Zeit Magazin – part 1
Today we’re celebrating Zeit Magazine. We could have a “Zeit day” once a week because every week’s new issue is so different, diverse and fantastic. There’s always something new going on visually issue-to-issue. Someone should start a blog where they do weekly up-close looks at Zeit – those quick pics on Twitter that editor Christoph Amend posts of spreads and covers are never enough!
Luckily, I can read German and I’m based in Berlin so every week I get to sit down with a cup of coffee and go through the actual magazine instead of just getting a tease on Twitter (sorry for the mag brag). This week’s hot pink issue – tilted ‘Zeit magazin: made with love’ – chimes perfectly with the Spring mood that’s spreading here at the moment. Characters from Barbapapa swirl around the cover whimsically and flirtatiously, setting the tone of the issue. As the second cover (above) suggests, art director Mirko Borsche and co’s cartoony characters and bubble type are meant to make the magazine pretty in the same way that certain couples make the world so. It’s an issue about love and design.
Personified type on large title spreads adorably brings the messages to life. See the cute L of ‘Love is in the chair’ (above) and a googly-eyed ‘A’ who is asking about balancing work life and love life when you’re a design partnership as well as a romantic couple. A huggable D welcomes you to a Q&A with a therapist who discusses managing being a couple who work together (below). I also love the darker title spread for an article called ‘The Light of Love’ – about the new collaborations between designers Konstantin Grcic and Mirko Borsche himself (also below).
Mirko has also continued with the wobbly, cartoonish vibe for a spread on design items that come in two (below), and he’s used the same jelly shape for pictures of famous couple collaborators (also below). The whole thing perfectly visualises feeling giddy. What else could you want from a magazine that’s celebrating the arrival of Spring?
