Shoplifters #7
We’re always on the look out for an interesting page 23, and this latest one highlights a strength, often seen as a weakness, of print – its very non-connectedness.
Produced by Ohio-based studio Actual Source, Shoplifters is a biannual magazine about design and visual culture. Each issue adopts a different format and design but shares a tight focus on longform interviews with contemporary typographers, graphic designers and design teachers.
This seventh issue, a Los Angeles special, is a larger format than previous ones, and is largely black and white throughout. Page 23 is a typical page, found part way through a detailed interview with LA designer/educator Tanya Rubbak (who also contributed to the design workshop that developed the issue). It’s a highly detailed interview, with multiple references throughout, all of which deserve further investigation, not least the mention half way down the left column of text to Dutch magazine Archis.
Almost forgotten now, Archis is worthy of further investigation, and I’m grateful for Shoplifters for bringing it to mind. Its 2001 relaunch had a particularly idealistic view of the possibilities of architecture that was reflected in the experimental cover and page designs by Maureen Mooren and Daniel van der Velden. I’ll be digging out my archive copies of Archis and sharing them here on the Journal soon.
Back to Shoplifters: if reading the Rubbak piece online it would be easy to click a link and discover more about Archis, but this would break the narrative of the longform interview. In the sample paragraph (above) alone there could be up to eight separate links available. Where does that leave the voice of Rubbak?
Sometimes a reference should remain a reference, something for the reader to search for at their leisure.
Design: Davis James Ngarupe, JP Haynie, Katrina Peterson, Sam Wood and Gunnar Harrison