Noted, 16.08.19
We said August was quiet, then it got busy. Here’s the first of a new run of weekly round-ups.
Can a magazine become a festival?
The eighth issue of Flaneur is almost here. Setting up production in a single street in a different city every issue, this one was produced in Taipei and is being launched with a festival in Berlin on August 31. Co-editor Grashina Gabelmann explains, ‘We are really trying to push the project in a new direction here and are excited to see where it takes us! Can a magazine become a festival?’ That’s our kind of question; we wish we could attend!
Vogue fail
Whatever you make of the current Megan Markle-edited September issue of British Vogue, it is at least a good old-fashioned publishing event. We don’t sell many copies of the mag at our Shop, but this issue sold out immediately (bought mainly by customers wanting to act in support of Markle as much as enjoy the mag). But could we get more copies? Nope, and neither can other shops. We even had an request for 300 copies from a US partner. It’s bizarre that after all the effort to make the issue an event, the publishers didn’t plan for the sales response.
Beige coincidence
Checking the ‘New this week’ shelf at the shop, the cover of Lifted Brow is just one of a number of mushroom/beige orientated cover designs. We see this often: a single colour dominates a week’s new covers. Coincidence of course, but when it’s this dull grey-brown it’s a bit miserable (last week it was vivid orange and much better suited to a happy shop). Lifted Brow is saved by the colourful collage by Shay Colley, and by the excellent tagline ‘Attack Journal from Australia’.
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
The new Eye on Design cover brings an anti-beige dayglo pink to our shelves, plus not just one but 15 of its trademark eyes. We love this magazine and this Distraction-themed issue does nothing to dampen that love. A successful magazine establishes its own rules and parameters, a world unto itself, and EoD did that way back. Every issue the entire design changes; this ambitious move means you have to forgive it a few missteps as it attempts to keep shifting. Here, an excellent article about porn site design has text bleeding off the bottom of the page which is an irritation. Nonetheless, for content and design EoD will be referred to in future years as a progressive mirror of our times.
New New York
Monocle’s Fernando Pacheco interviews David Haskell, new editor-in-chief at New York magazine about filling Adam Moss’s boots and the current Ivanka Trump cover.
Happy 50th
Huge congratulations to kid’s happy mag Anorak, which just published its 50th, Peacock-themed, issue. They recently changed their logo to a smart new bolder design, but ouch, the kerning on that ‘O’!
Booming retail times
Belfast-based photography magazine Source always collects together a satisfyingly broad mix of photography. A highlight of the latest issue 98 is a look through British pharmacy chain Boots’ picture archive, highlighting a very different era of healthy high street shopping in the consumer-boom sixties. That the company maintained an archive speaks volumes for the times. Do today’s shops bother?
Can design change?
New campiagn Design Can is demanding inclusivity in the design world. We support it – find out more.
Happening soon
London, 23 August:
Failed States hold their first live event, A Map to Fall Through.
London, 3 September:
Eye magazine’s next Type Tuesday is all about Neon.
London, 9 September:
BSME asks, Does a Magazine Need Paper?
Edinburgh, 20 September:
PPA Scotland’s annual MagFest includes an indie session with Jeremy Leslie and the magCulture pop-up Shop.
London, 15-17 November:
Eyesore magazine’s publishing fair Imprint currently has an open call for entries.
Survey!
Have you filled out our reader survey? You could win a £100 magCulture gift token