CREATIVE GENIUS
8/27/2007 4:44:43 PM by Sandy Lindsey
Eduardo Schneider is perhaps the most diverse artistic professional you’ll ever meet — and he’s the man responsible for the look and feel of International Yachtsman from the magazine’s inception. He’s also the creative mind behind the magazine’s redesigns throughout the years, proving he can evolve as quickly as the ever-changing industry he covers.
As the founding art director of International Yachtsman, Eduardo Schneider not only had to come up with an artistic vision for the magazine, but also had to do so with minimal tools — and knowledge of the subject matter. “The most frustrating thing about starting Yachtsman was that we had to do everything without the major resources of other yachting magazines,” says Schneider. “Since we were an experimental publication, we couldn’t shoot our own photos at first and we didn’t have ready access to top yacht owners. The older publications can make a call to builders and go in for a photo shoot. This was a very closed industry to break into.”
To add to the challenge, Schneider was neither a yachtsman nor a boater. “We wanted to create a high-end, upscale boating magazine for yacht owners,” he says. “So I needed to quickly learn how yacht owners view their favorite sport and their toys. I went on boat and yacht rides, made ‘lab visits’ to the larger yachts, those 100 feet and above. I tried to learn what the designers have in common, what the owners have in common, and what photography and graphic design was appealing to these individuals.
“The other yacht magazines were overcrowded,” he says, citing the impetus behind one of his earliest goals: a reader-friendly magazine. “These had good content but fell short on the design side. As long as they had nice aerial photos, they seemed to just drop the photos into the text and they were done. Readers want more.”
While International Yachtsman might have been experimental at the beginning, an even firmer vision soon began to develop. “A few issues into the magazine, we took a step back and streamlined the design,” he says. This was caused, in part, by Schneider realizing the significant European influence on the yachting industry and bringing that European feel to the magazine during the redesign process.
“The redesign was one of my greatest accomplishments at Yachtsman,” he says. “It was important to step back and revisit the entire design plan. The challenge was to bring all the fun of yacht ownership into something that was interesting visually.”
The result was a strong response from the industry and rave reviews from readers. The ultimate accolade was receiving the 2006 Best Redesign award from the Florida Magazine Association [FMA]. In addition, Schneider picked up the 2006 Best Overall Design magazine award from FMA for his work at International Yachtsman’s sister-publication, Lincoln Road Magazine. He received the FMA 2005 Art Director of the Year Award, 2005 Best Original Single Color Photo Award, and the 2005 Ozzie for Best Cover.
While Schneider’s vision lives on and is expanded upon at International Yachtsman, he has moved his talents over to JES Publishing. Amongst the five Florida titles and three Salt Lake City publications that he oversees as group art director are the acclaimed Boca Raton and Worth Avenue magazines.