UP FRONT

By Richard Mandel
Editor in Chief

Growth Report

While attending the wedding of a friend’s son not long ago, I heard someone comment to the groom’s mother, just before the ceremony began, “So, what’s been new?” If this hadn’t been stated in sincerity I would have ignored it but, thought I, this looked like a job for Captain Obvious and his sidekick, Duh. Peace was maintained, however, as there wasn’t a handy phone booth for changing.

Why the bigger Designfax? Simple — printing technology allows us to go to this size at just slightly more cost than our previous digest size. For those additional coins, we can make the images larger, run graphs that are more detailed, expand on the features, run more products per page. Many advertisers like this size page, too. Hey, for you, it’s worth it.

What’s not changing? Our style — products will still be addressed in a tight, concise manner, and we’ll still be presenting applications showcasing the interesting and, occasionally, the unusual.

We’re also seeing the results of using the web as an extension of our printed page. Many of our readers have already noticed the additional new products we cover online beyond what we present in print each month. (If you haven’t yet, go look for the banners in our various component sections.) Moreover, we’re delighted at how simple it has become to augment stories with animations of the item under discussion. In this issue, you can explore another sample of it with a piece about simulation software. Plenty of publica-tions just offer text descriptions and a few screenshots — we have URLs that connect you directly to demos.

Finally, this issue heralds a change that will formally begin in January 2003 — we are returning Medical Equipment Designer back into the pages of Designfax. Begun as supplementary material within Designfax in 1988, MED became a “standalone” publication in 1990, going to a separate readership list. In recent times, we’ve observed how much crossover there is between medical design and other markets — for ex-ample, the same precision DC servomotors can serve equally well in a surgical suite or semiconductor manufacturing. Welcome home, then, to the magazine and its subscribers. But enough preview — enjoy the issue, and drop us a line. Let us know what you think of it.

One more item — I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge the one-year anniversary this month of the tragedy of September 11, and offer a few observations. All of us at Nelson Publishing hope that all those affected by that madness have been able to pick up and continue with their lives. I’ve been fascinated, and often disturbed, by the marketing exploits that have incurred over the last twelve months. Several compa-nies have sent me information about safety gear and workclothes newly emblazoned with the red, white and blue. Flag-waving has shown up repeatedly on silk neckties and jewelry, kids’ toys and tire sales. My local grocery store now carries “All-American Salad Dressing.” The voices of jingoism-as-a-sales-tool have risen to a level reminiscent of the “My Country — Right or Wrong” bumper stickers of the Nixon era.

Enough. A year has passed, now let’s take down the store-window slogans and the made-in-China star-spangled banners waving from the windows of cars, trucks and SUVs. Go donate to charity. Give blood. And speak your mind, within the bounds of reason and courtesy. The best revenge, as one writer notes, is living well — let’s annoy the heck out of our enemies by celebrating our democracy as something more than profit enhancement.