Thing was a magazine dedicated to Black LGBTQ+ community. The founders include Robert T. Ford, Trent Adkins and Lawrence Warren. Thing was a continuation of a publication called Think Ink (About Thing Magazine). The title of Thing is in reference to “A person or thing of incorrigible and unbearable fabulousness. As in the salutation, ‘Miss Thing!,’ or ‘Thing’s not buying it!’” (About Thing Magazine). Thing dedicated itself to a variety of topics depending on each volume, but overall, each featured art, interviews, black culture, LGBTQ+ culture, as well as HIV/AIDS activism. Thing was published from Robert Ford’s apartment from 1989 to 1993 (Thing: She knows who she is).
Thing’s covers evolve over time. The first two magazines share very similar systems for their covers. The masthead is capitalized and bold, with loose tracking. Directly beneath that there is an upside triangle that goes behind the main image. That main image being that of one person, in particular, a close-up of their face. There are some minor differences systematically between both covers. The first one is illustrative, and the second one is photographic. The second one adds price information above the issue number, and it gets rid of the date of the issue underneath. For all 10 issues it appears Thing’s design team had few rules for their design system, as after the second cover, no two issues follow the exact same system. As you get to the later magazine issues, Thing begins to follow the rules of a traditional magazine system, while still keeping their DIY style. Later issues also feature color, although mostly limited. These ever-changing covers and their interiors were created via paste-up. This process involves cutting and pasting your type and image into your desired arrangement, then taking a photo, making plates from said photo, and lastly printing in mass quantities.
Key design qualities to note in Thing are the use of simple texture, cut outs, bold text, and of course their iconic upside-down triangle motif. This can be seen throughout all magazine issues, regardless of inconsistencies and differences within Thing’s design system. Thing is unafraid to make bold, complex choices. Oftentimes Thing will layer an image, if not multiple images below text for added visual interest. They do so in a way that the image is visible and yet, the text is still legible. A great example of this occurs, surprisingly, in their first issue in an article featuring David Sedaris. The image features Oprah, visible for the top part, where there is no text. She fades as soon as the text of the body copy appears. This is a notable aspect of Thing’s design quality not only because it is a part of their signature style, but also because this would have been a complex outcome to achieve via paste up. The design team would have had to do extra steps in an already tedious process. In order to successfully achieve this design, it is possible they would have had to print the image twice, one dark, one light version, then cutting both of them, respectively, to create the whole image back together. As for text being placed atop the lighter image, that possibly could have been done using separate plates for the text and images to fake the appearance of them being made on the same paste-up board.
Citations
“About Thing Magazine.” House of Thing, houseofthing.com/about-thing-magazine/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2026.
“Thing: She Knows Who She Is.” Chicago History Museum, 20 Sept. 2023, www.chicagohistory.org/exhibition/thing-magazine/.
