The statement on our cover has several meanings. It is asking you to look at the differences between two distinct images of nail care professionals: On our “false” cover, the image is from .another generation, at a time when “manicurist” was the only word anyone used when describing professional nail care. On our actual cover, nail technician and salon owner Stephanie Bricker is the picture of today’s nail professional: educated, self-confident, career-oriented, and proud. Madge was an outspoken role model and she brought great recognition to the nail field. She showed the world, with her dry sense of humor, that nail technicians do more than just file nails. They counsel (weren’t her clients always complaining about something?) and they solve problems (although we probably don’t recommend soaking in dish soap today, she was at least telling clients about at-home maintenance!).

The other meaning of the cover statement is to look at what’s happening to NAILS Magazine! We have redesigned our magazine, almost from cover to cover, starting with our logo. We set out to develop a logo that was contemporary, elegant, and bold, and still said it all perfectly succinctly: NAILS. A magazine undertakes a redesign effort for a number of reasons, and ours was that it was time to push NAILS farther into the future and to lead nail professionals into the next millennium.

I would like to thank and congratulate our art department, especially art director Jennifer Brandes, for all the work done on this redesign. Creative director Rick Schank kept everyone focused on the mission, and managing editor Erika Kotite made sure everything was executed (and helped us move past indecision many times). Our art, editorial, and production teams — Jennifer, Tracy, Paula, Rick, Erika, Suzette, Julie, JoLynn, Judy, Raye, and Anita — put their heart and soul into this project and have come up with a knockout! Let me know what you think!

 

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