Stockland Martel

Janet Froelich, creative director of Real Simple.

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Real Simple is set to debut its redesign in the November issue—Craig Cutler, in fact, is one of the contributing photographers—so it seemed like a good time to look back at the career of Janet Froelich, who left a two-decades-plus career at The New York Times Magazine earlier this year to join Real Simple as its creative director.

In the September 2007 issue of Creative Review, Simon Esterson wrote a profile of Froelich, which is now online in its entirety, as part of the magazine’s growing Web-based archive. Here’s an excerpt:

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A key part of the magazine’s success is the role of Janet Froelich: creative director for the last three years, and art director of the magazine for about 15 years before that. She’s been at the Times for more than 20 years, coming to design after an early period as a fine artist and then becoming involved with a  group of women artists producing a publication. “I discovered I loved working with type and editors and photographers,” she says. “I think of myself as a journalist. I think editorial design is a different discipline: you’re not selling anything. It’s a more intimate relationship with the reader. Almost everything we do is about narrative and storytelling. And as with most good stories, the route is circuitous and accommodates complex ideas, off-beat solutions, layers of meaning.” Froelich is unfailing in her acknowledgement that a magazine is also a team effort, crediting her colleagues, including editor Gerald Marzorati, art director Arem Duplessis and photo editor Kathy Ryan, in our conversation. How do you produce such a good magazine? “If you hire good people it’s easy,” she says.

“I’ve worked quite collaboratively with my editors: I’ve been blessed to work with some of the most visually sophisticated editors on the planet. They have made me a much better art director and I am really grateful for that. Same goes for the photo team. With readers, it’s different. You don’t really know them, but in some peculiar way, you feel you know them, and you learn to respect them. It’s a little dance you do, giving them a bit of clarity in exchange for the chance to push the envelope here and there.”

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For the complete article, go here.

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