Vibrantly alive with flashing, back-lit text and graphics, a pair of 2×4.75´´ windows on the outside and inside front cover of this month’s Esquire 75th anniversary issue have generated quite the buzz in the magazine and print advertising worlds. “Newsstands have never seen anything like [it],” exclaimed AdAge.com. “Its cover blinks.”

If the light-emitting covers seem electric, almost TV-like, it is because they are—battery-operated, that is, with about a 90-day shelf life. To protect their staying power in the August heat of southwest Kentucky, from where they were shipped, more than 100,000 copies of the special issue were transported in refrigerated trucks last month to newsstands, Borders and Barnes & Noble retail book stores. The collector’s editions sold for $5.99 each.

The futuristic technology is the Vizplex flexible, electronic paper display (EPD), which is patented by E Ink Corp. of Cambridge, MA. EPD possesses a paper-like, high-contrast appearance, low power consumption and a thin, lightweight format. The same technology is used in the Amazon Kindle, Sony e-books, QualityLogic e-newspapers and other handheld devices. Interestingly, Japan’s Toppan Printing and Esquire owner-publisher Hearst Corp. are investors in privately held E Ink.

On the inside front cover, the digital window ad for Ford Motor Co. simulates motion around the automaker’s newly launched Flex 'cross-over’ SUV. The issue marks the first time the revolutionary digital technology has been embedded into a mass-produced printed product. The e-ink system in the lit display is a black-and-white process, but Structural Graphics had color incorporated into the design and printing, says Michael Maguire, CEO of the Essex, CT pop-up producer.

Structural Graphics had been investigating and testing the use of E Ink for more than two years. When it presented ideas using the technology for Hearst insert applications, the creative cover concept sprouted wings.

From design through distribution, the 16-month project was a truly global logistical collaboration, partly underwritten by Ford. The total run of 116,000 four-page covers was printed and bound at RR Donnelley’s Glasgow, KY plant. Postpress workers there had to adjust and slow down the perfect binder to avoid damage to E Ink’s electrophoretic display. Diecutting also was performed in the U.S.

The batteries in the e-ink modules were wired at an assembly plant in Shanghai, China, then glued and hand-assembled at Structural’s maquiladora facility just over the border in Negras, Mexico. A thin layer of packing foam protected the electronics.

“Magazines have basically looked the same for 150 years,” says Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger. “I have been frustrated with the lack of forward movement in the magazine industry.” Featured on the Today Show in September, the beefy, 322-page magazine carried the most ad pages in Granger’s 11-year tenure. “This time, it’s cool—it’s a novelty,” he adds. “But it can be a stunning enhancement to print.”

Maguire takes it a step further, suggesting that animated video is the future of printed media.

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