Is Vice Nice Now?

Imagine my surprise, when I tripped over an article about Vice Magazine... advertising for BMW... ! I guess the street kids have grown up and discovered that money can, in fact buy nice things. What a change from the Vice I knew--the one that told the next gen where to go and what to do with themselves.

A few years ago, I worked at a web design shop in Montreal, Normal (later re-named Normal Solutions). We prided ourselves on being "cutting edge", ahead of our time, and indeed, we were. We were designing 3-D models for virtual shops before others were, and coming up with cool and new designs. I was, at the time, new on the scene, and so I took a back seat to the more senior designer... until, one day, I got my big break: I was allowed to re-design the web site for Vice Magazine (they already had a web site, but it was mostly images, and not very user-friendly). How cool was that? To be a part of the hip and trendy mag with a smug, socially defiant culture! I was very excited at the prospect.

The magazine staff were located in the same open-concept building as we were, and so I got used to regular visits at my work station, asking me if I'd mind being photographed for the "don'ts" section, and taking pictures of various items located on my desk. My personal office supplies were well documented in the pages of Vice, that year.