Reading List #5: November 2007

September and October are big months for maglophiles. This year, with recent redesign fever kicking in and a bumper crop of new titles released onto newsstands, it’ s been particularly hard to keep up, let alone decide what a purchase and what’s best left on the shelves. Here’s a brief selection of noteworthy mags from the last couple of months you might want to investigate…

Acne Paper [acnepaper.com]
Not as remedial as it sounds, this is contract publishing at it’s most luxurious. It’s also part of the flood of specialist fashion titles released to coincide with the Autumn/Winter collections. It’s kind of interesting to note that Acne Paper features many clothing labels, other than their own Acne Jeans line [acnejeans.com]. Last issue lead in with several editorial-free colour pages in red, blue and pink. This issue being based on the theme of ‘elegance’ leads in with various shades of grey, complementing the various black and white photography inside.

The Architect’s Journal [architectsjournal.co.uk]
…or ‘AJ‘ as the masthead reads, has had a redesign. The first redesigned issue of which seemed a little lack lustre and possibly a little too safe, so it’s a relief to see the latest issue hitting the nail on the head and making a lot better use of imagery than it’s previous incarnation. I was sad to see design agency, A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL)’s [apracticeforeverydaylife.com] original redesign go but AJ does feels much more authoritative now and pretty darn stylish for a weekly title.

Grafik [grafikmagazine.co.uk]
Grafik has a new in-house designer, Danny Calvi, whose previous work includes Amsterdam Weekly [amsterdamweekly.nl]. This latest issue is the first time we get to see some of the changes instore for the magazine under it’s compact new design team. How’s it looking? So far, so Dutch and good sign of some subtly quirky typographic choices to come. I, for one, will be hoping for something to replace their fixation with Avant Garde, a typographic joke that’s gotten very, very old.

Lodown [lodownmagazine.com]
Lodown’s experiment in getting different creative types to design each issue continues. Sounds like this one was a bit of hairy one. Apparently, Japanese creatives AANDD [aandd-design.com] ended up turning the whole layout around in just 10 days and there are some dubious inclusions, but worth it to be able catch up with both Fergus Purcell aka Fergadelic and Jethro Haynes [jethrohaynes.com] in the same issue.

Make: Halloween Special [makezine.com]
Make is ace. Remember those weird and geeky magazines form the 50s and 60s like Popular Mechanics [popularmechanics.com] that were chock full of circuit diagrams and funny home projects like making automated catflap doors? Yes? No? Well, anyway Make is like an updated version of these, in a similar format too. The Halloween special includes how to make a robotic jack-o-lantern and a cake that looks like an exploded rib cage. There’s a version of make for girls too called Craft [craftzine.com]. Fun times.

Squint Homme [squintmagazine.com]
A quarterly fashion title from the makers of Squint, a magazine I admit I’ve never bothered with before. This issue is worth a flick for the paper alone. It’s like some lux version of some sort of newsprint stock… or something. Inside there’s a small but perfectly formed selection of articles in German and English followed by, probably a little too much a-typical fashion editorial. Not an essential read but a small enough dosage to prove quite tasty.

‘Sup Magazine [supmag.com]
I love ‘Sup. It’s ace. This issue is jam packed with articles on musical artists and bands with the twist that some of the features are purely photographic. No copy at all. With some lush images of band, Grizzly Bear by photographer Jason Nocito [jasonnocito.com].

The Illustrated Ape [theillustratedape.com]
I admitted to an illustrator friend that I’d never bought a copy of The Illustrated Ape before now and received a look of horror and possibly betrayal. I’ve just never found the editorial as interesting as the imagery and I’m not in the habit of buying picture books (unless they are by Geoff McFetridge [nieves.ch]) so it’s nice to see them dedicating an issue to a very particular theme. You see, this issue is all about Heavenly Records [heavenly100.com] and it’s ace. Tim Fishlock’s [timfishlock.com] art direction is spot on in a not dissimilar way to the excellent Little White Lies [littlewhitelies.co.uk].

Uniqlo Paper No.3 [uniqlo.com/uniqlopaper]
We started with a solid piece of contract publishing for a clothing label calling itself a paper and we’re ending with one too. Uniqlo Paper No.3 continues to outshine the stores’s own Point of Sale with some solid editorial and imagery supplied by creative types such as Jo Ratcliffe [jocandraw.com], Nicola Formichetti fashion editor at Dazed and Confused and Damien Poulain [damienpoulain.com]. And it’s free! And we all know people love free.