Spring Studios, Herman Miller, and A24 Say “Print Isn’t Dead”

Emerging talent. 1,700 patents and more than 120 years of brand heritage. Funky carpets in cinema multiplexes from the ‘90s. These are just a few of the topics that brands like Spring Studios, Herman Miller, and A24, respectively, are bandying about in their new print magazines. Unlike the traditional life cycle of PR, press, publish, and repeat, these brands are funneling resources into storytelling on their own terms. The shift coincides with a tumultuous media landscape that sees legacy publishers very publicly grappling with labor relations, profitability, AI slop and leadership.

While all three brands do continue to work with traditional media, helming their own publications grants them a certain freedom that gets lost when media bonafides have to reckon with issues of page allocation, advertiser relations, and whether or not a pitch is even a “fit.” After all, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than, say, Herman Miller, running a feature dedicated to its furniture stress-testing protocol as its newly published collectible tome, Ideas, does.

Likewise, the inaugural issue of Spring Studios’ biannual magazine, Ode, debuted with a companion exhibition in Milan dedicated to celebrating up-and-coming photographers like Sebastian Kapfhammer, artists Luke Nugent and Stacey Gillian Abe, and hairstylist Pablo Kuemin, who nearly all happen to be former collaborators. And A24? They’ve long marched to the beat of their own drum with off-kilter merch and an in-house fan club. Waxing poetic for the design hallmarks of ‘90s cineplexes in printed matter is probably just another Tuesday for them.

“Content can live in different places digitally, online, and social media, and we do program to all these different platforms to reach people where they are,” says Kelsey Keith, Herman Miller’s brand creative director.

In an era of comebacks, wouldn’t it be nice if the magazine industry’s roaring ‘20s were upon us?