Essence's 50th Anniversary Cover with Creative Director, Nia Lawrence
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ESSENCE celebrated its 50th anniversary last month with a landmark cover of Naomi Campbell. This cover is a bit different, though, because Naomi photographed the cover herself with an iPhone in her own home. It’s an innovative yet necessary move for the brand, since during the lockdown we creatives have to continue creating although under tight restrictions and limited social interaction. But those limitations didn’t stop ESSENCE. The cover is beautiful, elevated, and effortless. It’s a testament to the brand’s iconic black girl magic.
Justin Miller spoke to Creative Director Nia Lawrence for SPD about the milestone anniversary and cover, as well as the brand itself and how she’s been working, thinking, and living in these times. Here is their conversation:
Justin Miller: Celebrating 50 years of ESSENCE! How does it feel?
Nia Lawrence: Honestly, the whole year has been a conversation about the 50th. Events, the logo, not just the magazine. And right before we went to print, the offices and the city were shutting down, all of our photo shoots were cancelled; it was a crazy rush to get everything out. It was so surreal trying to pivot because the printer will start regardless. 50 years happened so fast! We’ve been looking back at our archives, and our digital archives only go back so far, so at some points we’re flipping through pages that have been bound together—it’s amazing to see how far the magazine has come since the seventies.
JM: You think about the 50th anniversary, it’s a huge number, and thinking about Naomi Campbell—you know, who is an internationally known, respected, and also a powerful and aspirational black woman. Can you talk to me about all of that, and if you all knew that it had to be Naomi since the beginning?
NL: Yes, it was always Naomi. It was her fiftieth, it was our fiftieth. At first, we had a shoot, we booked the studio worthy of Naomi Campbell. But everything started to change as soon as we saw her travel in the hazmat suit, right around early February? She’s already a germophobe (rightfully so), and then she wanted a limited set, then everyone had to wear their own suits, we needed a bigger studio, and fewer people, with more space between everyone—and then there was nothing.
So then we came back to her with, Okay, what if we sent one person to your home? No. What if we just send the cameras to your home? And that’s how we got there! She knows her angles, she knows how to work a tripod, she’s been doing this for years. There was no fear there. [But] we weren’t there to set the lighting and give feedback on hair and lighting. She’s creative directing. It was a huge learning experience.
JM: This makes me think about collaboration with talent, but also with our teams. Where are you feeling the collaborative force is moving?
NL: I ask myself this every day. Where are we going? What are we doing? Putting out one issue remotely where everything had started with our team together is one situation. But it’s another thing to start completely fresh with everyone remote. I had just put up my entire mood board for Naomi, and then the next day I had no access to it! The content itself hasn’t been an issue. But executing how to visualize those stories is a huge challenge. Stock photography is amazing, but there is nothing available that speaks to what I need; I need models in masks.
We had just done a huge redesign with our September issue. We’re now shooting nearly fifty percent of the magazine, everything is super conceptual with props and huge teams, and I want to keep that momentum! Our team is scattered, and that’s difficult. But I’m thinking about what is next? What are we doing now, at home, that everyone wants? How are we creating and giving it to them?
JM: Do you think that sets, and people on those sets, will go back to being the same? Will we find room to cut back? Is Zoom and iPhone going to increase as a content and production medium?
NL: I hope so. I think that a lot of positive change can come from this. But here is the real thing: you can put together a team and have a huge photoshoot, and have a photographer, two photo assistants, the videographer, two video assistants, hair, makeup, styling—that is how we traditionally work. But COVID-19 is going to change that because I am going to be able to produce the same quality of photography with an iPhone for free. Naomi’s shoot would have been a normal costing cover shoot. And it went from that to what, $75 in messenger fees?
I think we’re going to figure out how to simplify the production. Moving into a more digital space, I’m watching content creators come up with things from their living rooms. One of my videographers started her own show from her home, and celebrities are reaching out to her to be on her show! I’m watching people make amazing content with nothing, with just the tools they already have.
Influencers have been doing this forever, so, I think, they’re going to really succeed at this time. But as we pivot, we take a look at what people are doing in their homes. I love what feels like behind the scenes! I love that I’m watching my favorite models address the camera with no makeup on and go live with their friends. It feels more intimate, it feels more personal, and COVID-19 has changed that, and it’s what we want.
JM: I agree. Naomi herself has a YouTube series now, where she’s sitting at home with a lite beat [of makeup], kickin’ back, talking to her friends. And that’s the level of intimacy and relatability that we’ve all been craving.
NL: Yes, I think so, too, because in this Instagram world we’ve reached a point of saturation of the perfect pictures and the perfect homes, and now people are getting real. And I love it. If we were to continue with business as usual, to go back to all of the hair and backgrounds and shimmer, it would be tone deaf.
I got rid of my cable, so it’s hard for me to know what people really want right now. I know what I want. And I know what people want in conversations I have, but are we going to focus on the resilience of the community? Are we going to talk about joy, and how we’re going to get through this? It’s a confusing time.
JM: Exactly. It makes me think about this great shift that’s happening of how magazines and brands use to be aspirational, that was the hot word. This is the “ideal,” when none of it was really achievable, yano? Readers still couldn’t afford those clothes or get that kind of lifestyle. Whereas now, on social, or just because of brands using iPhones and tools they already happen to have, the content is so much more relatable and reachable.
NL: Absolutely! Everything! I had a blog on the side for a while, and it was about parenting and raising my kid in the city, and it was so refreshing to put that content out for a very small segment of people who might never see a black woman with a kid who’s out here kickin’ it and thriving. We need a place for everyone.
JM: Thinking about post COVID-19 and lockdown, what are your thoughts about the “Powers-at-Be” seeing the level and quality of content we got away with during quarantine, and giving us just one-hundred dollars for a shoot in our budget?
NL: That’s what I’m worried about! But it’s a double-edged sword. It could possibly make things easier for me as a creative director. Did you see the D-Nice photoshoot with The LA Times right after his first quarantine party? They went to his house, the photographer was ten, fifteen feet away from him; she took a picture of herself, it’s a selfie, so you can see she’s in mask and how far she is away from him. That shoot is her Uber. And we don’t need lighting anymore.
And again, maybe this all just simplifies it! Maybe I’m able to call a photographer I love who has equipment, send him to the subject, FaceTime me to see the background, and what I see is what I get. We are all loosening the rules right now, everyone has to be a little more lenient.
JM: What’s happening with ESSENCE.com and on social media?
NL: There’s a huge push for digital and social content, and there’s a big shift for brands and their type of thinking right now. For example, for ESSENCE to do a live video, there’s a lot of conversations and back and forth, and it pushes us back a few days. It’s the same at the other big houses I’ve been at, too. We are really competing with someone who can put content up at the drop of a hat and go on live instantly and stay relevant, whereas we use to compete with other brands themselves.
If Idris Elba calls and wants to go live, are we ready for that? That’s what I’m thinking about.
JM: But ESSENCE is playing a space that is much more flexible and moves at a faster speed than if it were owned by a larger corporation, no?
NL: Yes, we are, and I have to be so thankful for that. But ESSENCE has only been black-owned and under private ownership for, has it been a year and a half? It’s not been very long. And a lot of people have come from Time Inc, which was an amazing, service-driven company that had been around forever. Our Chief Creative Officer [MoAna Luu] comes from television and branding, and I see how quickly the ideas go from her head, to my ears, to fruition. It’s easier to be a little bit more flexible and creative when you don’t have to run ideas through a chain of command at the top, top.
But again, it’s not as easy. Before ESSENCE, I had my own design studio and I saw how quickly ideas went from brief, to project, and then it’s up in a week. Whereas with ESSENCE (and other brands), it takes months, of testing and focus groups. I want us to move at lightning speed, and not be afraid to fail. I don’t think there’s any failure right now, either. Our expectations for content are low!
I recognize that production studios are closed! I know we aren’t getting any new tv shows for quite some time. I don’t need perfect lighting; I don’t need the whole production. We’ve lowered our expectations, and not that we should lower the creative we put out, but we don’t have to overthink it so hard like us creatives do.
JM: You’ve hit the nail on the head. The ethos and storytelling need to still be on par, if not better. But we have to lean into the times—it’s okay if the quality is not one hundred. The world is not at one hundred right now, no one is at one hundred right now, and that’s fine.
NL: Put that quote somewhere!
JM: We’re gonna trademark it and take it to the bank.
NL: The world is not at one hundred right now! Use this time to do your thing. I am an advocate to use this time to think about what you really want to do, do it now or shelf it. We need to rest, too. My heart goes out to everyone who is working from home right now and trying to be creative staring at the same four walls, regardless of what they look like. Having to work from the same space every day is taxing.
JM: Well especially for all of the parents right now, I cannot imagine. Trying to manage everything at once with homeschooling, kids coming in and out of the Zoom backgrounds…
NL: Like you said, we are not at one hundred percent! I mean, if my kid pops into a meeting, it’s totally normal at this point. I expect distractions, I expect technical difficulties, and it’s good for the world to realize that everything is not so urgent. We can take a pause.
JM: Yes, there’s definitely an interesting conflict right now between pausing and being active. How much is too much when it comes to content and coverage?
NL: I agree, and every brand needs a very clear vision and a very clear voice right now and hit these readers with that they want. And I am really curious to find out what our readers want. On my own Instagram stories, I’m like, Is it too much to post this Washington Post article I found? I’ve started second guessing myself, I think we all have. Do we give you our COVID-19 awareness package? Or do we give you the ten things to decorate your home right now?
JM: And do you think that ESSENCE is not a place to second guess itself? Nor has it ever second guessed itself, as a brand, an authority, a figure of resilience?
NL: The one thing is always true is that we are serving black women deeply. That’s always been the tagline. We’re shifting who we’re speaking to now. Because fifty years ago, ESSENCE was speaking to my mom, and now fifty years later, it’s still speaking to my mom, and me, and others. That’s a lot of generations. And you see it at ESSENCE Festival, too, you see all of the generations. We’re evolving; we want to stay true to the reader from fifty years ago, and give her content, but we need to always continue to reach the younger readers.
JM: What do the next fifty years of ESSENCE look like?
NL: So, with our September redesign, I think that the shifts we made with our redesign were small enough to not make our readers feel like we changed and that they couldn’t identify with us anymore. Moving forward, I think it’s time to take a big change, only because I think people will be looking for that. Something that feels different. The world is different, the pages need to feel different. On a basic level, I’m looking to introduce new fonts, introduce more white space, talk to my editors about cutting some of their copy…[laughs] to make the magazine a destination! I want people to come to the pages and feel some relief, to feel relaxed.
I also want there to be so much more synergy between editorial and marketing, and all of our brand partnerships. We have to stand out as a brand right now. Any company with advertising dollars will spend them very carefully. The sales materials have to be in gold foil, we have to cut through the noise. We have to elevate our content in this climate somehow so brands will want to be associated with us on a regular and consistent basis.
Instagram is such a huge landing point for all brands if you’re searching a new product or makeup artist, for example. I always go to Google but also ‘plus Instagram.’ So I need our Instagram to be the landing page visually for the most iconic black brand that has made it. Ebony has folded, Jet has folded; of all the print magazines, we are the one. And listen, I am very hard on myself creatively, I always think we could be doing better. I feel like I need to relax a little bit, but there are brands out there like Glossier, Allure, and Self, their brand is so strong across their site, video, paid advertising, products, editorial stories. And that’s where I want ESSENCE to be. That’s my dream.
