Comments on: Monocle, Finally

By: Erik Brown

Erik Brown — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:34:22 +0000

After seeing the magazine here in NY, my first thought was comparing it to late ’90s Wallpaper magazine. Then, reading the 2 comments here about the comparison made me curious. Looking at the credits for Monocle, the editor-in-chief is Tyler Brule – initial editor-in-chief of Wallpaper until 2002 or so. Now it makes sense…..at least I wasn’t crazy for seeing a sharp similarity.

BTW, big fan of your website, Jean. Thanks.

By: M2

M2 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:24:16 +0000

Purchased Monocle today.
Is very sharp magazine.

I like the paper, format and photos.

Design and social issues can mix well together.
Another reason why I prefer Monocle over Wallpaper.

By: Akane

Akane — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:45:25 +0000

yes I’m afraid I share a mutual feeling with akatsuki-san on this. Love the visual, paper quality, writing, but content seems a bit weak. A lot of the articles feel incomplete or ‘shirikire tonbo’ as we say in Japanese. I guess there are certain expectations for prints and I would definitely read a blog of a site if i wanted bit-size contents.

By: Jean Snow

Jean Snow — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:14:15 +0000

As part of their online content, you’ll find guides to 25 cities, all downloadable as PDFs.

By: akatsuki

akatsuki — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:06:26 +0000

I can understand that, but at the same time, for some reason I found the article about Miura golf clubs fascinating and wanted to know more, both about the clubs and about the forging process. Some of the other articles I ended up feeling the same about, but I loved the article about the Japanese navy.

The other thing I wish for would be a city index. This could be online or wherever, but if I am flying out to Tokyo or Stockholm or wherever, it would be nice to be able to click on a map and get links to all the articles about a place, organized by their ABCDE categorizations. I often felt this lack in other magazines (such as Wallpaper), which I felt was intentional so they could sell their city guides, but given the increased price of online access, it makes sense to put some exclusive content there.

By: Jean Snow

Jean Snow — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:49:47 +0000

I like the mix. I don’t think I could handle it if they were all in-depth. I like to have bit-sized chunks mixed in with the longer pieces.

By: akatsuki

akatsuki — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:31:49 +0000

I have to say I like the magazine a lot, but could wish for a little more depth and a little less breadth. Too many articles, and some of them feel like they are just brief one-offs when they all seem to be interesting.

By: Jean Snow

Jean Snow — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:04:56 +0000

Unfortunately, I can’t afford a subscription right now, so looks like I’ll miss out on the online content, but I do like that the magazine is placing so much importance on this web stuff.

And Dan, I’ll email you directly.

By: Dan Hill

Dan Hill — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:00:59 +0000

Well, yes, we’ll be trying to offer something different online – as well as covering the basic magazine content, we’ll be focusing on more broadcast audio and video led formats. Watch that space.

And drop me a line sometime, Jean, would be good to hook up, maybe?

By: Jean Snow

Jean Snow — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:10:40 +0000

Really a terrific magazine, Dan, congrats on the launch! And from the web content I’ve seen so far, looks like you will be offering some rather attractive online supplements as well.

By: Dan Hill

Dan Hill — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:12:57 +0000

Glad you liked it, Jean! :)