Seeing Double

From Nova to Omni

Nov 16, 2024

About a year ago, I was looking around eBay for vintage magazines, my search being specifically for Nova magazines of the ‘60s and 70s, and I stumbled upon this oddity, which was not the Nova I was familiar with at all.

I then realised it looked very similar to Omni magazine #1 that I had in my collection back in London. There was a sticker on the cover that read ‘Movie Prop’ and I began to wonder if it had been printed specially for an SF movie like Blade Runner or suchlike.

Making the observation that it was dated October 1978 negated that particular notion, but I realized I had to buy it to see what was inside. An impatient wait for my purchase to be shipped also gave me time to buy a rather battered copy of Omni #1 for comparison, as I wasn’t planning on a London trip to collect my original pristine copy anytime soon.

Apart from the barcode, you can see just how similar the two issues are. On opening the copy of Nova, I realized that it was a visual mockup, probably to promote the title pre-launch. Half the pages had been designed with dummy text, and the other half were completely blank. I’ve scanned both of the contents pages for comparison.

A little bit of research explained it all. Ben Bova, the former editorial director for Omni, described what happened in, his foreword to the book, The Mind’s Eye: The Art of Omni in 2014.

Omni - A Reminiscence. (excerpt)

“Meanwhile, the producers of PBS’s Nova TV series sued Guccione, claiming that he was using the name of their show to promote his own endeavor. Over a frantic weekend, while Nova’s first issue was being held on the press, Bob and his minions came up with the name Omni, which I thought was a much better title for the magazine.”

Both of these pages are mock-ups, using something like Lorem Ipsum, dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

Perfectly relevant to this post was something I rediscovered last time I was back in London. Rummaging around in my cupboard, I found this promotional item for the launch of Omni in the UK. This was given to me by my friend and colleague, Gail who was working on Forum magazine at the time, another Bob Guccione publication.

A pretty cool looking object, printed in silver that utilised elastic bands to snap itself into a three dimensional object.

I like the design, and I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.

While I’m on the subject of Nova…

Rose Tinted Design Specs

From 1973 and from my bookshelf, The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch, photography and design by one of my heroes, Harri Peccinotti who was also responsible for the art direction, design and photography of Nova.

Nova. February 1975. I have this issue as well as issues one to four.

My fascination with this magazine began in 1985 when I was designing Starburst magazine at Marvel UK. Our Managing Director, Robert Sutherland had the inspired idea of sending all of the designers on a two day design course given by David Hillman, previously Art Director for Nova magazine and later a partner at Pentagram Design. We were told to take along some of our designs for a live critique and a slideshow featuring our work. It was brutal, but so incredibly informative, and my whole design sensibility changed overnight. It was one of those Aha! moments, and design became incredibly fun again. After that I completely revamped the look of Starburst magazine with the encouragement of the new editor, Cefn Ridout.

My must-have item! I have one of these back in London, and here in LA.

A few years later during a lunchtime stroll near Russell Square in London, I discovered an old bookshop with a basement filled with every issue of Nova magazine. I couldn’t believe my luck! In retrospect I should have bought more than I did, but my flat was already bursting at the seams with other magazines, so I exhibited a bit of self-control for once, and just bought the first four issues. Here’s one of them.