Condé Nast property Gourmet magazine ceased publication in 2009, but Condé Nast continued to renew copyright on the name until 2021. Recently, while perusing the U.S. Trademark Office site, graphic designer Alex Tatusian noticed this oversight/decision—not sure which—and he and a handful of friends pulled together the funds needed to capture the Gourmet name.
The new investors have recreated Gourmet as a newsletter available on open-source platform Ghost. The reborn publication’s identity is nothing like the old Gourmet: it has what Tatusian unfortunately (for a cooking pub) described as “shit-stirring energy.” Designed by interdisciplinary artist and trombonist Zekkereya El-magharbel, the new wordmark has discordant, punk vibes meant to appeal to younger cooks. The new identity pulls in 19th-century line art drawings and adds contemporary twists that mock the formality and stuffiness of preexisting food and cooking publications. The palette eschews bright, fresh food colors for an almost completely brown-based plan.
Says Tatusian in a New York Times article, “‘We wanted something really funky and unusual’ rather than the elegant cursive of Gourmet’s last logo… suggesting it might stand apart from the rest of the food media’s ‘dead-inside visual identities.’”
