With Felker as editor and Glaser as design director, Esquire will have a totally new look starting with the February 14 issue. It will have a different size, binding, shape, length, and contents. It will also change its name to Esquire Fortnightly and appear 26 times a year instead of 12.
"The new Esquire will be ungimmicky, easy to understand," says Milton Glaser, taking a half-hour break from his numerous artistic projects. He is as animated as his enlarged signature, which glows from a custom-made neon lamp on the wall beside a Renaissance Madonna and a framed Islamic drawing.
The first thing you notice about Glaser is the colored handkerchief adorning his jacket pocket. Then you notice how relaxed he is, and how easily he smiles.
"The name of the game is to get an audience that identifies with the magazine and feels it's on their side. People buy a magazine because it's of considerable interest to them, not because they get a deal on the subscription. … What you want to do is to find the right-size audience, made up of people who believe in the values that the magazine reflects."
The original Esquire, Glaser points out, helped to glamorize the rich, privileged man of the world — the man who had arrived, who knew his place in the world, and whose greatest desire was to surround himself with the symbols of wealth, such as fancy cars and beautiful women.
Today, says Glaser, the American male no longer measures success by symbols alone. Rather, he aims for self-development, for the richness of life itself — professional, personal, physical, intellectual and spiritual.
Clay Felker writes, in a yet-unreleased editorial in Esquire: "We will explore how a man can develop a more rewarding life with the women and children in his life. … I see Esquire magazine as a cheery, book filled, comfortable den, a place of wit and sparkling conversation, of goodwill and genial intelligence, where thoughtful discussions take place and wise conclusions are reached."
Milton Glaser is probably the best-qualified artist in America to redesign Esquire. Besides his success with New York magazine, which began as a Sunday supplement to the old New York Herald Tribune, Glaser has designed The Village Voice, Circus magazine, New West and two of France's leading publications, L'Express and Paris-Match.
Glaser's posters have sold in the millions. He has put on one-man exhibitions in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. (He believes, in fact, that his work is more appreciated abroad than at home). He has designed everything from stores to toys to new typefaces.
He is a faculty member at both Cooper Union and the School of Visual Arts. He is responsible for all the graphic design and decorative programs at the World Trade Center. Two volumes of his works have been published — Milton Glaser: Graphic Arts and The Milton Glaser Poster Book.