Dippin’ Dots are so 2000…E Ink is the future. Esquire magazine is making a bold move to use E Ink on the cover of their October magazine. What’s more, they snagged the rights to the deal from E Ink Corporation for a year. That gives them megacreds towards the potential future of magazine design. Remember when National Geographic created the holographic cover? It featured the skull of Homo erectus. That was really cool in 1985, but this is quite different. Instead of a static image composed of millions of dots of color, E Ink is the application of tiny double-sided dots that react to electrical stimulation. The dots can flip when commanded to show one of two colors, typically black or white. When multiplied to the size of a magazine cover, you have a dynamic screen that has some basic video capabilities. It’s the same technology used in the Amazon Kindle, if you’re familiar. Esquire’s plunge into this market worked out very well already. Ford was willing to pick up the additional cost of the cover’s production through an advertisement. They will be featured on the inside of the cover, another piece of E Ink wonder. It will be truly amazing one day to see the photos of people on magazine covers in grocery stores winking back at you. It’s Harry Potter technology brought to reality!
I don’t really know what Esquire is all about, but I’ll buying a copy of this one off the stands when it comes out. It’s a historic moment.
Link: BoingBoing
Esquire is intended to be playboy without the photos, I believe. The gentleman’s magazine. I’ve read it on a few occasions.
And here so many people read Playboy “just for the articles.” They could’ve probably paid less for Esquire all this time.