ON DESIGN.

Does anyone subscribe to Time magazine?? Err, better question - does anyone even still subscribe to magazines?? I ask myself why I read NYMag.com all day during work when I have a physical copy of the magazine at home untouched/unread.

Those were some slightly off-topic questions. Allow me to gear us back towards the point. This week's Time was delivered with a supplementary Time Style & Design issue. It caught my eye because it had an unusual cover design. Of course, hidden underneath this issue was yet another Time magazine with Barack Obama on the cover. But magazine covers are not what I am here to rant about today.

What I am going to rant about is the fact that Time Style & Design is TOTALLY HYPOCRITICAL. This year's edition was green-themed, the cover reading "The Green Design 100: The People and Ideas Behind Today's Most Influential Design." As if the green thing isn't already TOTALLY PLAYED OUT and SO LAST YEAR. I understand the importance of the issue but REALLY Time??? You couldn't think of another more interesting, captivating theme?? Or at least maybe go along with this year's RECESSIONISTA mantra: giving us an inside scoop on how retailers and designers are coping with the recession, what they have had to forgo because of the economy, advice on how to survive in this market, neat DIY styling tips??

ANYWAYS. I read the Editor's Note by Kate Betts and it read,

Back in April 2006...we rather boldly proclaimed that sustainability was the new luxury. Admittedly, it was a stretch to speak of luxury goods and sustainability in the same breath. At the time, only a handful of major luxury companies and embraced environmental issues...just three years later...companies as diverse as eBay, Tag Heuer, and Ligne Rose are making huge strides in their sustainable designs and policies, and consumers are REJECTING PLASTIC FOR PAPER - or better yet, cloth - when they shop.

UHMMM....then how come when my Time magazine arrived this week in my mailbox, it came in an INTERESTING package.


Yes, the supplement and the Time issue were mailed TOGETHER in a PLASTIC WRAPPER, which I now have to DISPOSE OF in a way that harms the environment. How could such an important production issue be so BLATANTLY overlooked??? What a HEINOUS and HYPOCRITICAL oversight. I am actually offended. You have a 40-page magazine touting all of the world's best environmental design and write about how Time is so cutting-edge, environmentally-conscious, and green but then you mail me my magazines in an UNNECESSARY and ENVIRONMENTALLY-HARMFUL plastic wrapper??? You really couldn't take the time to print my mailing address on the supplement?? Why don't you just ship it to me in a Styrofoam box next year!?!?!

URGH.