What’s Up #23: Zunge Design
Zunge Design [zungedesign.ru] is an agency led by maverick Art Director Protey Temen [protey.zungedesign.ru] hailing from Russia. Zunge Design’s work is bold and graphic with a plethora of styles and flavours they employ for clients both big and small. You may have seen their recent cover for Amelia’s Magazine [ameliasmagazine.com]. Their work on the Pusher fanzine looks pretty darn awesome too (and a lot more exciting than the similarly garish U.K. eyegasm, Super Super [myspace.com/thesupersuper]). You can keep up with Zunge’s commercial and non-commercial projects (such as the fridge shown below) on their blog [zungedesign.livejournal.com].
The 500 Pound Piñata
To help promote YCN’s current Student Awards scheme, creative super duo Jiggery Pokery [jiggerypokery.biz] created 250 custom built piñatas. This mammoth task took several days and required a dedicated team of piñatas builders [flickr]. There was one problem though. They were really hard to break open. So YCN then held a competition to see who could come up with the most inventive way to do just that. Genius! The winner/s have just been announced. It’s Kate Moross and Tom Merrell. You can view the winning entry below and see pictures from the event on the YCN website [ycnonline.com].
This one by Jason Turner & Steven Wilcox is pretty cool too…
Review 2007: the Magazines
Last year was a crazy, exciting and scary hell-ride of a year for the major magazine publishers in the U.K. — exciting to see the industry get a well needed shake up; scary for those on the inside. Still, there’s no denying change, especially for an industry that seems to have been slowly rotting from the inside out for years now. The big news was that Emap finally folded under the weight of it’s own inherent corporate greed [news.bbc.co.uk]. But not after laying waste to much of Britain’s world-renowned magazine culture. Emap’s tenure saw the purchase and demise of many titles that embraced the U.K.’s alternative culture and helped define what made this place so different to anywhere else in the world. The Face [ebay] and Smash Hits [ebay] are the most popular titles that spring to mind, both closing after a disastrous remodelling at the hands of a company that seemed to forget how to make magazines that people liked and felt a part of (other titles included Select, Frank, Sneak, Minx, Kingsize, J-17 (formerly Just Seventeen), Sky… there’s loads of ‘em). So Hurrah! The U.K.’s No.1 magazine killer is dead! Boo Emap! We won’t miss you, although your legacy will always live on in the sole gift you chose to bestow, sorry, blight the world with… horrible, hateful Heat magazine…
The biggest shift in magazine culture this year came from the Men’s sector. Knock-off male versions of Heat like Nuts and Zoo (a format may have seemed new to British readers but has actually been tried and tested in Australia for decades) began to falter for 2 main reasons… one being that every issue looked the same making people assume they were being fooled into paying for, what was essentially, the same magazine over and over again and secondly because pornography is so much easier to get online and much more, shall we say, ‘detailed’ than the brand of ‘oo-er missus’ titillation these mags could only go so far to offer. The result was that Men’s mags stopped getting dumber and started getting smarter… and slicker. This is where I have to mention Monocle. The most blogged about magazine this year. Tyler Brulê’s legacy revived itself this year not just with a smashing new magazine (with global media network in tow) but also in the editorial sensibilities that remained intact at the reinvigorated Wallpaper and the newly relaunched Esquire.
Those were the biggest stories in a pretty eventful year for magazine culture that included an ‘end of print’ revival and saw the first ever independent magazine symposium launched. At Boicozine we always lean towards the more independent minded publications, so with that in mind here’s our brief list of favourite mags from 2007…
032c [032c.com] / A10 [a10.eu] / Acne Paper [acnepaper.com] / Another Man [exacteditions.com] / Dwell [dwell.com] / Entertainment Weekly [ew.com] / Fantastic Man [fantasticmanmagazine.com] / Grafik / Ideas Illustrated [ycnonline.com] / Little White Lies [littlewhitelies.co.uk] / Monocle [monoclemagazine.com] / Palais [palaisdetokyo.com/magpalais] / Pin-up [pinupmagazine.org] / Pyramid Power [pyramidpower.ca] / Sup [supmag.com] / Uniqlo Paper [uniqlo.com/uniqlopaper] / Varoom [varoom-mag.com] / Wired [wired.com]
Going Blank Again
Marcus Piper, lead creative at Pol Oxygen [poloxygen.com], has quietly launched an online magazine called Blank [marcuspiper.com/blank_1]. The concept is not hard to understand… One page. A hand-picked selection of quality links. Updated quarterly. Your quality pitstop for retooling on the internet highway.
Graniph’s Global Graphic Squad
We posted about Graniph [graniph.com], fine purveyors of quality Tshirt graphics, over a year ago now. Since then their empire has continued to expand with new stores opening up outside Japan on a regular basis and the launch of their first magazine (with a second in production as we speak). Hopefully they’ll make their way over to London town real soon (or at least open up their much anticipated International Online Store [graniph.com/en]). In the meantime Graniph want to you know about their annual Tshirt design competition [graniph.com/award]. So you too can join the ranks of the Graniph creative pool. Some of their recent recruits include Rui Tenreiro [theculturefront.com] (whose hound dogs are shown above), Kenn Goodall [bykenn.com], Hennie Haworth [henniehaworth.co.uk] and Happypets [happypets.ch].
Review 2007: Things of the Year #5
Protein’s [protein.co.uk] packaging for their Daft Punk’s debut film, Electroma [electroma.org] turns the DVD case into a hard bound picture book. No plastics involved, just a bit of glue.
What’s Up #22: mARch Studio
Australia may not be as ‘world-renowned’ for it’s innovative architecture as some countries, yet it is in it’s capital cities, like Melbourne and Sydney, where you find rare examples of architectural prowess and derring-do unseen anywhere else on the globe. Not to mention innovations being made in the name of green and sustainable architecture. One Melbourne-based practise that worth watching is mARch Studio [marchstudio.com.au]. Their jigsaw puzzle interior for a bar called Dusk using ‘found objects’ as it’s main theme, has already started winning awards. Other projects that are equally exciting include a full scale traditional Chinese Pavilion constructed entirely out of cardboard for children to scribbble on, following on from similar project involving a Parisian Apartment (shown above) launched late 2006 [marchstudio.com.au/penplanparis] and an a-typical Australian homestead that has been stripped back to it’s bare necessities with the addition of a new wing that snakes around the building, creating a sheltered courtyard between the two. Radical.
Review 2007: Andrew Losowsky
When Mr Losowsky [losowsky.com] tells you something is worth reading then you better be paying attention. This man know his magazines. Editorial Director for Le Cool [lecool.com] (and international jetsetter), Andrew also played a major role in setting up Colophon2007 [welovemags.com] early last year, curating the exhibits alongside Jeremy Leslie [magculture.com] as well as acting as editor on the book to accompany the event entitled We Love Magazines [die-gestalten.de]. So without further a-do here’s is Andrew’s stuff of the year 2007…
Publications
Cut me this year and I bled ink (Pantone 032). Among the paper delights I fell in love with are Omagiu (Romania) [omagiu.com], Etiqueta Negra (Peru) [etiquetanegra.com.pe], Carl*s Cars (Norway) [carls-cars.com], the printing of IGN (Hong Kong), the protest edition of Flaunt (USA) [flaunt.com], Good (also USA) [goodmagazine.com], Dumbo Feather, Pass it on (Australia) [dumbofeather.com], B East (Various Eastern European places via Stockport) [beastnation.com/beast], Kasino A4 (Finland) [wearekasino.com], the online edition of T magazine from the New York Times [nytimes.com/t], S Publication (Denmark) [spublication.com], Coupe (Canada) [coupe-mag.com], the GQ 50th Anniversary Edition [gqat50.com]. But my favourite? Lemon (USA) [lemonland.net]. I’ve only seen the Kubrick edition, but it’s so bloody fantastic, from idea to execution, that I can’t wait for more. And neither can any of the people who work in my office. Everyone loved it, even those who don’t speak English. Lemon is this year’s winner. May their crown be swiftly stolen by something even better. /
Music
This year I seemed to fluctuate between three classic crooners: Bill Withers, Paul Simon and Lou Reed. My favourite new discovery was Tok Tok Tok [toktoktok.eu]. Thanks to the barman in Begin the Beguine in Madrid for that one. Mellow. /
Film
For a cinema buff, I’ve seen surprisingly little this year. Those that were memorable and worth your time (if you can track them down): El Orfanato [IMDb], El Labarinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth to you) [IMDb] and the marvellous Czech Dream [IMDb], a documentary about creating a non-existant supermarket in the Czech Republic. A triumph of substance about style. /
Art & Design
The Riverstones bowl from the MoMA Store made me gasp [momastore.org]. I own it now. Lovely. The huge wall of scribbles at MoMA made me laugh, a lot (can’t remember who did it, sorry Mr Artist). Also the newish terminal at Zurich Airport [zurich-airport.com] — not new this year, but a new discovery for me, a slick wooden object of beauty with a hilarious spoof Tiroler Hut upstairs [tirolerhut.co.uk]. If you look out of the window, you can see the outdoor kids rooftop playground on the other side. Bouncy! /
Events & Exhibitions
Leaving aside the obvious Colophon2007 plug (it was such fun!), the fog box in the Antony Gormley exhibition made me feel like I was in a weird filmic dream [southbankcentre.co.uk/gormley]. Loved it. The Alan Fletcher retrospective, if that was indeed this year, made me smile, which is as it should be [designmuseum.org]. The new De La Guarda show FuerzaBruta send my jaw spiralling to the floor [fuerzabruta.net]. And the Revealing Histories displays at Manchester Museum was a brilliant, brilliant way of re-examining a museum and what’s in its collection [revealinghistories.org.uk]. Controversial, eye-catching and rather clever. Well done, everyone. More please. /
Purchases
My Monster iPod Shuffle headphones. Changed my commute and occasional jogging forever. I then lost them (boo) but my girlfriend gave me another pair for Christmas (hurray!). No more annoying wires and accidentally changing tracks mid-podcast. My weekly Radiolab [wnyc.org/radiolab] moments are safe again. /
Places to Visit
I’ve been a very bad carbon boy this year. Top places: Melbourne (would love to live there), Angelos Pizza in New York on a Monday (try the garlic bread, tip your singing waiter). Bestest of all: Lake Atitlán. Google it and gasp [wikipedia]. /
Worst Place to Visit
Miami fucking Airport. I’d explain why, but then I’d have to kill you, me and everyone you know. We shall never speak of this again.
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Reviews 2007: Things of the Year #4
Peecol interchangeable figures based on a typeface of the same name, designed by eBoy [eboy.com]. Produced by Kidrobot [kidrobot.com].
Review 2007: Luis Mendo
Luis Mendo runs the creative agency, Good Inc [goodinc.nl] out of his office in Amsterdam where he taps into, and works with, a hand picked selection of hi qual creative bods. Luis is passionate about magazines (he was lead creative on the Colofound magazine project [colophon2009.com/colophound] which he first introduced at the event early last year) and has a deep interest in the minutiae of creative process. He is also an irregular contributor to Boicozine — see, he’s on our list — when he’s not too busy with his own blog, bladblog [bladblog.nl], an excellent Dutch-language blog for reading about magazine design and global creativity around the world.
Publications
Monocle [monoclemagazine.com], because they came out with something truly new. Something many claim and few do /
Music
Spinvis, a Dutch musician [spinvis.nl] and Remate, an Spanish one [rematemusic.com]. Spinvis is making this incredibly interesting mix between low media (cassette recordings, sounds from the ordinary life…) and electronics, with a nice voice and great lyrics. Remate does a bit the same really but sings in English /
Film
ahem… Probably Control by Anton Corbijn [corbijn.co.uk]. Great photographer, great movie /
Design & Illustration
Probably this [ex7.org/laszlito-kovacs] by Laszlito Kovacs. Laszlito is a friend and I’m his biggest fan /
Purchases
The iPod Touch [wikipedia] is a lovely piece of electronics. Pretty, wonderfully well designed interfaces… Finally internet in my pocket plus my music and now, thanks to the hack I’ve installed, my email and Google Maps. Who needs the iPhone? /
Places to Visit
Ah… probably Tokyo… when I get a chance to go there. It is always on top of my list of places to visit. In the meantime Madrid is always excellent. I was there in March at the Puerta America [puertamerica.com] hotel. Beautiful /
Worst Film
Ocean’s Thirteen [impawards.com/oceans_thirteen]. I love those films, but the last one was terrible.
The image above is of a spread about Luis featured in Graphic magazine [bispublishers.nl].
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