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So much for Plan A

December 11, 2011 in Personal promotion, USA | 1 comment

So, yes, it turns out that running the world’s most popular Books section (no exaggeration, I’ve seen the numbers) is somewhat time consuming.

Which means no frequent magazine-themed blogging in the mainstream for me. But I did manage to somehow squeeze one out before the end of the year, and more will emerge before too long.

For now, you may satisfy yourselves with my newest missive, “11 Amazing Magazines You’ve Never Heard Of“, a title that regular Magtastic readers will find inaccurate, and grammarians will find ends with a preposition. Still, plenty to enjoy by clicking through. It will also surprise no-one that it’s a slideshow. We have company standards to maintain, you know.

AND! It gives me a further opportunity to keep up with an annual tradition here on Magtastic, which is to remind you all that a Stack America subscription is an excellent last-minute gift for anyone Stateside. Just sayin’.

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 »

Review: Newsweek, Part One – The History

March 11, 2011 in Archives, Death of print, Review, USA | 1 comment

A Brit and a woman created and nurtured Newsweek. Now a British-born woman is moving it forward, pinning its hopes on a high-profile, print-digital merger. Can it survive – and is it any good?

I’m dividing this into two pieces, because I think that, in order to better judge and understand the magazine, it would be helpful first to understand something of the history and nature of American news weeklies, and their previous digital forays.

Read the rest of this entry »

Review: New York Times Magazine redesign

March 9, 2011 in Opinion, Review, USA | 9 comments

Two weekly American news-related magazines relaunched in two days. Very different stories, however – and very different results.

First up, The New York Times Magazine.

Read the rest of this entry »

News from the Magosphere Feb 26th ’11

February 26, 2011 in Archives, Clever ideas, ipad, Magazine covers, Trend, USA | 1 comment

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

Review: Wired (USA)

February 10, 2011 in Opinion, Review, technology, USA | 2 comments

Though I am a subscriber, I can usually take or leave Wired US. Each year, there’s a few good articles and some interesting design choices, but overall it has an unnecessary love of celebrity, and each issue never really hangs together as a package. The front sections in particular are very uneven.

That’s not the case, however, with the latest issue: The Underworld Exposed.



It takes its regular features and subverts them in interesting thematic ways. The piece about “what’s inside a product you know” is about street heroin; their How To is “How To Ship Coke”; the Test page is about knockoff versions of famous products.


The main features are about the small Romanian town at the centre of European internet scams, the value of illegal human organ trafficking, and people who break lottery codes in order to launder money. The text never tries to moralize. It’s surprisingly bold stuff.

It often feels like an issue of mid-1990s Colors, with a bit of VICE thrown in. Which, in my book, is a very good thing.


I really enjoyed the design of this infographic spread about New York sex workers – nothing stereotypical, no fake neon or tittersome burlesque design. Just straightforward facts, letting the banality of reality speak for itself.

Still not sure about some of the design decisions – the layout of Ricky Jay’s superb collection of historical criminals is a little awkward, for example, and as so often happens with Wired, the cover feels like an overly researched missed opportunity – but overall, this is an unusually focused and engaging issue.

Definitely worth picking up or buying on your iPad.

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