Overmatter 23.05.13
Stool Pigeon founder Phil Hebblethwaite has wise counsel for anyone thinking of launching a magazine, ‘Treasure your independence…’
Plastik interviews Andrew about his recent book-about-books ‘Fully Booked’.
Vice have an exhibition of work by their favourite illustrators in London until June 2.
Boat magazine’s latest issue visits Kyoto. Read an interview with editor Erin Spens.
Music site Pitchfork opts for quality over quantity, trials further editorial experiments like this for Daft Punk.
Remembering Blitz magazine
My first magazine job was art directing eighties style mag Blitz, a magazine that has largely been overshadowed by The Face and i-D since. These two were launched by experienced industry figures – i-D’s Terry Jones was previously Vogue art director and Nick Logan had edited NME and Smash Hits before launching The Face – while Blitz started as a student magazine at Oxford University before moving to London and going glossy. The Face and i-D lasted longer thanks to backing from Condé Nast (and later EMAP) and Time Out respectively, while the young owners of Blitz rather foolhardily went it alone.
Help us make ‘My Favourite Magazine’
magCulture is making a magazine – and we want your help.
It’s going to be a fast, one-off publication with the working title ‘My Favorite Magazine’, and all profits going to support Bob Newman (above), a great art director, true magaholic and the man behind Newmanology. You can read more about Bob’s situation here. The magazine will be published as a print-on-demand project through MagCloud.
Here’s your brief:
Choose your favourite single magazine issue, and tell us about it. Any magazine, from any country, from any era. To join in, take 1-3 hi-res photos of the issue (no more than three, and at least one should be of the magazine cover) and write 100-500 words about your choice. Then zip and send it (or, if the images are too big to email, a link to download them) along with:
Magazine name
Country
Date of publication
Your Name
Job Title
City, Country
Web address
Twitter name
to: myfavouritemagazine@magculture.com
Deadline: May 30th 2013
We’ll compile all the responses and prepare the print-on-demand magazine.
Overmatter 14.05.13
‘The US magazine business had become too dependent on big, ad-supported audiences rather than circulation revenue,’ so top US editorial designer Roger Black is packing up his fonts and heading off to Asia.
Gym Class returns! First, a brief interview with UK Esquire art director David McKendrick online and a new issue of the magazine promised soon.
Peter Bilak of Works That Work, on magazine finance and his new Patrons scheme.
Save the magazines! Our friends at Stack are having a clear out, and promise free magazines at 71a Leonard St, Shoreditch this Saturday. Plenty of desirables!
Always good to see German business mag Brand Eins; thanks Voll Auf Die Presse.
Reminder I’m in Amsterdam Friday interviewing Jop van Bennekom and Gert Jonkers from Fantastic Man at What Design Can Do. If you’re there come and say hello.
More wine, food and culture! Hello Noble Rot.
Zeit Magazin x Champions League
Thanks to Coverjunkie for drawing my attention to this pair of Zeit Magazin covers representing the two German football teams contesting the Champions League final on May 25. On the left, Borussia Dortmund’s yellow, and right, Bayern Munich’s red.
Or is it a prediction of mass bookings and sendings off?
(Design: Bureau Mirko Borsche).
Overmatter 08.05.13
A riposte to the nonsense that ‘green covers don’t sell’.
Another good list of the new food magazines. NOT foodiedicals, please.
British art director Martin Colyer has been busy blogging about the art of commissioning.
Virgin Australia makes nice use of Pressreader to provide iPad mags in their lounges.
I was recently a part of a panel that looked at some current digital versions (web, tablet and smartphone) of magazines for Brandperfect. Includes Vice, People, Q, Esquire (UK & US) and Vogue (British and German).
Friends of Bob Newman
Regular readers will know of New York-based editorial designer Bob Newman, the man behind the Newmanology site and source of daily Facebook archive finds. Not only is he a talented designer, fellow magaholic and all-round enthusiast for editorial design, he’s also one of the nicest and must supportive people in the industry. I first met him in the nineties when I visited New York, when I met many people, all of whom were very kind in giving their time to meet me. But the only person who subsequently kept in regular contact was Bob.
So I was sorry to hear he recently suffered a serious accident. He’s been in hospital for several weeks and I’m happy to say is now recovering well. But he and his family need support to cope with the cost of his care, so a group of his friends have set up a Friends of Bob Newman donations page.
If you’re a regular here at magCulture you’ve almost certainly enjoyed Bob’s musing on magazines. If you don’t know his writing, start with this conversation between us both for Gym Class Magazine in 2011. As Bob said in our last email exchange before his accident, it’s amazing how fast things have moved on since we recorded that conversation.
Enjoy our early thoughts about the iPad. And please donate.
(Photograph by Glenn Glasser)
Overmatter 30.04.13
Microsoft puts free wifi into latest issue of Forbes. Nice gimmick, but are Forbes readers in need of free wifi? Perhaps try Big Issue next time?
Congratulations to Richard Turley and his Bloomberg Businessweek team for being named Design Studio of the Year by Creative Review. Includes access to my piece for CR about the BBW Steve Jobs memorial edition.
I already mentioned the Hall of Femmes talks in Stockholm later this month; they’ve added further names including Jennifer Daniel, part of that Businessweek team.
Journalist to relaunch the original feminist magazine Spare Rib.
Monotype present a lunchtime talk about ITC’s typography magazine Upper & Lower Case. May 6, New York.
Brilliant run-through the future of newspapers as imagined by TV, the movies and the industry itself: ‘Newsboy Wears a Neon Sign Lighted by Pocket Battery’.
Overmatter 24.04.13
Bauer closes More: writer recalls the sex positions of the week, designer shares illustrations.
Another golden age of magazines discovered – welcome to the ninteties.
Today’s best according to this year’s PPA Awards shortlist.
Richard Turley from Bloomberg Businessweek and Debbi Evans from Libertine talks magazines on last week’s The Stack.
This coming weekend It’s Nice That have a zine workshop at Tate Modern.
Question: who owns the digital technology decisions in publishing companies?
New magazine: Hole & Corner celebrates craft, from May this year.
Overmatter 19.04.13
Magazine Designing is an ambitious new website about the raw detail of how to do what we do, from Croatian art director Nikola Mileta.
Tyler Brulé speaks out against the use of the word ‘content’.
The Guardian launches GuardianWitness, a new platform for readers to contribute content (sorry Tyler).
The shortlist for the Dutch magazine covers of the year has been announced.
New magazines: Woof! Four & Sons is a new Melbourne-based magazine about dogs, as featured on The Stack last week; UC Quarterly is a Newspaper Club produced title from Austin, Texas based on the output from Brand New and associated blogs (review to follow); and more on Modern Farmer.
Huge congratulations to Ben and team at the Government Digital Service for winning the Design Museums’s Designs of the Year with theire reinvention of the Gov.UK website. Great to see graphics at the top of the pile for once, and particularly a content-based website that will change peoples lives.
