Following the publishing of
Not Another Punk Book and seeing that no magazines took street style seriously, Jones pitched the template for what would later become i-D to Donna publisher Flavio Lucini. Jones stated in that “He told me that there would be no interest in that,” Jones said. “He said it wouldn’t sustain commercially.” Undeterred, Jones funded his new venture himself, at around the same time that its spiritual sister publications
The Face and
Blitz also took off. In 1980 Terry Jones, his wife
Tricia Jones, and
Blitz kid Perry Haines officially founded the magazine
i-D. Starting as a hobby, the concept of i-D is "simple" states Jones, stating "The fact that the story had to come from the subject who was being photographed. I think that that was a simple idea that you could exchange. That if, someone looked interesting or like-minded, you could ask them “Where should I go and get a sandwich or whatever”... It was like a club you could belong to." Terry describes the ethos of the magazine embodying a "do it yourself" attitude to fashion and self-expression, rather than have a fashion magazine dictate what you could wear. It was the time when post-punk, club life, and the music scene were all coming together. i-D became responsible for producing some of the most iconic and innovative fashion imagery for the period. Terry discovered and commissioned work by up-and-coming photographers, many whose successful photographic careers began at i-D. These photographers include
Juergen Teller,
Wolfgang Tillmans, Donald Milne, Mark Alesky, Normski, Stefan Ruiz,
Mark Borthwick,
Glen Luchford,
David Sims, Mark Lebon. Additional collaborators such as
John Galliano,
Kate Moss,
Judy Blame,
Alexander McQueen,
Helmut Lang, Franz Ferdinand, Chloe Sevigny,
Raf Simons, Undercover, Veronique Branquinho, Lily Cole, Giles Deacon, Dizzee Rascal, Scarlett Johansson,
Rick Owens and Tadanabu Asano are amongst those who appeared first in i-D.amung many others. i-D also gave
Madonna her first cover in March 1984, as well as
Sade in 1983. Besides of the abbreviation for 'identity', the name ''i-D' ''refers to 'Informat Design', Terry Jones' studio, later on re-branded as 'Instant Design'. Jones states that the ethos of the magazine is founded in this idea of "creating your own rules", going beyond the clothes and investigating how fashion is used as the way of communicating to give an insight of your interests." Terry states, "It was always the coding of fashion which I liked...People choose what they’re going to wear to go to work or to decide ‘this is who I am’ to reflect who that personality is''." In the 90's, Terry made a concerted effort to move i-D into the new decade with an emphasis on social, political and environmental issues. Terry began consulting for
Esprit, and along with owner Doug Thompkins, similarly brought this environmental consciousness to the consumer market, rare for brands at the time. Jones is author and editor of books related to the magazine like
i-D Covers 1980–2010 (2010),
SMILE i-D: Fashion and Style: the Best from 20 Years of i-D (2001),
SOUL i-D (2008), or
i-DENTITY: An Exhibition Celebrating 25 Years of i-D (2006); as well as a curator of travelling exhibitions, and furthermore running a (probably now defunct) record label under the eponymous name. Terry also famously collaborated with
Dennis Morris to create the infamous 'PiL' logo for
Public Image. Terry has also curated and designed the travelling Smilei-D and i-Dentity exhibitions, celebrating i-D's rich history and taking place in cities such as Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Moscow, New York, Paris and Tokyo. With Tricia as curator, Terry also designed the travelling SOUL i-D exhibition, recently held in Beijing in October 2012.
The "i-D Wink" Terry has always said that "'i-D' should be recognised as the first '
emoticon'; at least three years before [the first] claims made in 1983." The original "i-D" logo was painted by hand and was based on the typeface "Futura Demi Bold" and was modified to fit into the i-D star logo so the dot of the lower case 'i' could be split into two semi-circles. This was three years before Terry bought his first computer: an
Apple IIe. == Awards ==