JFK JR., GEORGE, AND ME

Matt Berman spent working as John Kennedy, Jr.’s Creative Director for George Magazine. This is the witty and moving account of these five years.

Through his unique perspective as a close friend and co-worker, Matt paints a vivid portrait of JFK, Jr. that only a select few have ever seen. The journey began in 1995, when Matt was working for the publishing empire of Hachette Filipacchi.

After a meeting with John Kennedy, Jr., he was hired to serve as George’s creative director and thus began Matt’s journey with John. Throughout the memoir, we follow Matt through his first days at the magazine as he navigated the choppy waters of a magazine launch, helmed by John with supreme confidence and charm. Matt shares not only his own personal story of his relationship with John, but also valuable life and work lessons that he learned while working with John behind the scenes at George.

But most importantly, through Matt’s recollections we see a John Kennedy that the public never got to know. Since the 1990s, Creative Director Matt Berman has been collaborating with some of the most influential photographers in fashion and art to create some of the industry’s most enduring imagery in print. In 1995, Matt was hired by JFK, Jr. to serve as the creative director of George Magazine. He wor ked side by side with John until his death in 1999 to craft his boss’s unique vision for a new kind of magazine. Matt then moved to Paris and continued to serve as Creative Director on several French magazine titles and advertising campaigns. Presently, Matt is at the helm of his own image-driven advertising agency, Picture Book in NYC.--