Gopher Illustrated
I recently caught up with Lope Gutiérrez-Ruiz, founder/editor/art director of this lovely magazine from Venezuala. His is an insprirational story of launching a magazine against all the odds, against a background of press repression and in an environment not used to independent launches. All of which might lead to a bit of congratulatory ‘good job given the situation’ type of commentary, but Gopher Illustrated would deserve comment wherever it were published.
Posted: 8, Aortica, Pure
Taking a leaf from Andrew’s recently posted catch up, here’s a quick look at three of the many magazines that have crossed my desk over the past few weeks. They have little in common except their heft – each has over 150 pages.
Carr Magazine
I’m not a car obsessive but I like this magazine, made by a group of Austrians who are.
Overmatter
Roger Black responds to criticism of his Ready-Media template project, ‘I’m hoping that art directors can spend more time being art directors, and less time pushing around pieces of a layout that nobody will notice.’ Pah! Design – who needs it?
State of Independents is a new site about independent magazines.
The Wallpaper* DIY front cover project as seen by the paper supplier.
Katachi magazine aims to be the first iPad-only magazine launch alter this year…
…but will face competition from elsewhere, including Virgin’s Maverick.
Meanwhile younger readers in France are enjoying their newspapers.
Bananas
A little piece of London magazine history for you today. Bananas was a short-lived literary magazine published in London by the Redstone Press in the late seventies (that’s the same Redstone Press that’s published an ongoing series of beautifully packaged and highly recognisable art books and diaries).
Art of McSweeney’s
The collected work of McSweeney’s over the last decade has, in a way, been leading up to this single mega-tome. Recently published by Tate, ‘Art of McSweeney’s’ is more than a picture book, it’s the illustrated history of the San Francisco-based publishing house set up by Dave EggarsEggers (one-time publisher of the late Might magazine) at the start of the noughties.
Overmatter
Girl With a Satchel interviews UK Glamour editor Jo Elvin on the magazines 10th anniversary.
Following my post about Underwood, here’s another print-vinyl project: Big Mag from Rotterdam.
Canada’s Snap! magazine has published a special issue celebrating paper and print. See it, ahem, online here.
Michael Surtees notes this beautiful chart about food trucks from New York. Read it online here.
US magazine shut downs slow down, but launches don’t pick up.
200% #4
200% is a magazine that has intrigued me for a while now. Written, designed and published by one guy, Thierry Somers, it covers art, design, music and fashion with a rather serious tone. In another person’s hands this might have become the ultimate vanity project, but Somers gets access to some great people and does it all rather well. My only criticism would be that some of the writing could be edited to focus the content more tightly – reading texts it’s sometimes unclear who he’s writing for.
Out now: Elle Collections
The new issue of Elle Collections is out this week, featuring this feat of picture research on its front cover.
OK Periodicals #4: Curiosities
The fourth issue of Arnhem’s OK Periodicals has been out for a few weeks now. Another collection of contributions, they’ve taken a great theme and made a publication that is alternatively beautiful and hideous.
