Much to catch up on, so just this once, I’ve divided this feature into categories

News

Woodwing makes its format an open standard
It’s a risky strategy, but I suspect they’re losing ground to Adobe’s InDesign plugin feature. Meantime, GQ 2.0 shows what can be done with the new Adobe system. Seems like an important step forward (though still a long way to go)

New Lineread POD magazine features a decade roundup
Also features me writing about this blog. Worth the price alone, I should think

New edition of Kilimanjaro out
Since the demise of Is/Not, it’s probably the biggest magazine currently being made. Looks like the latest one spoofs Fantastic Man

Newsweek only has six ads
Though given the way ads are booked, this is actually an indictment of how poor the previous product was, not the relaunch

Pay what you want seems to work for pre-launch niche sports mag
Also contains some great writing about football (aka soccer)

Huge augmented reality spread aimed at Nintendo 3DS users
I’m not generally a fan, but in this context AR makes a bit more sense

Dumbo Feather, Pass it On passes the feather to a new team, new design
I’ve always been fond of this Aussie mag. Great to see it evolving

Founder of Tiger Beat dies
The NYT has a slideshow of the magazine’s history, most notable for demonstrating how many cover lines can fit in a small space

A magazine goes online, signs off print with this cover
Nice sense of history

Mag love

Roundup of great Bloomberg Businessweek feature designs
That man Turley, he’s something special. And only 34 years old, too

How to make an Argentinian poster magazine
Documentary about a graphic designer’s publication, which was created as a response to his country’s financial troubles

Hand-stitched Vogue covers
Really very lovely

Stack and Magculture team up to host The Magazine Club Printout!
Rumours of a potential New York version run by me may or may not be accurate

Every cover of Time magazine
Could every magazine now do this, and keep it updated? Cheersthanksloveyoubye

The Economist to halt production for a month
I kind of want this to be true

New magazines

Dust magazine launches
Yet another fashion/art publication. This one *might* be different…

Boat magazine travels to overlooked places
The name doesn’t do them any favours, and there’s a danger of the high concept sliding into cultural tourism, but the spreads on show look great

Timbuktu is a kids’ mag on the iPad
Looks like what Anorak would make if they weren’t busy getting distribution in the USA and then going grown up in their spare time

I really like the look of Buffalo‘s design
Love how they take advantage of the large format to place a smaller mag template on the page

This month’s Total Film main cover (above) might be a bit generic, but hidden underneath is one of three well-made classic magazine pastiches, all lovely. They’re themed around the prequel’s 1960s setting.

Click to see them bigger; I like.

This is a jobs supplement from the Süddeutsche Zeitung, aimed at school-leavers. Kati Krause translates it thusly:

Crossed-out text: “How are you going to live. How do you make the right decisions? Will your relationship survive leaving school? You don’t have an idea what you want to be either? Are you too much of a coward to get started in your dream job? How do you tie a tie? Is it ok to be Facebook friends with one’s teacher? What do you have to know to live in a shared flat?”

Circled text: “You decide what you want. Start with joy.”

I like this very much. Their fashion-literate readership will instantly recognise the mouth (just in case you don’t), and there’s a good, feature-led reason to draw attention to it. Add in the bright, unusual colours, and you have a lovely Rocky Horror/Samuel Beckett tribute cover.

Colourful geometric pattern made personal.

Just the right sense of urban recklessness for Vice‘s readership.

Little White Lies continues to experiment while remaining true to their basic, successful cover aesthetic. I hope they never lead with a photograph.

Most if not all have come via either Cover Junkie, Nas Capas, Newmanology or Magculture – all of which are highly recommended.

Finally, two image-led bonus links:

The above photo by Richard Avedon was the first full-page picture ever to appear in the New Yorker, in 1992. I learned this while reading about how the New Yorker is saying goodbye to its talented Visuals Editor Elisabeth Biondi with tributes by some of their contributors/staff. (She’s not dead, just moving on.) There’s also a great interview with her here about her history and philosophy.

This is the greatest magazine rejection letter I’ve seen. (Source; thanks Kate.)

Australian design magazine redesigns
Looks interesting – wish its international distribution was redesigned also. Speaking of which…

Graphic design magazines of the world
…unite! Michael Bojkowski, art director of Grafik, is writing up a series of excellent summaries of others in their field. Perhaps an interesting international content exchange of sorts could be arranged?

Subscribers don’t like magazine going online only
I’m sure there are sound financial reasons for not offering the option of a refund – and instead asking subscribers to give more for the privilege – but in PR terms, it does seem to have been handled poorly

The best and worst selling covers from 2010
Kate Middleton comes out pretty badly from this

Seven years of The Nation covers
Fiddly navigation aside, this site from designer Stephen Kling contains inside stories, rejected covers and a lot of sharp political cover satire. Hit “Table of Contents” for further tales (via Unbeige)

101 Ways to read the New York Times
Well, almost. Such is the power of diversification

Seven ways magazines are using social media
Not as witless as some of the articles on this topic

Emphas.is launches in beta to crowdfund important photojournalism
Part Kickstarter, part lobbying group, part community forum, it has an amazing board of reviewers, including many top magazines represented. I also love that anyone who funds 50% of a project gets first refusal rights on publishing the result (with the photographer’s approval)

This is the best time to be in magazines!
He’s right, though it’s certainly not the best time to be a publisher

Egoïste returns
Four years since the last one, and as heavy as it ever was (thanks Kati)

If you haven’t got a correspondent…
Call a phone box. Lovely sideways piece of thinking by the SZ magazine

JPG brings in a famous guest curator
Great concept that fits the mag well. Unfortunately, the online preview of the issue only features one photo from the set he chose

Archive magazines online alongside yearbooks, newsreels and music
This kind of contextual linking is only going to get bigger. Can’t wait

Test drive a car on a print ad
Via a natty iPhone app and some smart thinking

How the Businessweek cloud cover came about
Always assuming it wasn’t a conceptual copy of this Italian newspaper supplement cover from January. Sidenote: I’m really enjoying Richard’s tumblrlog experiments

New York is placing archives and unused cover concepts on Flickr
There’s a lot to enjoy right there – you can also follow art director Chris Dixon on Twitter

What happened to the staff after the newspaper closed
They should illustrate and publish their survey via The Newspaper Club, for irony kicks

Videogame magazine nostalgia
Cos it’s not just about the pixels

Why fashion struggles with race
A really good piece on the colour barrier faced by fashion editorials and the catwalk – and why societally the “paint chip” theory doesn’t work

Eye gets a preview of Port
Review here when I can get my hands on it

Slate writer hates his iPad
The backlash is strong with this one

How a publisher is dealing with the OnePass/Apple subscription situation
Fascinating reading. The key for the big players seems to be “be everywhere, but hope Android on tablets gets big enough to force Apple to back down”

Marie Claire Brazil goes 3D
3D fashion apparently also featured in new mag Archetype X (about which I can find nothing at all except for descriptions of this shoot – does it even exist?)

A round up of books about zines / comic books / small magazines
Contains short summaries of a few things worth knowing about

i-jusi exhibition hits London next month
Well worth checking out their back issues at that. Speaking of which…

Mute offers complete set for 200 pounds
Intelligent mag that did some interesting design things in the late 90s (disclosure: I interviewed Cory Doctrow for them once, eight years ago)

Indiana University student magazine actually well designed
Text’s a bit ropey, but it sure is purrty

People create their own Top 10 magazines
No, don’t ask – I wouldn’t know where to begin

A fascinating-looking Chinese magazine blogger
Sadly, I suspect something is lost in the Google Translation

Front coverline design seems to reference Fire & Knives
Magtastic’s awarding of magazine of 2010 clearly had an effect

It’s quicker to go to the store than to download Wired on the iPad
Depending on how close you are to the store. And that you’re in the same country – a lot of the market for the app isn’t. It is, admittedly, hugely annoying that you can’t multitask while a download happens – which is Apple’s fault, not Wired‘s

Tokyo store serves up only free newspapers and magazines
Looking forward to a report from the always-excellent, Tokyo-based The Magaziner

The Drawbridge redesigns, is no longer a newspaper format
Looks lovely – though the danger is that they might be known as WBRIDGE from now on

V Man appears to place dollar bills on its cover
Not sure if this is real, or a fake viral. Nice use of the idea, though, and goes well with the “No Risk, No Reward” coverline. And every copy is actually packed by models

An investigation into the importance of music magazine design
Student project that interviewed me, Jeremy, David Hepworth and others. I like his visual breakdown method

Samples of C A R S O N magazine appear online
It’s as if the early 90s never left town (via Quintatinta) UPDATE: They seem to have pulled the document. Diego took a couple of screenshots of what was an eight-page, landscape document with some very distinctively Carsonesque designs, complete with a surfing story and what looked like some draft versions of his Huck and Little White Lies covers.

For Wired UK‘s latest edition on privacy, they’ve created a handful of custom covers featuring detailed information about selected subscribers (presumably those with high-profile jobs in the media).

The information seems to have been hand-compiled from digital sources – Benjamin Cohen, for example, seems surprised to see his parents’ new address written on the cover, as well as the fact that he had coffee recently with his ex-boyfriend.

The fact that this information is all out there isn’t so unexpected – what’s more shocking is to see it in this context, written up and printed on the ostensibly public-facing magazine cover, under a famous masthead, all prepared by a group of strangers.

It’s a great idea – though of course not the first time that digital printing has been used to create personalized covers to make this point.

Right-leaning liberarian mag Reason did something similar with satellite images of subscribers’ houses seven years ago, back in the days before Google Maps made such privacy boundaries seem laughable.

And, four years ago, a kind-of-similar thing was also done by the American flavour of Wired, though it seems to have been a far more upbeat affair, designed to discuss ideas of personalized mapping.

The technology isn’t anything special, but when applied intelligently, seeing yourself and your information in an unexpected context associated with public display can give its message a lot of power. Information certainly isn’t what it used to be.  

UPDATE: Courtesy of Ben at Wired UK, here’s the cover they sent to Andy Coulson (oo, topical), and here’s the not-so-creepy newsstand version.

The Stranger nails it again with a great cover
Clever reuse of the political graphic of the moment

Prisoners write letters to magazines
Great story on how the art of letter writing isn’t dead

Hearst tries to apply analytics to magazine distribution
Somewhat shocking it isn’t already an industry standard

The best glossy covers of 2010
One more list, this time against blatant Photoshoppery

How to copy and paste DRM’d publications
Can we now just allow copy and paste across the board?

iPad readers don’t read at the same times as other readers
Unsurprisingly for a $500 piece of kit, they seem to prefer doing it at home – which has implications for what they’ll buy

Online interiors magazines thriving
Some interesting titles there

Light-up cereal boxes from CES
Next step, an issue of Esquire probably

Magazines that warped young minds
These looked like fun

Top publishers prepare to launch their own app store
Much better than making their own tablet, which is what they said the might do

Bracket is a themed, news-print publication created by Anonymous (no, not that one), who are based in Singapore.

Not the first interesting publication from that small territory to be showcased this week, Bracket is as straightforward as it is enjoyable: a 15-question survey was sent out to a collection of creatives, broadly themed “Craft”. Following an introduction by Duane King, the responses are all printed unedited.

That’s not to say that there isn’t some craft in putting this together – the six-column grid is faintly printed in the opening and closing pages, and the 16 handwritten responses from creatives based around the world, originally compiled as a supplement to Anonymous’ Crafty2010 event, are arranged well.

There’s more than a few big names in there, including Ian Anderson of Designers Republic, KarlssonWinkler, Jessica Hirsche and Geoff Mcfetridge. They’ve also included chocolate makers, musicians and a film director in the mix.

I’m not really clear who did the illustrations in the centre pages, but they fit the theme well.

Some choose to use photography to answer the questions, others barely readable typography. The handwriting of each person gives each set of replies a truly personal feel.

I particularly sympathize with this response from Geoff Mcfetridge.

And then it’s over. Simple, uncomplicated, entertaining, and it doesn’t outstay its welcome. They’ve declared that there will eight Brackets in all; the second issue is themed “Hunger”, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

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I wrote about an edition of Centrefold previously. Unlike that edition, this one has been produced by Andrew Hobbs and Daniel Baer. The first thing to say is that it’s huge, and its foil-embossed card cover gatefolds out into something even bigger – 87cmx42cm, or nearly 3 ft by nearly 1.5ft.

It’s well printed on 150gsm heavy, metallic stock by GF Smith, bound loosely with a black elastic thread, and contains a series of fashion photographs.

To be honest, most of these leave me pretty cold, but I’m not a fashion type, so I’m not really target audience.

I do like the angles on the shot of these models though.

Overall, its scale forces you to look at the images, but the photos, though beautifully shot, make this little more than a lovely paper sample for me. It’s a genuine shame – I really liked the drama of the previous edition. Hopefully they’ll be back on form in the next edition.

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I Want You is also a quarterly, visual-only publication, a simple 16-page free magazine based in Seattle. They sent me four issues, and its images, in contrast to the majority of Centrefold, are almost all extremely arresting. The juxtapositions are never explained or justified, but they add to the sense of unease. The artist credits are in the top corner of each page, always displayed as a simple link to the website, where more images – many of them exclusive – can be seen.

It doesn’t take long to go through each large-format issue, but certain images stay with you for much longer than that.

Not sure if it’s worth the $15 cost of back issues on its website, but definitely worth paying postage for the latest issue that’s available to order for free online, and/or picking one up if you are near one of their global distribution points.

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Headmaster is a new queer magazine very much in the tradition of Butt. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but doesn’t pass up the chance for some eye candy either.

I don’t know the queer arts scene at all, but the Headmaster crew assure me that they were particularly delighted with the names they got to contribute.

The conceit is a cute one – the Headmaster (a distinctly British word – they’re Principals over here) sets homework assignments for credit. The contributors – including Sholem Krishtalka, manager of the world’s oldest continually operating gay bookshop, whose painting is above – have to respond as best they can.

It’s mostly visual, with a clean, simple design, and three articles spread throughout the issue. The one by Connor Habib about making a gay porn video is well-written and unexpectedly tender. The other two are good, but could do with an edit.

I really enjoyed this cheeky (ahem) series of Wallpaper*-esque revering of furniture design in miniature, the chairs nestled among a forest of close-up body hair.

And the photo recipe for fried bread is just silly.

The homework assignments are all printed at the back – I’d have preferred them next to each article, so I could immediately grade the results for myself.

Like so many new publications, it was over-funded at the start thanks to Kickstarter (check out the amusing assignments for each donation level), and this first issue is available in a limited run of 1000. They plan to make it quarterly twice a year. At $20, it’s a little pricey, but for such a visually strong magazine, that doesn’t seem too outrageous. Good stuff.

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Ampersand is an Australian literary magazine of the kind that’s becoming fairly popular – that is, fiction alongside photography alongside short interviews and non-fiction. By far the strongest elements are its paperback format and design. The cover (above) cleverly apes Penguin Classics, while introducing the issue’s (fairly broadly interpreted) theme.

Inside, the Penguin Classics theme prevails, with plenty of Gill Sans abound.

It’s truly a lovely format, the size and shape of a paperback book, bound on the top edge rather than the side. Very easy on the eye and the hand, and its narrow shape never appears to be a problem, though I imagine it’s a real issue for Mikie Inglis, the designer.

Monochrome pencil illustration is the overwhelming aesthetic, but it’s not the only one. Colour photography is sparse and well used, including this selection taken from the seventh edition of KesselsKramer‘s In Almost Every Picture.

Some articles and images are read “top to bottom”, but not too many to become irritating.

The text itself is a real mixed bag, varying from the enjoyable to the over-long and self-congratulatory. The non-fiction pieces are a shade better than the fiction, but that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. My favourite pieces were Jazz Andrews’ Adventure, Chritos Tsialkos’ eulogy to Jack Charles, and the interview with the whipcracker. Did you know the crack of a whip occurs when the loop of string on its tip breaks the speed of sound? My fact of the day, that.

I also really liked its index, a rare sight in a magazine, combined here with that of another publication, to add an extra frisson of unpredictability. In this issue, the guest index is from The Bog People by PV Glob (1969).

Anyway, Ampersand is a really good-looking magazine, and not a terrible read. Which is as good a place as any from which to get even better.

Read anything good yourself lately?

As Jeremy notes, there’s plenty of ‘Top Covers of 2010′ lists floating around (including his own enjoyable one).

None, however, contain as many swearwords as mine, now published over at The Hospital Club. You certainly don’t see these magazines talked about over at Advertising Age. Enjoy!

UPDATE: (Ahem, it has been pointed out that one of them is from 2009. But it’s good enough to repeat. Right?)