Do you find this magazine cover offensive?

Or do you think it is a clever way to tell a story about the merger of two major airline companies in the US?

When Bloomberg Businessweek used this composite image on the cover of its February 6 issue with the headline "Let's Get It On", it probably did not figure on the virulent reaction from some readers.

Here are some of the "negative" letters the magazine printed in the February 16 issue:

• Offensive … displeasing … distasteful … indecent … abominable … obscene … objectionable … that’s what I have to say about your Feb. 6-12 cover. You should be ashamed.

• I think you have a sharp magazine with good writing, making what is (for me) a boring subject — business — actually interesting and understandable. But I object to your Feb. 6-12 cover, the one with a Continental plane “getting it on” with a United plane. Couldn’t you have made a point about an airline merger without descending into base sexual imagery?

• Your Feb. 6-12 cover page was in extremely poor taste. You made it even worse with the headline “Let’s Get It On.” Surely you could have described the business events going on between Continental and United in a better fashion, and not by showing two planes having sex with each other on the cover of an important business magazine.

• Get It On, Love Built to Last, Friends with Benefits, Exchange Vows, Home Run: Your cover page is so subtle it should have a condom over the dominant top plane (should be United) and a diaphragm shield inside the tail of the submissive bottom one (should be Continental). You will lose several subscriptions over portraying the sacred marriage of two companies as just a long mile-high f – – k. Who was the genius who sent this around legal without thinking? For April 1, maybe, but not right after the holy days!

Of course, there was some positive reaction, too:

• Got to love last week’s cover: A Continental plane mounting a United plane with the caption, “Let’s Get It On”! On the same page, you talk about Facebook having “friends with benefits.” It shows that business has great humor. LMAO! Framing this cover. Thanks.

For the record, I did not even think this cover had anything to do with sexual imagery. One reason for that might be because I did not get the significance of the headline accompanying the image (did you?). "Let's Get It On" seemed to indicate to me that it was time to party, now that the world's largest airline had been formed. And without a second thought I turned the cover page and began reading the magazine. It's only when I read the letters in the February 16 issue that I did the mental equivalent of a double take.

You can read the other letters here: Feedback.

Also read: "Good ideas and good writing need to be backed up by good design".

Good ideas and good writing need to be backed up by good design

In this month's first anniversary issue of Fortune India, editor D.N. Mukerjea looks back at the cover stories and features of the past 12 months and, more important from the media student's point of view, explains what it is that helps these stories to grab attention:

[It] is not just how they are written but also how the pages look. Design, which includes photos, graphics, fonts, colours, and the overall layout, has always played a significant role. As I often remind myself, and tell whoever cares to listen, Fortune India stands on four pillars editorially — reporting, desk, photo, and design. Magazines are meant to be visually rich and, I dare say, Fortune India is the richest of them all. Our pages have won international design awards from the Society of Publication Designers and IFRA, and private art collectors are forever after me to sell them some of our images. (So far, I have resisted the temptation.)

Mukerjea's thoughts on the importance of design should find resonance with production journalists everywhere.

THE COVER OF THE LAUNCH ISSUE.

Fortune India does not have a website, sadly, so you will have to study the magazine itself to understand what Mukerjea is trying to say when he writes, and I agree with him, that Fortune India "is the richest of them all" in visual appeal.

I must add here that the magazine is also home to some brilliant story ideas that, thanks to the editors, have not just remained ideas; they have been executed so well that it is an undiluted pleasure to leaf through the magazine even when the articles, because of their business orientation, may not truly interest the general reader.

• Undoubtedly, Fortune India is the best-designed magazine in India. What would be the newspaper equivalent? My vote goes to DNA. As for the general interest magazine with the most intelligent writing, I think Time Out Bengaluru would win hands down if there were a contest.

Quick on the draw

Hadi Farahani is the most brilliant illustrator and cartoonist I have met. I had the pleasure of working with him in Dubai in the '90s when I was the Features Editor of the Khaleej Times. His incomparable art lent both colour and life to the articles I edited and published in the paper.

Hadi has since moved to Canada and his work has appeared in all the big-name publications in the West. And he has been nominated three times for best magazine and newspaper illustrator of the year by the National Cartoonists' Society in the US.

You can take a look — and gaze in wonder — at his work here.
 

Marvel at his illustrations for newspapers and magazines (samples above). And also admire the logos in the 'design' section.

Hadi is a great role model for any young illustrator among you. Don't you think the college newspaper will benefit greatly if you can produce illustrations like these?

• Also read: A Commits alumna's long-drawn affair with illustrations