A Few Magazine Notes

Earlier this week I was at Junkudo (the big bookstore in Ikebukuro) for my regular magazine browsing session, and I took some notes for possible posts (or things I wanted to get more info on), but never got around to writing them. I’ll do that now, just to put it out there, and for later reference.

• Girlie: News and Culture Magazine
  Girlie recently went though a relaunch, and the new look and content is quite nice — and doesn’t seem to fit the magazine’s name so much, except for the back pages. The latest issue (Vol. 5, pictured above) has a very interesting feature on favorite issues of certain magazines, approaching it from a thematic point of view (i.e. best issues of magazines that covered music). Since a lot of Japanese magazines tend to have a specific theme for every issues that take up most their content, it makes sense that certain issues stand out from the rest. Also, on page 64 you’ll find a funny full-page picture of Kiiiiiii.
• Title
  The latest issue of Title (61) has a great cover feature: “Let’s Play with Good Design.” Title has had a lot of good issues recently — always worth leafing through.
• G-mark
  That feature in Title gives us a lot of background info on the annual Good Design Award. Products that have been selected for the award are allowed to display the “G-mark.”
• Viewer: Cross-City Design
  Viewer is a brand new magazine that looks at city design. The main articles in this premiere issues cover Tokyo’s train stations (some really nice photography here, especially the aerial shots), the recent big collaborations between architects and famous fashion brands, and some new modern sites in Seoul. The next issue promises a look at Beijing 2004.