Sometimes it’s hard not to gush too much when writing these introductions, but we absolutely love Becky Smith’s work.  Over the years this pioneering art director has been involved with a number of our favourite magazines from I-D to British Vogue, Wallpaper* and Harper’s Bazaar to founding perennial mag nation favourite Lula in 2005.

A fashion magazine without being a catalogue, Lula is rarely described without using some combination of the words ‘dreamy’, ‘whimsical’ and ‘ethereal’ but perhaps more important than that particular aesthetic, it has carved out a style that’s a bold combination of indie smarts and high-end glossy appeal.

After almost five years, Smith left Lula in 2009 to bring us the inaugural edition of her new title, Twin magazine. We wrote about Twin when it first came out a few months ago (they’ve only released a single issue so far) and it’s definitely a magazine lover’s magazine; packaged in a large, hard cover book format and some 250 (!) individual covers.

In Smith’s own words, Twin is “more grown up, versatile and stronger” than Lula, and is definitely one of those rareties that is dripping with both style and substance.

And while issue number two isn’t due out until May, we’re really pleased to have Becky Smith choosing her five favourite magazines, which will hopefully serve to tide you over just a little bit until then.

1. Twen

You can find some old ones online. A German magazine created by groundbreaking art director Willy Fleckhouse in 1959. Fleckhouse was mainly a typographer, however he really allowed the photography to do the work and ran them BIG! And, graphically, the grid was constantly present.

2. The Face

I grew up with this magazine, my old boss Robin Derrick art directed on it with Neville Brody. Two of the best art directors… It just perfectly encapsulated what 13 to 25-year olds were feeling about music at the time. It was at its best in the beginning – in the early ’80s – and it introduced me to writers like Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons and photographers such as Juergen Teller and David Sims.

3. Vogue (French edition)

My favourite of the Vogues. I can’t read a word but it doesn’t matter… the photography, the styling, the models. C’est tout…

4. Dumbo feather, pass it on

Just purely for the genius name. I’ve read a few ideas on the theory of why it’s called that… Something to do with the elephant I like to think.

5. Interview

Again the old ones were always the best, but I also like the current mag – especially the Craig McDean shoot with Kirsten Stewart. I also like the old covers of pop icons like Dolly Parton, Madonna, Diana Ross etc. The fact that it also featured illustrations by Warhol means it just can’t be beaten.

If you know anything about mag nation by now, you will undoubtedly know that we adore Frankie.

Frankie is the original thinking gal’s guide to everything that’s good in fashion, music, craft and practically anything else for that matter. You know a magazine has made an impact when it becomes part of common parlance…”that is just so Frankie” now holds meaning for a very broad demographic.

Far and away one of our biggest sellers, we’ll often get mums coming in to buy a copy for their daughters as well as one for themselves (not to mention the odd male fan!) Harking back to the glory days of the sadly, long-defunct Sassy magazine, Frankie’s broad ranging appeal stems from the fact that it’s not afraid to be a unique and inspirational voice.

So, for this edition of ‘My Top 5 Mags’, we’re absolutely chuffed to bring you Frankie’s editor, Jo Walker to tell you a little bit about some of her favourite magazines…

1. Bust Magazine

This is the first magazine I ever read that I felt truly ‘got’ me. Spawned in the heady, riot grrrl days of 1993, it’s full of rad music interviews, craft, indie-cool fashion and homewares, celebrities you can actually look up to (they were heading up the Tina Fey fan club long before you or I had ever heard of her) and smart-arse opinion pieces. Basically it made feminism cool again.

Bust is clever, cute, and always a bit grungy around the edges. I think of it like the wise older sister I never had who was into L7 and Bikini Kill in the ‘90s, wears retro glasses with op shop shirts, and still goes to gigs every Friday night while hubby sits at home with their adorable three-year-old called Nugget, or something equally rock ‘n’ roll.

The founding editor, Debbie Stoller, went on to launch the Stitch ‘n Bitch movement with books of the same name and practically created nu-craft. She is basically my publishing idol. Also, I wish I could crochet as well as her.

2. Adbusters

Even though I’m sure founder Kalle Lasn would hate to be lauded by a sell-out, corporate-media running dog stooge like myself, I admire the hell out of him and his mag. Alongside ‘No Logo’, Culture Jamming was practically my bible at uni and Adbusters continues the tradition of playful political subversion he started 20 years ago.

On first flick it’s the ‘subvertisements’ that get you (regular ads creatively hacked by activists and design nerds), but I also love the first-person stories from little edges of the world I know I’ll never travel to, the feisty research pieces on geopolitics, social democracy and environmentalism, and the expert panellists they get in to discuss their take on the state of the world.

The only trick is managing to read it while sipping on a Diet Coke (bad multinational!), sitting on your IKEA sofa (soulless, big-box capitalists!) or waiting in line at Coles (mega retailers killing small business!)

Aside from that, Adbusters is basically the Banksy of magazines. I hope it takes over the world.

3. Love

Here’s another editor whose career I’d like to steal. Katie Grand used to be fashion director at the sadly missed The Face magazine (I don’t think I’m talking out of turn when I call it THE best magazine of all time) and then editor-in-chief at their style spinoff, POP. The fact that she’s married to one of the guys from Pulp also makes me envy her enormously.

So when I heard she was launching a new title, I knew even before I saw it that I’d be in love. And then I saw it. The first issue. Beth Ditto. In the nud. Looking saucy as hot tamales. Swoon.

But wait, there’s more! Inside one of the most cracking covers I’ve ever seen was a labour of, well, love. Reading every little interview and tidbit, you can tell that every single person/style/designer/celebrity/random mime in there (yes, they did a fashion shoot with the street performers who hung out the front of their office) is truly loved and enthused over by Katie and her staff. It’s not cool for the sake of it; it’s not sneering down from some haute couture ivory castle. It just can’t help being awesome.

4. Tokion

Dare I admit that I first came across this gem in a sharehouse toilet? Yes I dare. And I’ll also say that it makes bloody good bathroom reading material.

Here’s another mag that treads the fine line between being cool and being too-cool-for-school. Between being smart and being a smarty pants. They manage to cover cutting edge art, fashion, design, culture and rock ‘n’ roll without the sneering, ‘we’re better than you’ vibe of an NME or a Vice. And I love them for it. Let’s face it – these days, who can deal with the angst?

Also, unlike a lot of mags these days (and especially good if you’re planning on taking it to the smallest room in the house), Tokion is a BIG read. BIG interviews. BIG features. Even though I love design (and this mag is ace at that as well), I am, not surprisingly, a word person, so this is a big plus for me. They don’t scrimp on text. No sirree.

Best story ever: when they smuggled a journo into North Korea pretending he was a movie reviewer attending the Pyongyang Film Festival. Great pictures. Great insight into the country. Great piss-taking of Kim Jong-Il.

Two thumbs up.

5. Vanity Fair

Alongside Newsweek and Time, this is my all-star, number-one-with-a-bullet airport and plane magazine. Light and fluffy enough for early morning flights, but with enough substance to get you through an unexpected layover and/or trip from hell.

Admittedly I could do without the Tatler-esque NYC high-society hobnobbing they’re always banging on about, but I suppose that in itself provides some Gossip Girly type escapism at 5am while you’re sitting on a tarmac waiting forever for ‘the last pieces of luggage to be loaded’.

Just like Tokion they love a BIG, long-play profile piece. And they’re always intriguing. Just picking up the nearest issue I can reach in my bookshelf, they’ve covered Obama, Spinal Tap, Peter Jackson and Marlene Dietrich. What’s not to love about that?

The other big reason to pick up VF is the writing of one of my personal journalism gods: Christopher Hitchens. Sure he went a bit crazily right-wing during the whole Iraq War thing, but that doesn’t stop his first-person account of learning to run on a treadmill any less hilarious. Devestatingly articulate fat man with unconvincing combover trying to be The Biggest Loser? Surely that in itself is worth the price of admission.

If you’ve paid any attention to the state of design in the last few years, then you’ve almost certainly heard of our latest participant in this on-going feature where we ask some of our most admired publishing identities to single out their five favourite magazines.

Jonathan Zawada first popped up on our radar a couple of years ago doing record sleeve design for The Presets (with whom he later won an ARIA award for the cover of their album Apocalypso) and since then has been involved in a mind-boggling array of diverse projects from art direction for Pop magazine (with collaborator Shane Sakkeus), to the world’s first fashion… comic, Petit Mal and more recently, Tru$t Fun! a line of digitally printed fractal pattern silk scarves which, to be honest, are way better than the idea sounds.

In between all of this, he’s collaborated with The Selby, drawn incredible hand sketched record sleeves for Perth-based electro sensations Canyons (recently signed to the DFA), designed a t-shirt for Urban Outfitters, morphed together dolphins and fighter jets into multi-coloured psychedelic phantasms for a K.I.M. record sleeve design and generally worked on a number of fascinating and fun-filled projects which are characteristically imbued with a sense of humour and wonder.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, we’re really thrilled to have him here to let you know a little bit about his favourite mags. Over to you, Jonathan…

I’m not a big consumer of magazines, to be honest they’ve always made me feel like I wasn’t quite good enough! Here’s my top 5 that are so good that I get over myself…

1. Dot Dot Dot

This is by far and above my favourite magazine and the only thing in my life that I’ve bothered to commit to subscribing to. I’m not even sure if I’d call it a magazine really, it’s more of a journal.

Their website describes it thus;

“Since its conception in 2000 DDD has immatured into a jocuserious fanzine-journal-orphanage based on true stories deeply concerned with art-design-music-language-literature-architecture and uptight optipessimistic stoppy/revelatory ghostwriting by friendly spirits mapping b-sides and out-takes”.

I think it initially started in the Netherlands but it seems to exist entirely independent of place and time. They cover any number of topics in any number of incredibly interesting and clever ways and more than any other thing I’m aware of, both its content and it’s methodology have shaped the way I approach all my work.

2. 032c

This is a Berlin based magazine and to me is the magazine format perfected. They manage to roll art, politics, fashion, design, science and just about anything else you can think of into a perfect package that treats everything with an equal respect that places it all in an interconnected framework.

It doesn’t talk down and it doesn’t talk too far up either, it’s just extremely well put together and although the subject matter may be quite considered it hasn’t succumbed to the sort of aloof sterility of similar magazines like Monocle - it still has a very human personality. Both 032c and Dot Dot Dot do something that sets them apart from almost all other magazines for me, they ignore the idea of “new” and simply focus on interesting.

3. Self Service

This one is a pretty obvious choice. It gets my vote as being the perfect fashion magazine. It’s design and art direction is impeccable and that’s what helps it become just as much the object of desire as the clothes and people contained within it.

This magazine taught me a hell of a lot about art direction when I was just starting out and its responsible for having created a ton of other copycats out there - not just me.

4. Paradis

I don’t know much about this magazine, I just know that I love it. It’s kind of like a learned “gentleman’s” magazine. Everything about it is immaculate, I guess its sort of the men’s version of Self Service.

5. Lodown

I never expected to like this magazine as much as I do because the culture it represents isn’t really a culture that I see myself as a part of. What’s great about it is that it seems to have managed to avoid ever getting stuck into having an image of itself that has to be upheld.

I met the editor of it one night in Berlin and was absolutely staggered to find out that producing the magazine really only consumes a small portion of his time, the rest of it is spent working as a commercial graphic designer, djing and doing any number of other projects.

He’s one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met too which just makes it all the better!

There are a few magazines that we stock that really seem to define the heart and soul of what we do… those kindred spirits that sum up just about everything that we love about niche publishing. Sydney-based publishing sensation Dumbo feather, pass it on is definitely one of these rare few.

Founded by New Zealand-born Kate Bezar in 2004 (after a short career in management consultancy of all things!) Dumbo feather is devoted to singling out fascinating people and asking them to tell their stories in their own words. Five years and twenty issues on, Bezar’s quarterly ‘mook’ (it’s a bit book, it’s a bit magazine… geddit?) continues to feature inspiring interviews with a diverse and consistently amazing range of people.

Last week, we launched a new feature on this blog where we ask some of our favourite mag folks to choose their favourite magazines and tell us a little bit about them (with Erica Bartle from Girl With a Satchel). This time, we’re really excited to have Dumbo feather’s own Kate Bezar on board for round number two…

1. SoHi

This lovely mag comes out of the Southern Highlands of NSW and is all about recognising and exporting the “creativity of all SoHi dwellers, of all ages and all persuasions, with that creativity expressing itself through food, architecture, craft, and interiors.”

It’s really well-designed and put together by some very clever folk; Rebecca and Julian Wolkenstein (he’s a superb photographer we’ve used for Dumbo feather and she’s, well she’s got her fingers in so many creative pies it’s ridiculous yet highly admirable) and Sarah King who once had a great design store called Arp in Tasmania. Loved the first issue and really looking forward to numero 2.

2. Apartamento

I only possess one copy of this Spanish mag (produced in English … they still need a good proof-reader), but found it SO refreshing.

At last a mag for those of us who love to indulge our curiosity about how others live, but like to read about real people rather than celebs. The images are unstyled, shot without artificial lighting and raw. Top shelf stuff.

3. Art & Australia

I had dinner with the publisher of this mag last week and was amazed to learn it’s 46 years old … I just find that so incredibly admirable and inspiring. I thought it was a big deal to get to 5 years old!

As much as the mag itself, I also love the books they publish. Their most recent; ‘Current‘  is just awesome. Designed by John Warwicker (who we’ve profiled in Dumbo Feather) it’s ‘the bible’ of artists in our part of the world.

4. Selvedge

Sophisticated, cutting-edge craft for anyone with a passion for fabric, texture, the handmade, the organic, the indigenous …

5. Map Magazine

Last year I was on a panel with Carl Lingren, Map’s founder, and a was blown away by his vision for what media and publishing could (and should) be. That Map has just celebrated its tenth birthday is testament to the fact that others do too.

It’s a local Brisbane street press with the aim of fostering “a culture of confidence, spirit & individuality in people to help them embrace a mindset where they can be positive about the future.” Hoo rah to that.

Map’s always full of the best local and international design bits and great interviews with a strong focus on sustainability. Right up this girl’s alley.

At mag nation we make no secret about the fact that one of our very favourite blogs out there is Erica Bartle’s Girl With a Satchel. Started two years ago by the Brisbane-based former deputy editor of Girlfriend, Girl With A Satchel has been described as “Top Gear meets Media Watch for the magazine industry.” A dose of pop culture and publishing with an undeniably girly slant, Erica’s (award winning!) blog provides a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the world of glossy mags with a real focus on local Australian titles.

It is with great pleasure then, that we introduce Erica as the first contributor to a new feature on this blog where we call on people we admire within the wider publishing/blogging/design world and get them to tell us a little bit about their top five favourite magazines.

Ladies and gentlemen, Erica Bartle….

1. Australian Traveller

I’ve only recently discovered “AT”, as it’s known by readers and staff, and I’m hooked. Its mission is to encourage Aussies to see more of their own backyard, rather than burning carbons en route to Europe. So, with that in mind, I already I like it. Despite its mission, AT doesn’t take its readers for a ride: its commitment to honesty is a big plus.

Reviewers generally pay their own way and tell it like it is, but the notion of the ‘Aussie fair go’ rings true: there’s no poo-pooing for the sake of poo-pooing; generally the critiques are positively framed. And this gives the mag an overall upbeat vibe. The writing is excellent - literary, even. And funny – witty similes and asides abound. The photography and layouts give the magazine a professional, slick appeal. A big, bloody thumbs-up for this little independently published Aussie battler.

2. Frankie

Sometimes I feel intimidated by Frankie because I haven’t read the right books or seen the right films or love the right bands. But I’d sooner be made to feel intellectually inadequate than fat or ugly. So as a young women’s magazine, it gets props for that. The thing I admire most about Frankie is that it introduces us to cool and quirky people every month living their lives seemingly oblivious to the trappings of materialism and mainstream definitions of success. How do they track these people down?

Also working in Frankie’s favour is its reluctance to pay lip service to the mega-brands of the magazine world, its diversity of voices and appreciation of old-school pastimes. It also wins points for nostalgia: if you’re an 80s kid, you’ll dig the references to Winnie Cooper and scrunchies. It’s also not afraid to call Australia home – in fact, it embraces the cultural cringe and runs with it (how bogan can you go?). It’s the Missy Higgins of magazines.

3. Notebook:

I’m putting this one in place of O: The Oprah Magazine to keep the recommendations local. Since ditching the flower vase covers, Notebook: has taken on a sort of O vibe, telling us to do things such as “Find yourself: make peace with the past and become your own person.” To me, that’s a far better calling than finding the hottest heels for under $100, but perhaps I’m showing my age?

Notebook: is edited by Caroline Roessler, who used to be managing editor for The Australian Women’s Weekly, so you can see why it’s going where it’s going. It wants to BE the new AWW. Whether it will knock the venerable old girl off her publishing perch is yet to be seen, but Notebook: will be looking pretty while she tries. And I LOVE an underdog!

Roessler is making Notebook: less homely, more worldly; less “this is how you remove a stain”, more “this is how you keep your husband from straying.” She prides herself on commissioning some of the country’s best writing talent who put their spin on personal matters and social issues. It’s an engaging read. And I secretly LOVE the bookmarks that come with each issue.

4. Vogue Australia

As anyone who’s seen The September Issue would know, Vogue is Vogue. It’s the creme de la creme of fashion publishing. And with that comes great expectations. I often wish that Vogue Australia would do more to champion the causes of Australian designers and retailers (including online retailers) but it’s unashamedly full of itself and prides itself on presenting readers with only the BEST in fashion - which it deems to hail from Europe and America at a stretch. I can appreciate that but will continue to bang on about patriotism until the cows come home to Wodonga.

Otherwise, I adore the magazine’s features – its writers are tapped into the female Zeitgeist and share a similar sensibility to mine - and also the arts and culture pages and interviews with glamorous women whose lives I can never hope to aspire to. Vogue is fashion fairytales for grown-up girls.

5. Girlfriend

Showing complete bias here, as Girlfriend is a former magazine beat of mine. That said, I’m delighted when I get it in the post each month, as it gives me a comprehensive insight into the world of The Teen. And we all know it’s the kids who are setting the agenda, at least in the world of pop culture. Each of the section editors - beauty, fashion, entertainment - has a one-page diary every edition, which I enjoy reading; but probably because it’s like chatting with friends.

Many a teenage girl has a devoted crush on entertainment editor Rob Moran - read his witty, “craptastic” copy and you’ll know why. He’s sort of Pacey from Dawson’s Creek meets Seth from The OC meets Doug (do you remember that cartoon?), with a penchant for flanny shirts, skinny jeans and an old army flak-jacket. Girlfriend is the mag I read growing up and it’s still a mainstay in my magazine diet. Go, GF!