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OK Collections

It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited by a new magazine. OK Collections is the first edition of a new magazine project from the people behind OK Blog in the Netherlands. Each issue is themed, this one being about Collections (or ‘How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Amount of Stuff I have’ as the cover puts it). The issue is a collection of people’s collections – heavy metal logos, garden gnomes, food wrapping fasteners , etc.

OK Blog covers design, so as you’d expect, the magazine is highly designed, albeit in a loose and seemingly random manner. It features the type of quirks that drive straighter editors mad – images dropped in behind text – which not only help to create identity but clarify the interdependence of text and image in editorial design.

The quirks start with the cover, where the front and back cover pages are designed as a single page with the title and subtitle centred across the spine. Dotted around and behind the text are sample images from inside the magazine. The subsequent areas of empty space are subtly brought to life through the use of a paper stock that sparkles slightly.

There’s little overt structure, but the theme is a great one to start with as it is highly visual and the images continually reinforce the theme with repetition in a way that reminds me of the defunct List. More than anything, it’s an exercise in pace, and for a small-format (over-sized A5) publication it has a very strong sense of change and variation through the pages. A great first issue as I hope these images show.

UPDATE: Buy it here.