My Favo(u)rite Magazine: update 1

It’s been a good first week’s sales for My Favo(u)rite Magazine, with the Limited Edition packages going well. The first six of the ten available go out in the mail today, so expect deliveries later this week. The other copies are all on their way too, with people tweeting their arrival over the weekend. Share yours! (#MyFavouriteMagazine). You can hear Andrew Losowsky and I discuss the project on Moncole24’s The Stack.

88 contributors always seemed a rather arbitary number, and indeed it’s turned out to be incorrect. Somewhere in the magazine production process we lost three submissions. Sincere apologies to all concerned, but the choices deserve publication so this week we’ll be posting those missing entries on the blog, starting today with David Jacobs’ choice, below, which should have slipped nicely between Marc Thomas’ choice of The Germans and Rudy Vanderlans’ Hard Werken in the printed magazine.

Gratuitous Type #2 is one of the few magazines I have picked up that seemed to be in a genre by itself. Although editor Elana Schlenker writes principally about work published elsewhere, the book is undeniably its own achievement. The design is playful and varies only slightly between spreads, and the pages sit between heavy cover stock. And through the interviews with other people about their work, you get to know what Elana values. But the book is not overly precious - in fact it's quite accessible, and it's as much a joy on the fourth read as the first.

As should be expected, the book feels gratuitous, but somehow not wasteful way. You can see where Elana spent her energy (ad money!): gorgeous paper, a three-pane centerfold, a glued-in silkscreened insert, and a hand-numbered detail on the back cover to let you know which edition you have. A personal thank-you note on a hand-stamped card was included even though I ordered on-line. This card features one of the very few first-person mentions throughout the work: “I hope you enjoy it!” I do!

Gratuitous Type #2
USA
Summer 2011
Selected by David Jacobs, CEO, 29th Street Publishing, New York, NY
http://29.io
@djacobs

Order your copy of My Favo(u)rite Magazine, in support of Bob Newman, from the magCulture shop.