high end magazines, there are plenty of "low-brow" magazines, there is no low-end high-brow magazine out there right now.
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Long Live the Revolution
Posted by John Kim on 9/6/2006 12:12:00 AM

It’s interesting to note a correlation between the height of the housing boom and the backlash against dwell. Like many readers, I saw dwell as a means to overcome the explosive housing market through seemingly easy construction methods like prefab, or through creative strategies like hiring small—but ambitious—architectural firms. But as the hot real estate market burned-up these hopes, and the depressing light of reality cast some hard shadows, I began to see dwell not as source of inspiration, but as a mocking reminder of my perceived failure as a smart and design-savvy home owner. Then it happened. Like the ragged French masses of their bloody revolution, I no longer wanted to be a mouthpiece for enlightened prefab or design. Instead, I wanted to storm the glass palaces, hang those spoon-fed sons-of-bitches, and take a shit on their Modernist platform beds. The problem with dwell is that they promised a cheap modern house and reeled in an enthusiastic readership that believed in this message. The problem with America (and the rest of world) is that a housing bubble made these dreams impossible. In short, a lot of people got their hopes dashed. Unfortunately, when people get their hopes dashed, they look someone to tar-and-feather. Dwell, you’re too beautiful for your own good, if I were you, I would hide my pretty face until the bubble pops and we all come to our senses.
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Lost in the in the forest of money
Posted by Humberto Alonos on 9/24/2006 9:01:00 AM

As aan architect and charter subscriber to DWELL I always felt it provided the real-life alternative to other architecture magazines....unfortunately thatreal-life portion of the magazine is largely gone........the projects and budgets of much that is featured is way beyond the reach of most....($250,00 construction cost for "affordable prefab??!!) there is little for those interested in learning to do modernism on ther own and worse yet...the resources area does not provide the reader with the information to build their design solutions..........even with these shortfalls it still remains better than most...that is why DWELL will never go back.

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Dwell is dead, long live Dwell...
Posted by dwellwriter on 10/31/2006 4:37:00 PM

Hi there. Dwell contributor here. (I drive a Honda, btw.) Everyone in the thread (even Andrew!) has a legitimate point. Yes, Dwell has changed since the old days. It's glaringly obvious: There is an advertorial bent to much of what the magazine does. But it's to be expected when something takes off the way Dwell has. The people who own/run it are only human, after all. It takes a strong constitution (and a blind accountant) to resist all the co-branding opportunities, and advertiser-ass-kissing, that brings in the $ you were lacking when your mag started out as a seat-of-the-pants, let's-put-on-a-show, privately-funded, money-losing lark. And yes, I've noticed it in the way my articles are edited (the vanilla-meter, sometimes, cranked up to 11). HOWEVER... If you look past the Hummer ads and billowing clouds of high-end fluff, you'll find about the same amount of "cool" content in the today's version of the mag as before, IMO. It's just wrapped in a shiny, profitable shell. But the times have changed -- big time -- and that's the real reason Dwell ain't the same: Believe me, everyone involved with the mag knows that prefab is baloney, and that no one can afford to build a house for $200-300 a square foot. But guess what? That's how much houses cost to build these days, prefab or not. Since no one can afford to build a house, period -- at least not in a part of the country with running water and decent public schools -- what's a magazine about house-building supposed to do? Answer: Market to, and write about, those who can -- i.e., rich people. So I agree with the poster who says wait for the real-estate bubble to burst, and see what happens. Dwell may disappear along with it, or it may deflate to a slightly flabby version of its old self, a la Wired. Who knows. To haul out the cliches: Nothing good lasts forever, and change is inevitable. We should look fondly on the good old days of Dwell just as we look fondly on the good old days when $200,000 could buy a decent house (or apartment) in a major metropolitan area. The two were inextricably linked -- and may yet be again someday.
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Posted by Anonymous on 11/14/2006 8:22:00 PM

i find the literature appalling.
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green?
Posted by Christy on 12/5/2006 8:36:00 AM

I absolutely love Dwell, and I am a new subscriber (my dad bought me a subscription). However. I am sorely disappointed at their attempts of "green living". Perhaps the huge homes with windows all around are sustainable design, but I am sure that the vast treeles carpets of lawn around them are not. Again, something that looks cool, chic, and sometimes kitch, but all in all a huge step backward.
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new rag to stop the ragging
Posted by Christy on 12/6/2006 2:48:00 PM

i stumbled across a magazine called innovative home when i was at barnes and noble the other day. i picked up the winter 2006 issue and it has intellegent content without being too heady and explanations of projects without being snobby. plus the green overtone is nice as well.
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Dwell at war with itself!
Posted by Keep This Coupon on 12/7/2006 8:06:00 AM

I think that DWELL is putting itself up on a platform to showcase ideas that are influenced heavily by design-HOWEVER the initial attraction of (and I think it fair to say many) to the magazine was a market demand for presenting design ideas that were "affordable, greener, and perhaps more quirky/""authentic""(dare one say earthy). The appeal for me was seeing work (and products) that allowed creativity amid a world polluted/choked by consumption for consumptions sake. Yes the articles continue to provoke and provide nutritious content, but the increasingly obnoxious profusion of adverts that in my view ran counter to the very heart of the magazine is a sign that some war is being waged within the magazine. For example in the latest issue “ –“ The article transportations future in North California “Perpetual Motion#4” is interrupted and usurped into a larger advertisement feature of a luxury car brand. And page after page of basically the same advert is woven into the article dealing with the success people and communities in Northern California have found in reining unsustainable car culture and uniting their landscapes (and farmland). It seems to me that dwell has to decide what message they are trying to sell, are they try to get us to buy gasoline fueled luxury cars, or appreciate the advantages of living in a “greener, friendlier, accessible” land. Design alone does not sell magazines, but unchecked advertising in an magazine such as this shall be the death nail of what had been a well thought out publication.
And I agree with Christy above in that buildings with huge walls of glass are really not sustaible as additional resources have to be made to heating and cooling. And this type of building "style" is but one design, surely dwell can come up other techiques of living in a manner that is "stylish" but conserves our limited resources!

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ah, yes, "affordable" luxury! (say what?!)
Posted by chris in oakland on 12/8/2006 9:45:00 AM

Since we live in a consumption-driven society and, the advertising brings in much needed revenue to the magazine, I think the adverts will win out in the end and Dwell will drop all mentions of "green/renewable/affordable" from it's pages and become a magazine dedicated to modern, luxe exclusivity.
Let's face it, we Americans are obsessed with being rich/living rich and aren't content, like previous generations, with just being middle-class and living with "less". Being in the middle means that, most likely, you live within your means and wont be buying extravagant, luxury gadgets, furniture, lamps, cars, whatever. It also means that you are content with not having all the latest and greatest new "it" must-haves since you realize that you can't afford them. But, if you were content with what you have, then you probably wont be going out to buy crap you don't need simply because "everyone else is doing so" (like a 50" plasma TV for 4K to watch endless commercials in HD).
Here's the rub, our economy depends on us to go out and consume incessantly and magazines and adverts create a fictional need to spur our spending sprees.
All the adverts around us sell us this ILLUSION that we CAN have it all and live like we're rich even if we can't really afford any of it. (Yes, just rack up debt to keep up with the people next door!) Dwell, like most magazines is selling an illusion. I guess the issue is that they're changing the illusion they are trying to sell. We used to connect to their illusion because it seemed more obtainable and, yes, a wee bit crunchy. Now, that illusion, glossy and beautiful as it is, is just too damn $$$$ for a middle class existence.
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It's too bad really
Posted by Sad Modernist on 12/23/2006 3:58:00 PM

As someone intimately acquainted with Dwell from its inception, I think it started out wanting to be a ground-breaking enterprise and really was exceptional because of Karrie Jacobs, who is a brilliant writer and an original thinker. It's too bad the hugely wealthy heiress-owner wasn't content in creating something unique and compelling for its own sake but chose to pursue ever greater profitability and outside investors to the detriment of the original vision. I know it's absurdly utopian in this day and age to assume someone would spend their wealth on a not-for-profit venture but, given Dwell's initial promise, it's still sad nonetheless.
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Hello from 40 Gold, the new Dwell
Posted by chelsea holden baker on 1/2/2007 5:09:00 PM

Hello everyone,

the Dwell offices are closed today, but mentally, I'm back at work. I wanted to add an update here since it's been a few months since you've heard from Dwell staff.

I am one of three people on the edit staff to have started at the magazine as an intern-- the epitome of scrappy, budget-concious, design-hungry, DIY, idealists (there is a stipend for interns, but no salary). I think I can speak for my two co-workers, and say that having started at the bottom of the food-chain has given all of us an interesting perspective. As an intern, you are, equal-parts Dwell employee and equal parts average reader-- enhanced by the fact that you are in constant contact with readers, but essentially a pro-bono, part-time employee, not "staff"-- very much an outsider. Believe me, the pangs of desire for Eames chairs, literally in-your-face every day are understood. I am going to suggest a one-off article on how to make your own versions of design classics-- thanks to the reader above.

But back to the point: starting from the bizarre liminal position of intern has been utterly invaluable to me and my other two co-workers. I am grateful and excited to be a bona fide member of the team, but I don't take my position lightly, and feel that the magazine's future WILL be decided by our readers, not our advertisers. As you may have noticed through newsbites, there has been considerable flux in the creative team in the past year. We are starting 2007 in a new office (bye bye bad juju), that is an open, collaborative space that we have already seen stimulate better communication and creativity. Our new editor-in-chief, Sam Grawe, was the magazine's first editorial assistant under Karrie Jacobs, and in that way, shares a similar bottom-up perspective (see his editor's note in our up-coming March issue). Although Andrew Wagner is now in New York as editor-in-chief of American Craft, he was a mentor to many of us, and had a great humanity-- a spirit we will continue to foster.

Along those lines: I hope you have received your February issue on Craft. It was a somewhat risky venture for us on several levels (and superficially, I'm sure you will see that in the cover image), but it seemed an important niche to explore. In addition, it followed its new year's resolution to lose some weight. I too, look at my book shelf and stare longingly at the early issues, whose profiles look like records. An imbalance with advertising, I would personally venture, is perhaps our biggest struggle, although if you break it down into edit:ad ratio, we are in the top of the shelter market (but perhaps our competitors do not set the best example). However, more important are gripes about content. I am happy to report that we are initiating a rentals feature this spring that profiles the ways in which people have customized/modernized their apartments/homes while living under a landlord. There will be a submit link on our website soon. Also on the web: We finally have our own community, hosted on our site, as well as a dedicated on-line editor, Christina Amini. As alluded to: The staff is very different than it was a year ago, although many important lynch pins are still with us, there is a definite feeling of a changing-of-the-guard. I would like to promise that this will be a new, and exciting era (not just a return to the old, for that is impossible), but leave time to tell.

As always, feel free to contact me personally. I, as well as Amber Bravo, and our publisher, Michela O'Connor Abrams, also review and respond to all emails sent to letters@dwell.com, ideally within a week's time. I understand people's personal reasons for not renewing, however, I would like to gently say that constructive criticism is the best criticism (even if you're canceling)-- send us your ideas or specific projects you'd like to see in print, and never forget the nice modernists! You may submit those nominations to me directly.

Cheers,

Chelsea
chelsea@dwell.com

Join us on the new Dwell Connect: We need passionate people like you guys to bring it to life: <http://dwell.leveragesoftware.com/>
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"many important lynch pins are still with us"
Posted by dwellwriter on 1/8/2007 9:42:00 PM

Congrats on the promotion, Chelsea. Kudos for posting your thoughts, and for the excellent Freudian slip -- but I hope editing actual copy isn't part of your new job!
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Selling ad copy becomes the mission
Posted by A Rutherford on 1/16/2007 8:50:00 PM

I subscribed to dwell ~6 years ago because of its diy emphasis. Now it features houses full of iconic expensive modern chairs and gourmet kitchens. Just read the captions to photos to see what they're highlighting: Angela Adams, Poliform, etc. Do these names sound familiar? They've bought adverts in the magazine. This is good business, but it's not informing my interest in design.

Furthermore, many of the homes are large or second homes. That's not green.

I'd love to see dwell publish readers' submissions of homemade projects: patio covers, furniture, ceramics, for example...but that wouldn't fit the mission.
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The Evolution of Dwell
Posted by Big Boy on 2/20/2007 8:57:00 AM

The magazine Dwell has evolved. If their mission statement, if they have one, stated what the person ranted about and the magazine changed then I understand his concern. But if the magazine is still true to their mission statement then I kindly suggest that the person who complain form a magazine of his own that is strickly the things that Dwell use to be. Tell us and I'll buy it. Most likely I'll by his magazine and Dwell; depending whether I like the issue or not. :)
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Dreamers
Posted by Irritated on 3/16/2007 2:56:00 PM

Big Boy, you and Maria need live together in the world where everyone can start their own magazine. I have every issue of Dwell from day one. I have finally decided this will be my last subscription year. When Dwell first started out it was like a breath of fresh air. It dealt with projects that anyone, even someone with out an architectural background could understand. I work in an architecture firm, so I look at almost every architecture/design magazine on a daily basis. This was a magazine that you could see as helping bridge the gap between modern architecture and the disconnect it has with most people today. It showed projects that approached design with common sense in common places. What ever happened to issues like modern architecture in uncommon places? It was one magazine you could look at and think, yes I could afford to do that. I would have to agree with some of the previous postings. Enough about prefab. A prefab home that costs $180-200 SF does not help many people. And I believe in, and do practice green design, but Dwell, please quit trying to cram it down our throats. We get it. I hope that Dwell can truly regain a focus on its former strength, bringing modern architecture to the masses.
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I don't miss it (very much)
Posted by Matthias on 4/30/2007 3:34:00 PM

I just stumbled on this page and read a few comments. I subscribed to Dwell in 2003 (I think) and stopped a year ago. As the magazine got thicker and thicker with ads (kind of like a Vanity Fair mag), the quality of the content went down the drain. I collected the magazines, but once the issues became half the size of a phone book, it didn't make sense to keep 300 pages of ads for the maybe 10 to 15 pages of ok content. I have to say that I don't miss Dwell that much. Whant I hope to find one day is a magazine that covers affordable modern design, and DIY ideas. I am now subscribing to "Fine Homebuilding," which is 1/3 the thickness of Dwell and has tons more useable content. Of course it's not an all modern(ist) mag, but you'd be surprised how much good design you can find in it. I recently also stumbled on the "Modernist" magazine. I only read one issue so far. It's probably not geared towards affordable modernism, but at least it seems to have useful content and much fewer ads.

I sent an email to the Dwell folks explaining why I cancelled the subscription. Of course, nobody responded, not even with a form letter.

I'll read more comments later.

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Dwell not swell at all
Posted by theowl on 5/26/2007 9:18:00 PM

Interesting posts. And also interesting to me as I just recently resigned my position at Dwell. I joined the staff in Dec. '06 and left in Mar. '07. Why? Because the magazine was run/managed so poorly I could not continue trying to justify working there any longer. The higher-ups cared more about decorating their new offices for fancy cocktail parties than training new hires. I was constantly asking for guidance only to be told "Figure it out yourself" or "I was never trained when I started; that's how we do things here."

In the 3 months I was there, 6 people left the company. And every one of those employees left because they didn't like the direction the magazine was going.

Andrew Wagner - who defended dwell and it's employees earlier in this blog, is no longer with Dwell. Surprise-! It's become a revolving door.

Dwell is trying to become more slick and 'successful' so the owners can sell it to companies like Conde Naste.

It's nothing but a magazine full of ads. And expensive ones at that. That was one of the biggest complaints from subscribers the Editorial Dept. was dealing with the entire time I worked there.

Good riddance to a company that doesn't know how to treat it's employees and has the worst leadership of any publishing company I've ever worked for.
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Dwell picks new senior editor
Posted by Greg La Vardera on 7/3/2007 5:45:00 PM

Interesting choice of Geoff Manaugh of BLGBLOG as a new senior editor:

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/movement.html
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Posted by jk on 7/30/2007 11:38:00 PM

The problem with the "modern for the masses" attitude, at least in LA, is that "modern" is a replay of the 1950s, and, frankly, a lot of the buildings from that era are now cheap rentals that are falling apart. The masses are living in the original "modern" era, and it's kind of smelly and broken-down. It's "ahistorical" to go backwards and expect things to work out.
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good design that is (was) affordable
Posted by rick on 9/13/2007 2:14:00 PM

The idea was to use design to create great looking furniture, architecture, lighting, etc. that was affordable.

Back in the day money was extremely tight, as is for myself. Architects switched to furniture design. They needed and wanted to design affordable things that looked good. They used inexpensive materials in new ways. Now the design has become an expenive fashion statement.

It's still good design, but extremely expensive and the idea has faded away. Take a good look at House Beautiful these days.

Dwell has become one of those where I feel like I want to see it before I buy it. It is still probably one of the better ones out there.

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good design that is (was) affordable
Posted by toehead on 9/27/2007 11:39:00 AM

I too am an original subscriber that clings to all the past issues of dwell I bought. I subscribed for all the same reasons and have all the same criticisms these people have already outlined so it is pointless to add any logs to the fire. My comment relates to Rick believing that modern design in this country used to be affordable to the masses. That is not true. Although that was the initial goal, by the time these inovative designs were manufactured in the "real world" very few of the masses could afford to buy them....mostly bought by people with money that had designers and architects steering them in that direction, same as today. As for affordable modern housing, the Case Study program sponsored by Arts and Architecture magazine that ran for 15 years after the war lifted restrictions, failed to produce the "mass affordability" idea in architecture either. Pre-fab housing, same story. So, what am I driving at? Not much has changed in the Modern movement in this country. We are provincial and design timid as a nation when comes to our homes and what we put in them. I am as frustrated by this as the rest of you but you have to keep in mind that we are in the minority in this consumer society that is driven by profit margins. Back to dwell, we'll see what the new crew is made of. What ever happens I am glad I kept all my "vintage" issues!
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i'm not so sure.
Posted by Dominic on 11/14/2007 11:40:00 PM

re: "It is worse than that
Posted by Toomuchremodelin"

Archigram only ran for a few issues and had very little in the way of written content but is now legendary. remember the old saw about Quality versus Quantity?
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all good things
Posted by ropedrag on 11/26/2007 10:04:00 PM

I’m one of those people who didn’t really understand that I had the types of choices that Dwell opened up and laid before me, yes even I could have good design in my life. That meant not having to settle for whatever was sold at the big box stores, imagine that! I truly appreciate what this magazine has brought me over the years (owning every issue) but I’ll be honest, they have lost their way in opening peoples mind like they did mine. The latest issue does nothing short of continuing the push of “I can have good design in my life” away from the masses. Silly me, I thought it was about expanding design and ideas to add value to our lives, the average Joe, which is something that’s never really happened before like the early Dwell. To the Dwell staff, just who are you trying to impress now or is it a money grab at this point?

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...Rhymes with Sell
Posted by Shalleaux on 11/27/2007 3:42:00 PM

I picked up my first copy a few months ago, and being a modern-housewares aficionado, I was hooked. The mag appeared to support minimalism and displayed furniture and accessories with strong design qualities. I would certainly like to see more hand-made, studio-type furniture.. however I being rather familiar with the periodical industry it is apparent to me that satisfied advertisers are so very crucial to every magazine's survival. Lost their way? No I would say they're right on track, following in the path of every other magazine that caters to a high-brow yuppie audience.
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Yeap,...where's affordability?
Posted by Aceman on 2/17/2008 3:12:00 PM

I sense that the way things are going here in the USA, affordability will be a thing of the past. True, if you have the money, and you really want to enjoy a well designed house, then go for it. But what about the lower class, why can there be brilliant designers out there that can prove once and for all that affordability does not mean a bland house. I hope am able to prove this in the near future.




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i agree . . .
Posted by Brian Cook on 6/19/2008 12:13:00 PM

. . . with the notion that Dwell is going downhill. I've been subscribing since it debuted; I liked that it detailed modern life in a way that I could relate to. Whereas it used to feel like a design magazine written for fans of modern design, it now feels like a design magazine written for elitists and other designers only. I used to take an hour or so to read it, and I now go through it in less than 10 minutes. It is out of touch.

I just cancelled my subscription.
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Beef - What's NOT for dinner
Posted by Chef on 8/11/2008 6:14:00 AM

I must say, the latest round of "beef" ads featured in the mag are somewhat repulsive. It's one thing to eat meat, but it's quite another to make slices look cliffs along the edge of a river. Gross.

Yes, I know Dwell didn't create the ads and I'm grilling (har, har) the messenger, but for a magazine filled with such tasteful (there I go, trying to be witty again) content, you'd think there'd be some discretion when choosing ads.

How soon until we see the beef industry use meat slabs in place of wood paneling in their next ad?


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Dwell fairly pretentious from the beginning
Posted by Hans on 11/8/2008 2:36:00 PM

I agree that Dwell has taken on a more elitist approach in the past couple of years, but really the magazine always had a pretentious tone. I recall reading letters to the editor which were published along with very condescending editor responses. The "road trips" that discovered modernism in "unexpected" (read: non-coastal) locations always had an undercurrent of superiority as if finding Saarinen buildings in Michigan was like discovering life on Mars. All and all a very San Francisco perspective (speaking as a former resident).

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Green - Ride it to death
Posted by mrg on 5/8/2009 6:43:00 AM

They are getting a little predictable with all the green stuff - this is similar to what they did for several years with pre-fab.

I keep seeing Dwell in the airport mag racks - I swear I will not buy it - then I do and as usual - I am disappointed with content and all the ads.

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