A Good Week for Stuff

It’s been a good week for stuff. I was going to do a ‘reading list’ [boicozine/reading-lists] but going through the little stacks of magazines piled up around the place I found I was still catching up with mags I was talking about way back like I.D. (not i-D), Dwell, Wired, Good… loads of American mags, which is a bit spooky. Our postbox, on the other hand, was looking a lot more interesting…

I love a magazine that messes with the format of magazines. A magazine that throws you curve balls in terms of pace and flow. Pin-up [pinupmagazine.org] is my fave architecture magazine at the moment for this reason. Issue 4 contains some pretty lush visuals too, including this rather fetching sunrise, as photographed by Ann Woo [annwoo.com]  / My prediction over the next twelve months or so, is that we’ll start to see the more established and well regarded blogs venturing into tactile formats such as printed publications. Charlotte Cheetham’s Manystuff have jumped ahead of the pack with Manystuff #0 [manystuff.org], which runs with the copyline, ‘More Real Than Fiction’. Designed by the ever inventive Pierre Vanni [pierrevanni.com]. It features glossy full colour pages (definitely not POD, folks) and contributions from Mr Alex Bec [alexbec.com], Mark Kremers[tex-server.org] and Damien Poulain [damienpoulain.com]  / Fever Zine [myspace.com/feverzine] is publishing in it’s purest and most joyful form. It is pure zine in all it’s black photocopied and pink covered glory. The low-fi format belies the high calibre talent behind the publication, edited by Alex Zamora and designed by boicozine contributor, Simon Whybray [simonwhybray.com]  / A special thank you to the fine folks at The Future Laboratory [thefuturelaboratory.com] for my MystaBot [tomybots.de]. Now if only I could get it to do the dishes too  / This week I was lucky enough to be part of a select few to make use of the Nike ID Studio [nikeid.nike.com] at the invitation of Mr Alex Bec who has completed work on Nike’s Art of Football [nike1-1.com] project on behalf of YCN [ycnonline.com] and ShowStudio [showstudio.com] (phew). I didn’t really cover a lot of the event on this here blog because of the scale and scope of the thing. It was massive. You can check out most of the fab Art of Football action on YCN’s Flickr page [flickr]  / Jim Henson lives on in the rhelm of plastic collectables with these ‘City Critters’ [flickr]. The one I got looks surprisingly calm compared to the rest of them. I think it’s because it’s the only one without those crazy, googly, muppet eyes. / The Chap’s Mega Breakfast arrived in the post from Lo Recordings [lorecordings.com] with an ace cover image by Graham Harvey for Non Format [non-format.com]  /
The blank CD is often sadly neglected by manufacturers as some where to splash a bit of design nouce about, unlike the blank cassette was in the past. 5 inch [5inch.com] recognised this fact a few years ago and have been producing dead brill CD designs to placate designers everywhere. Notebook is the boico house fave ’cause you can scribble all over them and they still look good.

boicozine, mm, the shop and the lot

If you’ve been following this here blog over the past few months you might be mistaken for thinking I’ve gotten really lazy lately. Au contraire, mon frère! I’ve just completed a four month stint at The Future Laboratory [thefuturelaboratory.com] as their Lead Designer and occasional Art Director, producing a number of their Ultra exclusive dossiers as well as having just completed my first issue of their newsstand title, Viewpoint [view-publications.com]. For the next couple of weeks I’ll be working on a top hush project for a well known (and dead classy) men’s magazine. Exciting news is, as of this weekend, I’ll be ramping up the mm (millimetre) magazine project with a whole host of ace contributors having pledged to lend a hand. I’ll be putting the finishing touched to shopboico [shop.boico.net] too real soon with new products and new pics to give you better idea of what’s on the (think virtual) shelves.

As for this here blog. I promise to post more often from now on (well, sort of promise), although I may be talking about mm (millimetre) magazine a lot more often so you’ll be able to keep tabs on it’s progress from flatplan to finished piece. I’ve had a number of requests from people wanting to send stuff in to appear on boicozine. You’ve probably guessed that we love stuff although we can’t often include it all but if it’s got merit, it’s sure to appear. We’ve started a postcard wall in the… ahem… ‘home studio’ too. If you’d like to contribute and possibly see your artwork posted here and on our Flickr page [flickr.com/collections], then mail yer stuff to:

boicozine
c/o 118 Great Arthur House
Golden Lane Estate
London, EC1Y 0RH
United Kingdom

You might want to have a crack at designing and/or rating some artwork over at Bon Bon Kakku too [bonbonkakku.com]. We’ve got some stuff in there, see if you can spot it. Speak soon.
— The Management

Proper Songs for Real Folk

After a record month where I’ve only managed one lonely post so far, your humble author is getting back into the swing of this blogging malarkey… with a bit of The Chap performing live (cause they don’t got no music videos… yet. James Price [myspace.com/pricejames] is working on their new one). They are ace and fun and their new album Mega Breakfast is top [lorecordings.com]. Even more hot posting action to come… promise.

Need to Know Basis

YCN have given their original site a major overhaul and it looks great. Check it out here [ycnonline.com] / Andrew Losowsky has a blog. It’s the Magtastic Blogspolsion [losowsky.com/magtastic] … natch! From one of the fine folks behind Colophon2007 / Speaking of the Colophon magazine symposium. Artwork for Colophon2009 [colophon2009.com] has just been released (see below). Bought to you by the talented designers at John Brown [johnbrowngroup.co.uk] / V Magazine’s latest incarnation is digital [vmagazinedigital.com] / This month marks Fabien Baron’s return to Interview magazine [interviewmagazine.com] as fellow editorial director (alongside the legendary Glenn O’Brien) / The Chap [ghostly.com/the-chap] are freakin’ excellent and have a new poptasm of an album out in a couple of weeks. It’s called Mega Breakfast [lorecordings.com]. / Bon Bon Kakku [bonbonkakku.com] is the Finnish threadless for fabrics and pretty darn ace. Shame the prints are so expensive. Is quality but. / The Hammer House of Horror is undead… and only on MySpace… starring Jamie Dornan [beyondtherave.net]. Wierd. / Winkreative [winkreative.com] have given Case da Abitare [atcasa.corriere.it/Casedaabitare] a much needed makeover. Now… ahem.. the curtains should match the drapes… er… the editorial should match the design… you know what I mean…