Jean Snow [.net]

This Week in Magazines

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by

Jean Snow
in

Let me start off by saying that I went through all of these issues a couple of weeks ago, and just never got around to writing this post. Better late than never, I says!

  • PEN (184) devotes an issue to “Sensationeel! Nederland,” which, you know, means they offer up a beautiful guide to all things Holland in the way that only PEN can do — exhaustive and catalogue-like. They also include an insert on Dutch graphics.
  • BRUTUS (602) has its annual Autumn/Winter stylebook, with the theme “Fashion, Evergreen, My Classic.” Yeah, right. As with all their fashion-heavy issues, it’s oversized and low on text.
  • I don’t think I really need to add anything to the recent re-launch of TOKION JAPAN (53 — it’s interesting that they’ve kept the old numbering). “The First Glocal Magazine” is bigger, with a nice cover stock, and personally, I really like what they’ve done with it. It includes 2 inserts, one with content (in English and Japanese) from the US edition of TOKION, and the other for the latest projects from ROCKET.
  • KING (1) is a new men’s magazine that presents itself in a thick cheap format (think Japanese tabloids or weekly comics magazine), and I must say that I found it interesting to the sort of traditional men’s magazine format get re-mixed in this way, with lots of content that feels slapped together and a bit messy.
  • This month’s issue of REAL DESIGN (5) includes a large round-up of new mobile phones, including a 2-page look at Nendo’s DoCoMo N702iS (which I also included in this week’s edition of my “On Design” column).
  • I said I liked recent issues of EYESCREAM, and then with their October issue they go and do a Fuji Rock issue, even trying to sell it as “Fuji Rock as Lifestyle.” Boring.
  • STUDIO VOICE (370) knows where to find the “Ultimate Motion Graphics,” and it would have been so nice for them to have been able to include a DVD with samples of the works they mention. They also include a guide to YouTube, and a “DVD Must See List.”
  • This month’s CASA BRUTUS (79) is pretty much devoted to Tadao Ando, and so fans of the man will want to take a look (too bad it’s not a bilingual issue).