Following the previous Colophon, we created a small magazine called Colophound, containing wisdom and objects from the first event.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2009.
Luggage on arrival in Luxembourg: 11 kilos. Luggage on departure from Luxembourg: 39 kilos, plus a back-breaking carry on. I think that qualifies as a successful event.
OK, I confess: I’m not even going to try and blog the Colophon weekend, on top of helping make a magazine in three days, doing some on-stage shenanigans, taking part in a Pecha Kucha, moving between venues, partying, buying/blagging new magazines and almost certainly not sleeping.
Instead, I’ve taken charge of the Colophon Twitter feed, so I’ll be microblogging there. If you’re looking for more, Jeremy is your man.
And now I’m going back to the madness… If you’re coming to Colophon, don’t forget to say hello!
Jeremy blogging to the left of me, Mike on the phone to the right of me, into the valley of mags rode the Colophon Trio!
Pics as soon as I get the right cable, but it’s all looking rather lovely. The upstairs exhibition accompany the book is all but ready, the atrium wall is filled with Shift!s, the Magazine Making room is all shiny and waiting for the chaos to begin. I’ve seen Karen, heard that BabyBabyBaby are in town, and all the preparations are going rather well… some would say too well…
And if you are coming, and haven’t yet started to follow the Twitter, you should. I’ve just seeded some surprises in there for later…
As Colophon nears, some news about a couple of thems that will be there:
Horst Moser has many alter-egos – owner of the world’s biggest magazine collection, author of essential-purchase Surprise Me!, founder of the studio Independent Medien Design – and he will be presenting his new publications cut and Schrift. He’s also known for his monthly one-page magazine cover compilations in Novum, made up of themed selections from his collection. I particularly liked this recent offering, featuring the one publicity shot of Madonna her people made available (scroll down).
As Jeremy has noted, there’ll be a new Karen there.
Acido Surtido is looking for new contributors. Its founder, Lucas, will be blogging the event in Spanish over at Visualmente.
And, like many magazines, Good has reduced its frequency, from bimonthly to quarterly in their case, to cope with the fall in ad revenue. Unlike other magazines, they announced their move in a special, very cute mini-sized, subscriber-only Recession Issue (cover line: “Now at least 80% less!”), which introduces their own special “Recession Alert” coding system, and opens with the words “Hello dearest.”
Much more to come…
New file-sharing magazine site appears
Just PDFs, without Mygazine’s slickness. Odd disclaimer: “You may not use this site to distribute or download any material when you do not have the legal rights to do so”
Dutch museum makes an exhibition magazine
You can read it (or at least 20 pages of it) here
New York magazine archive now on Google
Makes sense. Here’s a sample – and it’s great to see that the ads have been included. New York has featured some good articles, but its archives are now mostly of niche historical interest – not much money for them in that. And it’ll make internal research so much easier
A list of all the magazines that have appeared in The Simpsons
My favourites include “GLUTIUS MAXIMISER”, “MARTIN SHEEN’S TEEN SCENE” and “AMERICAN BREAST ENTHUSIAST”
Wired gets philosophical on designing a magazine
“You’re looking at a box…”
Where Arena went wrong
The author then apologised for the article’s timing – a little unfortunate for one of the mag’s contributing editors. He stands by the piece though, which is good and contains the fabulous phrase “Squares are always more powerful than cool kids, they just need to get organised” – very true. Speaking of which…
Nick Logan on the closure of his last big title
“Since 1999 I’ve not looked at magazines very much.” Unusual and insightful interview with the quiet man who we wanted to get for Colophon, but he kindly declined, saying that one of the motivations for starting his own company was so that he wouldn’t have to speak in public
Ten style magazines for men
Perhaps all is not lost outside the boundaries of EMAP, Conde Nast, Natmags, etc
Heat launches non-celebrity gossip mag
Kind of looks like an 80s teen magazine
Freestyle speaks to Magtastic!
“Every issue will come with a professional-grade frisbee. The first issue has a 110gm fastback from Whammo. We are currently deciding on what will go on the frisbee but it will definitely be either a high-profile designer’s work or a fashion brand. We plan to change the type and size of frisbee each issue (and hence the magazine) – they will always be professional standard as we are all devoted frisbee players.” First issue out in June, apparently
While the printer works his inky magic, Gestalten has officially been unveiled as the worldwide distributor of our forthcoming Colophon-accompanying book, We Make Magazines. And to celebrate, they’ve put some pages online.
Edited by your humble correspondent and designed by the one, the only Jeremy Leslie, It’s very different from We Love Magazines, but equally essential for magazine lovers. I would say that, wouldn’t I? Yes, I would, though the truth is that I’m rather proud of the thing. It’s very lovely, a fascinating and relevant read, filled with great imagery (and free to all Flash Pass holders at Colophon!)
More details over at Gestaltan’s website.
We’re hoping to organise a discussion panel on independent magazines in New York, to celebrate the book’s release over here in May/June. Any thoughts on where we should do it, though?
About Magtastic
This website focuses on developments
in the magazine industry around
the world.
It is written by
Andrew Losowsky,
a writer and editor based in the USA. He has so far edited two books about magazines, and
has ideas for
many more.
He writes about magazines for The Wall Street Journal and others, and
is co-curator of
the Colophon international magazine biennale. He also runs
Stack America.
The rest of the time, he creates experiences.
Contact me
My books
Stack America
The Colophon biennale
