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.

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.

David Carson’s editorial design career currently has three significant phases of its own. Firstly, there was Transworld Skateboarding, Surfer, and Beach Culture. A former professional surfer (ninth in the world at one point, apparently) Carson created a sprawling, gridbreaking design style for these publications, taking every element he was given for the page and treating them as visual objects to play with, often whimsically.

He essentially set himself up as an artist who had taken on the position of a graphic designer – text, typography, photography were all elements of equal weight, to be treated like free-floating pieces of a collage. This sensation continues to echo in his work.

Then came the extended flash of genius that was Ray Gun – a lightening strike that lasted three years. Under the almost-criminally overlooked editorship of founder Marvin Scott Jarrett (who went on to create Nylon), and working with art directors such as Chris Ashworth, Carson invented a sprawling, gridbreaking, unpredictable, and above all highly distinctive design language. It was strange, experimental, and often unpleasant. Yet it was rarely less than interesting, and its look and feel matched the nonconformist attitude of the grunge music that the magazine covered.

Graphic design is about content and message, and his designs only truly succeed when their message (usually attention-seeking confusion, chaos, nonconformity) match the story within the rest of the content. Some grunge tunes were barely more than unlistenable rage; some of Carson’s designs were unreadable messes. Purists and industry leaders hated both; at a time when computer-based DTP was encouraging typographic homogeneity, they were a perfect match.

The magazine’s aesthetic was widely copied by design students everywhere, and richly deserves its place in the unofficial hall of cult editorial fame.

And so Carson became a hero figure to many designers aged under 30. The phrase “The End of Print” was coined in reference to him, tongue in cheek, by another contemporary typographic enfant terrible, Neville Brody. Never one for deadlines or even necessarily turning up to his own events, Carson’s legend became as rebelliously romantic as it was untouchable.

Often passed over by those searching for a nonconformist idealism to match his visuals is the fact that he left Ray Gun in 1995, in order to focus the work of his studio on corporate projects and personal artwork, with the occasional editorial commission for old times’ sake.

Now, sixteen years since he left Ray Gun, we have Carson – a bimonthly magazine named after the man’s own legacy. It’s edited by Alex Storch, previously the editor-in-chief of a counter culture online magazine about Los Angeles, with creative direction by DavidCarsonDesignInc.

Here’s the first strange thing about Carson: Beach Culture appeared as part of an emerging surf culture, documenting what it meant to drop out and surf. Ray Gun was created as way of discussing and contributing to the rise of grunge, and everything it stood for. So what is the cultural driving force that led to the introduction of Carson?

Independent magazines. It feels like this magazine exists principally because of independent publishing. Even though magazines aren’t its theme, the often nonconformist energy in this ever-growing field is what has made it possible, and made it happen.

However, the first issue of Carson isn’t a reaction against all that the editorial establishment stands for. Instead, it’s a kind of mishmash of unconventional storytelling, self-aggrandizement and shameless promotion loosely connected to the magazine’s opening theme, Survival.

First, the positive:

The best piece by far in both design and content are Mike Doughty’s Ten Kinds of Survival. Its personal, engaging, bloglike style points to a possible direction for the whole concept: tight, sharp, witty, dark personal publishing, echoed by Carson’s slightly creepy, individual twist on the images and (literally) on the text.

The design forces the reader into a more active level of engagement with the words, questioning without obstructing. The piece is not easy reading, either literally or figurative. The design complements it well without becoming overbearing.

Though I’m not entirely clear why it was applied, I really like this typographic bar code, too. I felt very positive about what was to come.

The inverted pyramids on this piece also made for an unexpected reading experience.

However, that’s about where my warmth ends regarding this issue of Carson. Some of the content, as I mentioned early, reads as thin PR-led copy by people pushing furniture/books/themselves on the reader in self-important terms. Writers’ biographies often stretch to two paragraphs (and are styled like body text, which doesn’t help, as they read like the end of the article.) There’s a lot of vapid writing, without much evidence of a tight, unconventional editorial remit. Potentially the best piece of the lot, by Neil Strauss, collapses due to poor editing on the second page.

Many of the designs are unusual, but without a strong editorial concept behind their strangeness, they just seem willfully hard to read. Paragraphs without indents or separations might look pretty, for instance, but they’re hell on the reading eye. That’s never Carson’s main concern, of course – his designs only ever referenced a text’s content in passing, if at all.

But if you’re going to hire him to design a magazine, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, then you have to provide content that is not only enhanced by his stylings (some of which feel quite fresh, most of which feel like they could have been taken straight from 1994), but also reward the inevitable strain of trying to read most of the words. Almost nothing in Carson did.

Ultimately, however, the biggest problem of the magazine doesn’t come from its big-name designer, but its overall concept. I just don’t understand what it’s about, who it’s for, or why it exists.

The very best titles justify themselves through everything they do, because without them we wouldn’t adequately follow, understand, analyze, enjoy, learn about, react to whatever corner of the world we inhabit. They force readers to subscribe because the idea of missing an issue actually feels painful. They convey the passion of an editor for whom every word is a result of a painstaking decision process.

But far too many pieces in this first issue of Carson felt rushed, undramatic, and left me thinking, “So?”

This is only the first issue, and I will watch to see how it improves. It has a long way to go. Right now, it feels like Carson exists because a) his name means something, and b) now is a time for independent publishing. It’s not enough.

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

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

Firstly, the cover: there’s some subtle touches of silver ink (strange echo of NYT mag there, except they used gold), and a slightly bland redrawing of the classic logo – which is then tucked behind Hillary’s head. She’s a good cover star, though it’s a slightly awkward-looking photo.

Also features the smallest bar code I’ve ever seen on a mag cover.

Elements of The Daily Beast design are visible in various places in the magazine – here, it’s in the use of thick black portrait-style frames. Opinion is clearly still a mainstay of the mag – the first thing mentioned is “Columns”, and there are eight of them.

Tina Brown’s intro – called “Notebook” – opens the content. She mentions that this issue is themed “Women in the World”. I suddenly had a dizzyingly exciting feeling of “hey, the entire content is going to be themed around this – every news story through the lens of the female experience. Wow!” And then I realized it wasn’t, and felt a little disappointed.

The piece also asserts the existence of the word “newsmagazine”. I guess “newspaper” gets away with it, but this is on paper too. Perhaps it’ll catch on in other areas, too. Newsnewsprint? Newsglossy? Newsapp? Newstweet?

“Perspectives” is the first of a few Daily Beast-esque pages scattered throughout the issue. It’s about “what they did and said on Newsweek’s website, thedailybeast.com.” It includes quotes from the news, and “The Daily Beast’s take” – single lines, each. Not sure if these are edited from longer pieces on the site, or just reflections from their staff – no links to further reading are suggested.

There’s one of The Daily Beast’s notoriously spurious, headline-grabbing “Top Ten City” lists, a cartoon and a series of “Oops! Leaders cozying with dictators” photos that is remarkably unnuanced in its message given that this is a serious news magazine. This disconnect between gossipy gag and proper analysis continues throughout the issue.

Free! A small white square of card. It’s the flip side of a bound-in subscriber card that appears near the end of the mag. Shame not to use it for something. The first proper piece, underneath its card mask, is a column by a Washington Post writer who makes some interesting and well-written points about female inequality in between reminding us of her book, the fact that she’s met some of the famous people in this issue, and a speech she gave where she said something important. Kind of reminds me of the self-importance of the Bill Keller opening piece in the NYT mag.

Historian Niall Ferguson’s column talks about the fear of male-dominated Asia, then a non-female-focused piece from an American political figure with one of the more demonic byline sketches I’ve seen for a while. Though none of these three really brings any incredible insight or amazing information to the table, there’s a plurality of knowledge and opinion in there that could become pleasing enough.

There are some icons used where drop caps would usually be – which is fine until a couple use a dollar sign, and I instinctively read them as an “S”.

What this Newsweek does do well is the photo editing, particularly in this News Gallery section. Strong images, printed large, with informative captions.

There’s another odd Daily Beast addition with “Xtra Insight” on these pages – sometimes it’s an interesting fact, sometimes it’s a fact and a place to read more, but in the case of a story about Steve Jobs, the best you can get is “Read Wozniak’s book”.

There’s a bigger problem with one of them, which reads “Visit THE DAILY BEAST online for Dirk Vandewalle’s look at the future, “Libya After Gaddafi”. Finally, thinks I, some genuine interplay between online and paper, even if it’s the most traditional kind – and then I go the THE DAILY BEAST, and the piece mentioned wasn’t on the homepage, nor even on their politics page. I had to search for it under the author’s name to track it down. The piece in question says it was originally published in the magazine, so presumably it was spiked at the last minute. Really should have changed that intro.

For an issue about female empowerment around the world, this is a strangely sexist / menacingly misogynist “jokey” headline about Sarkozy and Bruni’s relationship.

The First Report piece about Libya is really excellent. It points a direction for the magazine, and even a reason for its existence. It’s an insightful piece about the diplomatic background we don’t know about, in particular a man called Musa Kusa. The odd thing is that there are no pictures of Kusa used to illustrate the piece – only Gaddafi, who isn’t actually the focus of it. I like the illustration, above, but it really isn’t what the piece is about.

The section name NewsBeast makes me think of CurrencySusan, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, it includes a timeline with its design taken from The Daily Beast:

Neat synergy, but there’s some strange events included – such as Bin Laden’s 54th birthday, don’t let’s forget about him now – and a strangely gossipy politicised picture caption “John Boehner licks his chops after persuading the Democrats to slash $4bn from the federal budget”. Or he might have had dry lips. It might be very Daily Beast, but such mocking partisanship don’t help the magazine seem impartial or mature.

The next spread feels more like Radar than Newsweek – silly cartoons, short pieces out of context and without explanation, and a very strange sense of levity compared to, say, its columnists and lead feature writers. It doesn’t really work. I’m not saying that all should be frowningly serious, but this style of lifestyle content doesn’t complement the rest of the magazine at all – and can be found in a thousand other mags, done better.

And then there’s this Charlie Sheen spread – well designed, but I have my doubts about a spread called “Big Fat Story” fitting snugly as part of the Newsweek brand.

Reliving History is a nice touch – usually the sort of thing that magazines put on the inside back page, to give some historical context to the issue you just read. Here it’s halfway through. I am, admittedly, a sucker for magazine history. Obviously.

The main cover story is a good one – about Hillary’s mostly unreported work to improve the lot of women and girls around the world. It’s sadly lacking in much from the lady herself, though. At six pages plus a double-page opener, it’s the longest piece of journalism in the mag.

The 150 Women Who Shake the World is a strong concept, and well designed – though I can’t help feel that 50 covered in more depth would have done all of them more justice. A few get a couple of paras, some five or six sentences, most a single line that asks more questions than it answers.

And, weirdly, there aren’t 150. I counted 146 pieces, with the subjects of some being of very indeterminate number – “Women of Italy who protested against Burlusconi” is an odd inclusion, as are “Runaway brides in Yemen”. I’m not saying they’re not worth featuring, but if you have a piece ostensibly focused on 150 individuals, perhaps there would have been a better way to talk about these issues elsewhere.

The Feminists in Tahrir Square is the best piece in the mag. It’s a great insider article, carefully researched, showing an unreported angle on a story everyone knows. Again, as with the First Report, it was missing an image of one of the key figures, however: Mrs Mubarak, described in the piece as the country’s Lady Macbeth. It would be good to put a face to such a prominent and hated figure in the article.

The rest of the magazine is pretty lightweight. The Dior piece has a great photo (top), but is a glorified catwalk review with little new to say, the lifestyle Omnivore section (note the Daily Beast iconography again) feels like Reader’s Digest. However, I have to point out some serious reservations about this piece:

It begins thusly: “Popular uprisings, while inspiring and (we hope) good for the citizens who spark them, aren’t just bad news for dictators. They’re often trouble for tourists as well… Political upheaval – in the Middle East or elsewhere – can suddenly limit access to some of the world’s most breathtaking sites. With that in mind, NEWSWEEK offers a guide for seize-the-day types.”

Really, Newsweek? Are you really saying “quick, go visit these pretty dictatorships and give them your money, before the people demand some rights”? Or is that a joke? I can’t decide which I’d rather it was. Whichever, it’s quite absurdly offensive in the context of all the previous pages, including the strong talk about women’s rights.

And though “My favorite mistake” is a cute idea for the inside back page interview, perhaps someone with whose money Tina Brown wasn’t so closely identified in her last big magazine failure (Harvey Weinstein famously part-bankrolled Talk) would have been a smarter choice for this highly scrutinized first issue.

What surprises me most, however, is how little print-digital synergy there is. I can’t easily follow Newsweek journalists talking about events in real time online. The only website featured is The Daily Beast, but Newsweek.com is not only still going, but carries more of the content of the magazine, clearly labeled, and without any Daily Beasting around it.

I can only presume that there will be a proper digital relaunch, and that some synergy will emerge – but right now, the two are as separate as if still produced by different companies. So much for the duality of digital and print. I hope to be able to report something more interesting happening on that front soon – and am surprised it wasn’t at least trailed in the mag. There’s a great opportunity to do something interesting in that area.

Summary
There’s some really strong journalism in there, and some really mismatched, poor-taste news-related gossip. And without the excuse of SEO bait, the gossip doesn’t really wash. This magazine has to stand or fall on the authority of its opinions, and the strength of its knowledge.

In a couple of pieces, I felt they were genuinely giving me well-written insight I might not have found elsewhere, on big news items I thought I understood. Much of the rest felt like cheap news-themed gags surrounded by throwaway, poorly researched information – and for that, I’ll stick to the web, thank you. At least there I don’t expect anything better.

As for the design, it’s crisp, clear, does its job, and good photo editing/placement allows the whole thing to work. Not groundbreaking, but serves the content well enough, has some smart nods to its online sibling, and doesn’t shout too loud. Nice to see some illustration in there, too.

Does it justify itself? Not yet. But, despite some missteps, I still feel that it’s a good enough platform from which to build. I don’t have any truck for those who say there’s no space for a weekly print news roundup in the internet age – just look at the success of The Week and The Economist.

The last relaunch had high aims, but thin prose. Tina Brown is known for having better instincts, and if she can get the news balance right, and truly make a content relationship between web and print thrive – for which she has the best opportunity yet to make something interesting, as her web platform existed independently of the mag first – then Newsweek might just become strong and, crucially, relevant again.

Very early days yet, though. Other critics have been sharpening their claws on it. Tina Brown responds to them here. What did you think?

NB: this is not the only model for an interesting, in-depth news magazine. Keep an eye out for my forthcoming review of a very different, new publication about current affairs, which proudly labels itself “The last to breaking news”.

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.

Why did Grafik stop?
To cut a long story short, our previous owner pulled the plug. He had a lot of other businesses and fingers in pies – he decided that he no longer wanted to carry on funding Grafik so he closed Adventures in Publishing (the company he had created to own the magazine).

As anyone who is passionate about publishing knows, you’re never going to make a million bucks unless you sell your soul and we were never prepared to do that. For us it’s always just been about trying to make a great magazine. So… when Adventures in Publishing was liquidated Caroline and I had the chance to bid on the assets and got the Grafik name with corresponding lock, stock and barrels.

After all the years of work we’ve put into Grafik, there was no way we could stand the idea of walking into a shop and seeing Grafik on the shelf made and published by someone else. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

We set up a partnership called Woodbridge & Rees to buy and own Grafik and we’re working with publisher Design Flux, which is part of a larger French publishing company. Design Flux has been set up in the UK to publish Grafik.

While Woodbridge & Rees owns Grafik and produces the design and editorial, Design Flux handles the magazine’s printing and distribution. We wanted to be able to concentrate on the bit we’re good at rather than have to deal with number crunching.

Our editorial office is based on Back Hill in Clerkenwell, where we also have a small gallery space. As well as producing Grafik, Woodbridge & Rees is hosting design-related exhibitions and events and creating editorial content for other clients. 

Why “Woodbridge & Rees”?
We wanted quite a straightforward, traditional title for the company (no faddish design studio-esque titles!) and to use our names in some way. Our surnames Roberts and Lewis sounded a bit blokey though, like a firm of plumbers! So we chose maiden names from our respective families (Woodbridge is Caroline’s Grandmother’s maiden name and Rees is my Mum’s maiden name). 

Weren’t you and Caroline co-owners of Grafik before?
We had been part-owners between 2005 and 2009. We had set up Grafik Ltd with another partner in 2005 after a management buy-out from previous publishers Archant. Grafik Ltd then sold the title to Adventures in Publishing in 2009 because we were struggling through the recession. AIP owned the title until it liquidated in June 2010. 

This time around it’s different because Caroline and I (as Woodbridge & Rees) are sole owners for the first time. Of course we still have to work with a publishing partner, but we are reshaping the model of how we publish.

The aim is to cut down on wastage and sell to people more directly. We used to spend a lot of money and waste a lot of copies being stocked in WH Smith. They take a massive percentage of the cover price and pulp about half of all copies they stock. So we’re aiming to replace WH Smith and newsagent sales with direct online sales. You can buy a single issue online and have it delivered the next day. 

We’re also distributing via Central Books, which targets art gallery and specialist book shops, where we know we’ll reach our core audience. 

You can still subscribe, of course, and we’re now publishing 6 times a year instead of 10-12. The magazine is nearly 30% bigger and designed and structured to hold much more content. 

We will also be doing a lot more online, with a lot of content published on our website feed. 

What happened to existing subscribers of Grafik? Will they receive the new edition?
We’re very conscious of the fact that people who had live subscriptions when AIP liquidated will have lost out on copies remaining on their subs. Sadly it’s just impossible for us to pay off our former employer’s debts by honouring all these copies. But we are making a gesture to all former subscribers by giving them a code to redeem a free copy of the first issue.
 

How is the new Grafik different from the old one?
Firstly, there’s more of it: 128 pages. We have also had a redesign, courtesy of Michael Bojkowski. Part of his brief was to emphasise and maximise content. In our previous incarnation we always felt that our content sometimes played second fiddle to the layout, so this time around it’s all about foregrounding our text and images, while still having a design with personality. We hope we’ve got it about right, but it’s a very tricky balance for any magazine, let alone when you’re designing a magazine about design. We’re very open to feedback and will keep evolving. 

There’s also a completely new editorial structure to the magazine. For example, we no longer have a ‘Showcase’ section at the front of the magazine – by the nature of their frequency, magazines can’t compete with the immediacy of blogs, so we didn’t want to try. Instead we’ll be showcasing new work online.

The magazine is a space for longer, more in-depth and visually rich articles. We have made the structure more fluid too, so we’re able to respond to our content rather than fit it to defined article lengths and themes. At the same time, we’ve kept firm favourites like Letterform and Logofrom (which have now been joined by Pictoform and Cover Shot), Talent, Six Books and Profile. We’ve also added new regular features like Graphic Design Heroes, Industry People, Live Brief, Future Classics and a regular illustration Profile.

The front section is now called Kaleidoscope, which is packed with new exhibitions, events, products, publications and dates for your diary. A continually shifting pattern…

We hope the magazine feels more lively, journalistic, visually rich, informative and generally packed with more stuff. 

Will you be interacting with readers online more than before?
Absolutely – as well as what’s mentioned above, there will be regular competitions and much more audio, video and interactive online content than before. We will always be in love with print but we’re also excited by how we can interact with people online. It’s a brilliant medium for creating a sense of community, and our biggest audience is our Facebook community, where we now have over 135,000 fans. 

What makes Grafik different from other design magazines?
This is a difficult question because it’s a bit like asking what makes one individual different from another.

Any magazine is a reflection of the people who work on it, so Grafik is a product of the editorial team, the designer and the extended family of contributors who make each issue. Perhaps we’re the slightly renegade younger sibling of the UK graphic design publishing family. I think maybe we have an independent spirit that comes across in the pages.

What are your hopes for the future of Grafik? 
It feels like very early days for us at the moment, in our new incarnation, but we want to re-establish our audience, sell lots of copies, expand our family of contributors and readers, reach more people around the world and keep our pages (both print and digital) exciting. 

Can you give us any sneak previews of forthcoming content in future issues?
The second new issue will have a special feature about publishing. [Disclosure: I've contributed to that. -- Ed] Profiles on Mind Design and Magnus Voll Mathiassen, features on non-Format, Yohji Yamamoto, Tony Forster, James Goggin, Gaite Lyrique and lots more! It’s published 24 March. 

Anything else you’d like to say about new Grafik?
Mainly a big thank you to every one who has supported us along the way, by buying and contributing to the magazine. And – our new one-word mantra – onwards!

There is currently a launch offer available for the latest edition.
www.grafikmagazine.co.uk

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)

Motley is a new photography magazine with a limited print run (500), and an unusual premise.

It’s designed by Swedish studio Umlaut, and is a photography magazine with no words (other than credits at the very end), and a unique conceit about the placement of each image.

Firstly, the magazine invites guest photographers to submit a series of images – but rather than display each series as a complete unit, the photographs have been carefully intermingled.

What makes it unique is that each photographer has been given a designated position on the page, which their images always adhere to. This underlying structure is laid out on the cover. Each photographer also gets a single double-page full bleed spread somewhere in the magazine.

Though actually figuring out who took which photo is still not easy, what this means is that the publication has a distinct energy and rhythm from most photography titles. It imposes a single narrative made up of these disparate parts, bringing to the forefront the editor’s curatorial eye.

The narrative that emerges, such as it is, feels like an experimental film, filled with quiet images, mostly of bodies and bareness. The overall effect leaves the reader with a somewhat melancholic aftertaste.

As an aside, the persons or people behind the magazine carefully keep themselves uncredited, other than the design studio previously mentioned. My hunch is that it’s the brainchild of photographer Anthony Hill, whose work is also inside this first issue, though I fully admit that this is based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Not that it matters, but the keenness of its creator/s to remain anonymous is unusual.

Though it didn’t take too long to enjoy, and I’m not sure if I’d ever decide go back and read it again, I like Motley. It’s a brave experiment, and the concept of combining a variety of images with a set of unique signifiers has a great deal of potential.

Apparently issues are created “when the mood feels correct.” I, for one, hope there’s another mood brewing soon.

In preparation for the release of their all-new relaunch under new(ish) management, grafik has quietly released “the missing issue”, number 187, which was about to go to the printer when the parent company went into administration. Instead of in its lusciously large format, with thick paper you could stop a bullet with, this time it’s a PDF (that only seems to open in my browser – not sure if that’s a fault on my end, or security settings on the PDF).

It was a redesign of sorts, art directed by Michael Bojkowski, who is also designing the new grafik, so it gives us an idea of where next month’s relaunch might be heading. They’ve also replaced ad pages with elegant close-ups of their logo’s typography.

Bits of it remind me of Bojkowski’s excellent print-on-demand publications zine and lineread, combined with some of It’s Nice That‘s rhythm in the front third (albeit with more variety in its treatment of text and images). The feature well is about fashion, including top designer types highlighting their favourite illustrators, who are then showcased (though perhaps not as much as I’d like). Finally at the back, the review section now includes a magazine roundup, written by Mr Bojkowski himself.

Something of a must read. Just don’t get too upset about the events and exhibitions from last July that you missed out on.

Click here to read grafik 187

Zinesters share their NYC
If anyone knows how to make the most of a tiny budget…

Harper’s Bazaar in “we scratch advertisers’ backs” non-shocker
Surely this is the most open secret since the grassy knoll?

South African teen magazine uses creative commons licenses
But how easy do they make it for the content to be remixed?

New magazine launches for pole dancers
Simply tuck $10 into the waistband of your nearest newsagent

Playboy goes all Willy Wonka
I said Wonka

Magazero offers free magazines anywhere around the world
As in beer

Pop‘s editor in chief resigns
Since its relaunch, it’s been a great magazine, and a glorious physical object. Hope her departure doesn’t change things. Her first cover star, lest we forget, was teenage blogger Tavi Gevinson, who is now working on a magazine with Sassy founder Jane Pratt

Magazines help children buy cigarettes
Face recognition software hits a glitch

A last look at Interni‘s Russian edition
Recently closed by its publisher, there’s some great architecture and design spreads in that link to enjoy

1960s French magazine covers have a lot of cheek
Speaking of which…

BUTT towels are now on sale
The funniest thing I saw at this year’s NY Art Book Fair

A history of Apple tablets
It’s been a long time coming. Check out the Macintosh Folio, designed by Jonathan Ive

Opium100 needs your help
Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em laugh

Ann Summers releases Cosmo tie-in range
Because diamonds are no longer a girl’s best friend. Men have to make do with Loaded’s Stamina Shot

Variety releases “slanguage” glossary
What the infopike has been waiting for

Lovely-looking new design mag launches
In an edition of only 100, sadly. Fortunately, its content is also here, and features many Magtastic Blogfavourites, including Jörg Koch and Mark Kiessling

Interview with Mono.kultur‘s Kai
The new issue is unsurprisingly gorgeous

Some Magazine looks interesting
Features unusual use of the comma,

Punk zine archive
Anarchy in the PDF

Put A Egg On It #3 announced
Lifetime subscriptions are available

Bidoun runs beautiful, individualised covers
They printed 5,000 copies, and stapled to the cover of each a photograph from a Cairo fleamarket

Stack America now offers six-month subscriptions
In case you need your independent magazine fix in smaller installments. Get ready for more seasonal offers from December 1st