New launches

You are currently browsing the archive for the New launches category.

Three of the Month: April (belatedly)

May 2, 2011 in New launches, Three of the month | 2 comments

So my first Three of the Month ended up with a 33% success rate. Let’s see if we can help give a financial boost to these three worthwhile projects who need your help.

Her Royal Majesty
In these monarchical times, it seems only appropriate that this magazine is made in the capital of the French republic. Literary strangeness, artistic leanings, all sealed in with a blob of wax. Yessiree Ma’am.

Trunk magazine
I sent out the first issue of Trunk through Stack America, and it’s a hugely ambitious project: a new newsstand-quality travel and style magazine, entirely created by a small team of talented people. The founder, David, used to be photo editor on Travel + Leisure, but his own magazine is far more ambitious.

Outpost Journal
First, a declaration of interest: I’m on the Outpost Journal board of advisors (which has mostly involved helping them get in touch with other independent magazines). It’s a cracking idea, though – each issue focuses on the community-based creativity taking place in an otherwise-overlooked city in the USA. There is, it turns out, life beyond Brooklyn and San Francisco. Issue one is about Pittsburgh.

If you’d like your magazine’s campaign to be featured on Three of the Month, drop me a line – contact details in the sidebar.

Review: Carson

April 28, 2011 in New launches, Opinion, Review | 29 comments

There are a few, remarkable people who show us that there’s another way.

They take the tools from our hands, and do amazing things with them that we could never have contemplated. Where we see unbreakable rules, they see uninteresting choices. The results leave some people so affected that they never again look at their tools in the same way.

These people generally fall into three categories. First, there are those who were so far ahead of society’s ability to comprehend their efforts that their work is only “discovered” and lauded after their deaths. Kafka was one. Van Gogh another.

Second are those who break established rules again and again to increasing acclaim, yet always stay ahead of their imitators simply because they don’t know of any other way to behave. Picasso, let’s say. Radiohead, perhaps.

And then there are those people who have a single flash of genius at the very moment that society’s mirrors are perfectly aligned to catch its light. Though the rest of their work may be perfectly competent, everyone clamors for the lightening to strike again and again. It’s not these people’s fault that they can’t replicate that moment.

Given the title of this piece, you can probably see where I’m going with this one.

Read the rest of this entry »

News from the Magosphere April 19th ’11

April 19, 2011 in Clever ideas, Death of print, Fashion, ipad, Magazine covers, Maglets, New launches, News round-up, USA | No comments

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

Review: Newsweek, Part Two – The Magazine

March 11, 2011 in New launches, Opinion, Review, USA | 7 comments

So here we go: The Relaunch Issue, on newstands till March 14th. What’s it like? Multiple personalitied, that’s what.

Read the rest of this entry »

Interview: Grafik magazine

March 1, 2011 in interview, New launches | 4 comments

Grafik (formerly Hot Graphics International, then Graphics International) has been a stalwart of the UK design scene since the 1980s. A more irreverent read than many other such magazines, it sadly closed last year… only to return this month with a brand new design, new structure and new business plan, as a bimonthly covering the global graphic design scene.

The Blogsplosion asked co-editor Angharad Lewis about what happened, what’s happening now, and what will happen next in the Grafik story.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pass the Port

December 15, 2010 in Fashion, New launches | 3 comments

I have to confess, I’m really looking forward to Port. Most style publications these days put the ‘meh’ in men’s mag, but this one has an almost-Vanity Fairly strong line up of British contributors – with Jon Snow on politics, Fergus Henderson at the stove, David St John-James in the studio, Hanif Kureishi on the decks – and Kuchar Swara over at the art desk. Oh and JL overseeing its touchable, interactive side.

Best of all perhaps, on top of the masthead, is the return of the team of art director Matt Willey and editor Dan Crowe, back together for one more assault on the newsstand. The last time they did that (with Vince Frost in tow), something interesting resulted.

I have no idea if it truly will be “the credible and intelligent answer for men interested in every aspect of style and life,” but we can probably expect longish articles, stylish design, and a great deal of thoughtfulness. Can’t wait.

(Disclosure: I wrote for what turned out to be the last-ever issue of Zembla. They were very nice people.)

(First spotted on The Magaziner)