Jean Snow [.net]

This Week in Magazines

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by

Jean Snow
in
  • The latest issue of PEN (163) takes a look at life design, meaning it covers items that are part of our everyday life from a design perspective. It’s a nice way to spotlight things that we don’t usually consider much.
  • BRUTUS (581) offers up a “Books to Travel With” feature, with most of it dealing with suggestions by various celebrities, and their reasoning. They also suggest books that you should be carrying around when you visit certain cities. And there’s a nice new gift if you subscribe to the magazine: a BRUTUS original bag featuring artwork by Shu-Thang Grafix.
  • AERA DESIGN (2005) is a new mook by the publishers of AERA (sort of like a Japanese version of TIME) that profiles 100 Japanese designers, dividing them in 5 categories (architecture, product, graphic, interior, and produce). I actually picked this one up, as it makes a great reference tool (every designer page includes images of some of his/her most popular works)
  • This month’s RELAX (105), “Model Japan,” gets blasted by Marxy and defended by Momus (follow the discussion here). I thought it made for a nice issue, and like that these models were presented in a different light, from a personal point of view.
  • The latest CASA BRUTUS (68) is a great issue, and another one that I picked up a couple of weeks ago (but was too lazy to mention here). “Will Design Save Japan?” is the name of the feature, and it’s a great rundown of the current best in Japanese design. They also briefly preview Tokyo Design Week, reminding us that they will again produce daily “free paper” editions of CASA BRUTUS (and according to the linked page, it looks like you’ll also be able to download them), and also offer up the CASA BRUTUS Cafe @ SELAN, not far from the Jingu Gaien event space (hosting Tokyo Designer’s Week and 100% Design Tokyo exhibitions) in Aoyama. Oh, and the new subscription gift for CASA BRUTUS is a nice-looking set of design-related fridge magnets.