Archive for the ‘Individual Mag Titles’ Category
Wooden Toy launches in Sydney and Melbourne
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010100 issues of IdN exhibition in Melbourne
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Listen up designers, this is a bit exciting…
IdN have just released their 100th issue, and to celebrate, they’ve sent us a copy of every single one of those issues to display on the Third Floor at our Elizabeth Street store. (Even the super early editions from back when they were called ‘MdN’ and had dodgy rave flier graphics on the covers!)
When viewed en masse, it becomes clear what a fascinating historical document of the design culture that IdN really is. On the covers of each of the one hundred issues spanning back 18 years… a microcosm of the design styles of the time reveal themselves, as the fractals of the early 90s meld into the sleek, flat vector aesthetic of the mid-2000s all the way up to, well, whatever it is we’re doing today.
Not to mention.. we’ll have limited copies of each and every issue available for sale, all at the bargain basement price of $16.95. So if you want to complete any holes in your collection, or just desperately need the David Carson cover from Oct/Nov 1998, get in quick!
This starts today and will be running for the next fortnight.
Win the last Copy of Carl*s Cars
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010As much as High Gear Monthly (okay, that’s not a real title…) would have you believe, a healthy interest in cars doesn’t have to make you a ‘car person’, with a denial of any interests outside the garage. As the first quarterly mag to successfully make car culture as aesthetically pleasing as a Polaroid snap, Carl*s Cars is a Norwegian gem that seeks to use vehicles as a means to make vehicles and culture park parallel. From gloomy underground garages to the scribbles of Justin Timberlake, this boutique mag’s love of people, cars and lifestyle even led the team to the far reaches of Finland, simply to visit some obscure town called Autotehtaankatu. Now that’s dedication to your mufflers.
Edition 27 of this innovative little publication features a great feature profiling the infamous French Citroën “surgeon” Jean Blondeau, a photoshoot in the parking lot of Monte Carlo Casino, and a rather lovely look at the rides of Norwegian psychedelic-rock group Serena Maneesh. According to lead singer Emil Nikolaisen, if the band were indeed a vehicle, they would be some “blurby, slurpy, silver machine on its way down the expressway to your skull.” Wow, both smooth AND creepy. In a fusion of fashion, culture, music, photography, social nuances and… well… cars (obviously), the illusive “Carl” and friends have crafted a wonderfully slick little pageturner that (unsurprisingly) has just about sold out at Mag Nation.
So here’s the clincher. With just ONE copy left in our Melbourne store, we would rather make this fair game than disappoint the masses.
To win the final copy of Carl’s paper drive, simply tell us the craziest thing you’ve ever done in a car. High-speed chases, laundry en route, letterbox baseball- anything remotely ridiculous at 80km/hr could snare you the final copy of Norway’s finest car culture magazine. (Mag Nation edit after a day of reflection… No. We don’t really want to hear about speed or vandalism. Crazy stuff in a car yes, but please ensure it is legal or at least socially responsible. Speed does kill folks). Editor Karl Eirik Haug claims he used his Citroën DS as an office, a bedroom and a “meeting place for independent thinkers” all over Scandinavia. Surely now, you can do better than that. Enter your responses in the comments field below.
NB. Alfa Romeos, keep your tales reasonably clean… we sure won’t publish gear-changing backseat motoring adventures, unless it’s creatively written in haiku.
Get (almost) ready for Wooden Toy #7
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
It has to be said that it’s been a little while between drinks! And by their own admission, Wooden Toy is the world’s only quarterly magazine that only comes out only once a year.
With the most intricate and incredibly detailed illustration and graphic design adorning each page, amazing packaging, absolutely no advertising and all-round attention to detail like no other mag out there… well, it’s little wonder that Wooden Toy takes a little but longer to put together than say, your average issue of Practical Poultry!
Like many of you, we’ve been eagerly awaiting news of the next issue for many months now… and while we’re not sure exactly when it’s going to come out, we do know that it’ll be here sooner rather than later. And from what we’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to be well and truly worth the wait.
Details from the Wooden Toy site:
Can you hear that beat?? Yep, that’s right people, it’s the sound of the Music edition jamming this way. Wooden Toy Quarterly the ‘MUSIC’ edition features interviews and profiles with rocking cover artist Ken Taylor (AUS), Tara McPherson (USA), Mcbess (FRA), Elefant Traks’ Urthboy, Hermitude & Unkle Ho (AUS), Woodstock MC Chip Monk (USA), Tim Minchin (AUS), Wax Tailor (FRA), The Doves (UK), Nine Mile (CAN) plus loads more hidden tracks and samples!
Beautiful Escher-esque New Yorker cover
Monday, July 12th, 2010
We love love love The New Yorker.
They have those extra long profile features spanning about 50 pages which seem to make a point of always telling you what the subject’s parents did for a living and cartoons that oscillate between either being side-splittingly hilarious or… completely incomprehensible.
Our friends over at Mag Culture recently brought to our attention this cover on the July 4th issue, illustrated by Bob Staake. Riffing on Escher’s Sky and Water to produce this fantastic commentary on the BP Oil Spill in a typically understated manner. Classic.
Where is my copy of Apartamento?
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
We’ve been fielding lots of inquiries recently as to the whereabouts of the latest issue of Apartamento.
And frankly, we’ve been wondering a bit ourselves!
The bad news is that there’s been some sort of a mix-up that has delayed their shipment to this side of the world. The good news is that we’re on the case and doing our best to get these in as soon as we possibly can.
We still don’t have a firm date as to when we can expect to take delivery of the latest issue of the world’s favourite ‘everyday interiors’ mag, but rest assured… we’ll be shouting it from the rooftops as soon as they come in.
As Ralph falls, Apollo rises…
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
When Ralph magazine got the chop earlier this month, it gave us cause to think about the supposedly ever more loudly chiming death knell of mainstream print media and the way it’s often portrayed in the media at large.
We’re getting pretty used to hearing about magazines shutting their doors or turning their physical doors into… digital doors. If some of the pundits are to be believed, paper is so passé that we will soon be wiping our arses with a new device called the iPoo.
Yes, it is true that a bunch of magazines are closing down, but it this unusual?
If we really wanted to examine the health and desirability of print, wouldn’t we want to look at “net closures” meaning closures minus new magazine launches? And what if we found that new magazine launches were also accelerating? Perhaps, our take on the death of print might be somewhat different. Perhaps the real story is not so much the death of print, but an acceleration of the natural life cycle of your average magazine.
That said, this wouldn’t be such an interesting story now, would it. Therefore, why are we not at all surprised that while Ralph is closing, no one has mentioned the launch of a new Aussie lads mag called Apollo.
When discussing Ralph’s closure in The Age, a representative of ACP was paraphrased as attributing its demise to a shift in the tastes of young men.
However, with the first issue of Apollo now on shelf, flicking through its pages is a veritable treat for your average fan of lads mags. Not that we would know, of course, the male contingent of mag nation’s staff are way too culturally refined and intellectual to check out those gorgeous Apollos Sirens.
And we really are interested in the articles such as those on Bear Grylls (and yes, he is covered and blood and eating the possibly still beating heart of some kind of wild animal), the Red Bull Air Race and Wolfmother. Ok, so we did linger over the bikini clad babes too. Which is possibly an indication that the tastes of young men (or older men for that matter!) don’t appeared to have changed very much at all…
We could debate whether Apollo will succeed or not, but that is not the point of this post.
Anecdotal evidence (and we see it more than anyone else) tells us that new magazines are being born faster than ever before. Yes, some mags are going to disappear, but even really popular mags have suffered this fate in the past. Anyone remember a wee little mag called The Face?
R.I.P Ralph. And welcome to the world, Apollo. We hope you’ll be on our shelves for many years to come!
Sweet Treats: Frankie’s new cookbook
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
After the success of Afternoon Tea, the good people at Frankie have come up with a new recipe book, called Sweet Treats.
It’s packed to the brim with delicious recipes for sticky apples, candy hearts, mint-patty delights, florentines, caramel popcorn balls, chocolate crackles, coconut marshmallows, honey joys and plenty more slices of sugary deliciousness!
Now if only I could track down that recipe for jelly slice…
The Gentlewoman – new from the creators of Fantastic Man
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
One of the most hotly anticipated titles that we’ve had in a long time finally landed yesterday…
From the creators of Fantastic Man comes their new women’s fashion magazine The Gentlewoman. Taking the Patrick Bateman-esque sensibilities of their men’s magazine (is that unfair? probably…) and channeling them into something altogether more pink and feminine (?!?) The Gentlewoman seems like an altogether new kind of women’s magazine.
Discussing housekeeping with model Daisy Lowe (ummm…), correspondance with the artist Alice Rawsthorn (Q: “Is there any alternative to Smythson stationery?” A: “Always!”) and interviewing both the artist Jenny Holzer and London clubland legend Princess Julia, this mag covers a lot of ground.
One of my favourites is the Tips section, ‘for exchanging idea and recommendations’ which, in this issue is about gift giving ideas, featuring recommendations from many of the woman featured inside the mag—Zoe Cassavettes recommends wine or champagne glasses, while Claudia Schiffer suggests bespoke jewellery!
Ridiculous and fantastical while also grounded and common-sensical, taking the best bits of the past while also looking into the future… this is definitely a welcome addition to the women’s mags landscape.
These have already sold out in our New Zealand stores, but there’s a handful left in Sydney and Melbourne available both in-store and online if you get in quick!
Update: We found a few extra copies for NZ, which are available at our Ponsonby and Queen Street stores.
Update: Sorry, they’re all gone! But you can buy a Gentlewoman subscription to make sure you don’t miss out on issue 2.
Brand new Monster Children… issue 26
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010It’s that time of the quarter again, ushering in the change of seasons with the arrival of a brand new issue of Monster Children.
As usual, it contains some of the best from across the worlds of skateboarding, photography, surfing and music (in approximately that order.)
Issue 26 has two covers… one by photographer Robert Yager featuring a photo from his series on Latino gangs in L.A. during the 1990s and the other by Sydney based designer, Jonathan Zawada (who you may recall from his entry choosing his favourite magazines on this very blog).
Otherwise, there’s an interview with the amazing Los Angeles-based painter Lisa Somberg, photographer Tobin Yelland talking about his favourite photo, a feature on Jonathan Zawada and his incredible pencil drawings, Stephen ‘ESPO’ Powers’ recent ‘community billboard’ paintings in Philadelphia, an interview with indie rock upstarts Yeasayer and a peek inside The Big Pink’s iPod.
