Esquire’s fancy e-ink cover is meant to serve as a window into the future of magazines as well as celebrate the publication’s 75th anniversary. While the gimmick looks kinda ‘neat’ and caught our eye on an otherwise uneventful subway ride, we really couldn’t get over the wastefulness of it all. Influx Insights brought our attention to how the battery-powered screen is the result of a rather complicated and energy-intensive process – which Esquire proudly explains in their issue (article). Getting these snazzy covers to newsstands required several transportation steps that spanned the globe, something Esquire seems to believe makes them that much more impressive. Huh. You can check out the video below to see the e-ink in action:
[via Influx Insights]
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ummm… fails the “so what” test in my opinion… doesn’t really do anything, does it, but I suppose for the first ever, you got to start somewhere.
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Agreed! The true hallmarks of the 21st century are sustainability and efficiency ~ developing technology that allows us to do more with less, to eliminate exactly the kind of wasteful processes by which the Esquire cover came to be. How ironic that in trying to make a statement on our times, they’ve undermined the very principles that will move us forward!
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I am tired of this pseudo-intellectual “Look how much more green I am than you” crap. I agree the environment is important. I agree that waste is not good. However, the transparency of a person’s motivations in complaining about the “wastefulness” of the creation and distribution of a mere 100,000-issue run of experimental magazines I find to be rather disgusting. Innovation requires a certain amount of waste, and I really doubt that the creation of these magazines is making starving children cry.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:17 pm