In June of last year, Marisa Bartolucci, a freelance writer and editor and prolific contributor to the kind of books that are multi-authored and generally general (American Contemporary Furniture, by Marisa Bartolucci, Cathy Lang Ho, Raul Cabra, and Dung Ngo, Michael Graves by Julie V. Iovine, Raul Cabra, Marisa Bartolucci, etc), was handed the speculative reins of a new design magazine, hatched in the Hachette Filipacchi nest of Metropolitan Home. It was called Fulcrum. It was something to do with contract design. And it was, sadly, misguided.

Word on the street was that Bartolucci spent almost her entire budget on a brand identity and magazine-and-website design by 2x4, the New York-based interdisciplinary design studio that inaugurated the Art Institute of Chicago’s Construction series with their literally punctuative Pause wallpaper. They’re super badass, generally, but Marisa should have listened to the commas. And paused. Before launching, with great fanfare, a website that looked like a cross between a wordpress blog and a Fotoshoppe feature. Even today, noodling around in search of something to grab onto to write about, we’re discovering that it’s an incredibly difficult-to-navigate site. We want to find the masthead, figure out who the writers are, find some entry point besides a list of titles that scroll down in presumably reverse-time order. Points for the always-briliant and recently tile-tastic Jen Renzi’s contributions, but there isn’t even a (clear) way to search for her byline.

So maybe it isn’t a surprise that a letter from Marisa (who, full disclosure, we briefly attempted to work on a Fulcrum story with) just made its way around the internet-scape, which helpfully sent it our way (Gold Star!). With a subject line reading “Fulcrum Update,” which is a bit like “HR Call — Moving Forward” or “We Feel You’d Be Happier Elsewhere,” the sad news:

Dear colleagues and collaborators, It’s with a heavy heart that I have to report that two days before we were scheduled to ship the June issue of Fulcrum, Hachette chose to postpone the printing. The reason was quit [sic] simply the dismal state of the economy. The issue is now scheduled to come out in September, but I make no promises. The October issue has been cancelled. When economic conditions improve, the future of Fulcrum will be determined by Hachette’s CEO. I want to thank everyone for their hard work and brilliant contributions. The issue truly does look fantastic and has terrific content. Words cannot express my disappointment.

I wish too to send my apologies to those writers and publicists who had to scramble
in those last days before the ship date to track down last-minute factoids and hi-res images. While I have tried to be very organized when putting the issue together, it was a challenge as I had no staff. Even the designer was part-time and could only work on the project after hours.

So some things did fall between the cracks. Nevertheless, I think you’ll see when/if the issue comes out in September that it looks as professionally produced as any of its competitors—and maybe a tad more inventive. (I really am proud of it.)

I am hoping that at the very least the content will be uploaded onto the Fulcrum website (fulcrummag.com) in June. I’ll keep you informed of that.

With tremendous gratitude for all that you have contributed,
Marisa

We’ve heard a few things about Marisa’s organizational skills and general editorial strengths, and even had a few run-ins ourselves (there’s the full disclosure again), but we’re not here to celebrate a failure. The strength of Fulcrum was that it tried to negotiate the space between the online world of fast postings and faster writing, and the glossiness of long afternoons spent rifling through a domino or an Elle Decor. Bartolucci’s plan, had it been well-executed, could have been a good one, as there’s a lot to be said for connecting the need for images with a desire to read. Design does need translation, lest we get lost. Unfortunately, not everyone’s got the right Babel fish.