CLASSICFEEL dances into 2010 in high fashion

Those who are in the know about magazine publishing will agree that a PICA is the ‘Oscar’ or the ‘Grammy’ of publishing. They are the most prestigious awards in South Africa’s magazine industry, aimed at recognising excellence in publishing and journalism and, considering the overall strength of the many publications that enter every year; the prize is truly a feather in CLASSICFEEL’s cap. The competition was really stiff. I don’t want to give away all the big names that entered; suffice it to say that simply every magazine out there will make an entry into the PICAs.

It was CLASSICFEEL’s May 2009 issue, adorned with a striking portrait of Nobel Prize winning author Nadine Gordimer, that won the PICA Award for Best Magazine Cover. Our magazine beat 29 other popular and highly acclaimed publications to take this much-coveted prize, which was judged mainly on the effectiveness of the cover on a newsstand, and the role the cover played in increasing circulation for the month in question. The strength of the content of the cover story in relation to the cover itself was also assessed for this award.

The PICA nod was a crowning achievement for an issue that was already very special. I simply knew that this was always going to be a wonderful issue considering the rare and exclusive interview granted to us by Nadine Gordimer. Both with the striking cover and the groundbreaking story that it represented, it marked a vital turning point in CLASSICFEEL’s development as South Africa’s prime arts and culture magazine.

We as a team felt that winning the PICA was a much-appreciated recognition of our hard work in shaping the CLASSICFEEL brand, and a true honour. However, winning an award like this means that we have to set the bar even higher and work all the harder to keep those standards up. One way of achieving this is to explore art forms that we have not included in our publication before, like South African fashion design with all its glamour and great success internationally. This first issue of the year brings you an in-depth interview with leading South African designer David Tlale about culture, catwalks and the art of design. And just to keep up our search for award winning covers, we chose the most striking image of this year’s FNB Dance Umbrella, which is happening between 27 February and 14 March in Johannesburg – definitely an event not to be missed.

Enjoy.

Lore Watterson,

Editor-in-Chief