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That pile of magazines, one by one

As promised, here’s a breakdown of my spoils from Colophon2009. Thank you everyone who gave me a copy of their magazine, and to Hans Fellner for setting up shop and taking my money! I’ll revisit some of these in more detail later. Meanwhile, if anyone out there is involved in any of the titles and can provide further information please add a comment.

Here goes, from the top of the pile.

Colophon invitees La Mas Bella’s latest publication is the ‘Tapa’ issue, a box filled with all you need for a good early evening snack. More soon.

Pulp is a small format Belgian magazine that used to focus on the world of magazines but seems to have developed into a more general culture/fashion title.

I finally picked up my own copy of Scarlet Cheek, a British magazine about contemporary China.

Livraison was once a massive tome of a magazine, but has shrunk to a more realistic B5 size. Published by Strasbourg design studio Rhinoceros, it’s definitely a project to keep an eye on.

Issue three of Yummy – a beautifully prepared food title from Paris.

Issue 15 of New York magazine Me. A more relaxed visual attitude than usual to suit this issue about Paul Gondry and friends.

A5 Magazine comes from Israel and is, ahem, A5 sized and themed every issue. I picked up the Sex issue, a mini compendium of imagery both explicit and humourous but strangely un-sexy. Well produced in black and white and dayglo orange in two languages – English and Hebrew.

Biorama is an Austrian title promoting an intelligent approach to living within our environmental means.

Someone from Dutch culture magazine Gonzo left two issues at the Colophon desk for me. Can you tell me about it?

Segue is an annual project from fashion journalism students at the UK’s University College for the Creative Arts. A well-produced attempt at a serious publication that avoids the trap of being different for the sake of it, and great experience for the graduates.

Amsterdam Fashion Institute produces an annual magazine project in the same way as Segue. The two issues – 2007 and 2008 – were compeletely different to each other, even the names change, but what better way than a real magazine to complete your journalism studies?

Postr Magazine is an free A1 poster folded down to magazine size that hails from Belgium. The team contibuted the party report to the soon-to-be seen Colophon2009 Magazine.

T Magazine is the Journal of T-Shirt Culture. Yet another example of how one small niche can be opened up to reveal a whole world of creativity.

PlatanoVerde comes all the way from Venezuala. Really exciting to discover independent magazine coming from countries you know so little about.

The Gap is a sister title to Biorama, covering pop culture from an Austrian perspective.

Baby Baby Baby was one of our guests at Colophon2009. The magazine collects drawings and photos from teenage girls, indulging their desire for self-expression. The content mixes submissions and commissioned pieces.

Baby Baby Baby grew out of Celeste, a culture title from Mexico City.

Each issue of How To Magazine is a monochrome investigation of a single theme, this one being about a Stalker.

Novo arrived from nowhere like Gonzo. It’s a well-designed French title about… well, someone tell me more.

The guys from Slanted have been at both Colophons. The printed spin-off from the  Karlsruhe-based blog of the same name, it’s always a good mix of content and design.

If you’ve been looking for an English-language magazine for Belgum, here is The Word. Well designed, nice paper.

Perspectives come from another university course, in this case the London College of Communication. Great to see students and graduates making magazines. Print is dead, eh?

For some reason Italy has been relatively resistant to independent magazines, so FeFé was a pleasant surprise. Purely visual, it uses a theme (in this case ‘I can’t see anything’) as a basis to collect contributions.

If you arrived early enough at Colophon, there were mounds of free titles to pick up including copies of Rojo. One of the invited titles from Colophon2007, Rojo is an international visual arts title based in Spain.

This Should Be  Made Public is the latest publication from Shift!, the result of the workshop project that began at Colophon2007, traveled around the globe, and came back in 2008 as a finished poster publication.

It was great to discover the fourth issue of irregular magazine Spector Cut+Paste. I’ll return to this later as it and the previous issues deserve a longer look.

I included Joseph Ernst’s One Page Magazine in my talk at Colophon2009, but until the event I had never had my own copies. I love the analytical nature of the project.

IdN magazine was one of the invited magazines. It developed from a Hong Kong printer’s need to show of their capabilities, and remains a good source of print effects.

OK Failure is the second themed OK Publication from the team behind OKBlog. More on this later.

Ego[N] is a box of bits from Italy. Stickers, posters, DVDs,a sketchbook, a stencil kit. This is special, and their talk at Colophon2009 was a highlight for many. Again, more later.

The latest issue of Meatpaper, the journal of meat culture. Works for me.

Der Wedding is a magazine for the area of Berlin of the same name. Not a listings or culture title, but a gentle record of local people and their lives.