Tony Chambers has used his unprecedented position at one of the foremost design and lifestyle magazines to demonstrate a seldom made point: a designer as editor can be just as capable of generating edgy, envelop-pushing content. Since 2007 Chambers has served as Editor-in-Chief of ultra-cool style bible, Wallpaper*. In 2003, he first joined Wallpaper* as Art Director, beginning what can now be regarded as a deliberately restrained revolution that has triumphantly reinvented the periodical.
As an exception in the field, his natural talent to tactfully coalesce modernist tendencies with impassioned editorial direction has twice earned him Art Director of the Year from the Periodical Publishers Association, and New Editor of the Year from the British Society of Magazine Editors. Noteworthy achievements include several high profile revamps that involve introduction of new custom-made fonts, the consolidation of Wallpaper’s design principles, as well as strategic moves to attract some of the world’s most talented photographers into its stables. On the business side of things his contributions have expanded the Wallpaper* brand onto exhibitions, the web, and the hugely lucrative pocket city guides published in conjunction with Phaidon Press.
The groundbreaking magazine itself remains a mainstay to many jet-set, design-conscious urbanites. Partly made popular through an audacious visual ethos, Wallpaper* occupies a highly unique position for its vision to bridge communication of design with the masses – providing the subject a pop-culture platform.
Outside of Wallpaper*, Chamber’s professional experience includes a six year stint as Art Director at Condé Nast’s flagship male lifestyle title, British GQ Magazine, a period during which he also acted as creative consultant for the publisher’s other international titles. Prior to joining Condé Nast, Chambers was Art Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine, where for ten years he acquired and honed a profound appreciation for the practice of photojournalism.
