Correspondence...

Apr 13 (1 day ago)
to josh, Jen, Suzanne, Sean, coral, Porter, pi_who, Peter
show details Apr 13 (1 day ago)

Favorite Art/Creative Magazines

I am working on the upcoming ISM: magazine. I will be sending out info on this special project within the next few weeks as we are attempting to orchestrate a limited edition printed book as well as a documentary film.

I would love it if you could email me a list of your favorite Art/Creative Magazines from around the world... (both in print and out of print, new and old)

Thanks bunches.
::
kevin
::
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Reply
Coral
to Kevin
show details 4:45 PM (4 hours ago)

Okay Kevin, here's a short list of my newest and all-time favorites, in no particular order.

-Coral

Interview-
Wow was Interview fresh... From the ultra close-up covers demanding your attention, to the huge format on that rough, inky paper and the unexpected celebrity pairings... This magazine was a powerhouse of inspiration for me when I was younger, not to mention a veritable breeding ground for celebrity-worship in our culture nowadays. These were not your run-of-the-mill interview questions, or subjects for that matter. Interview showed me that there was no "normal", and there need be no formula to follow in journalism. Nothing was off limits, nothing was sacred. It was definitely an early catalyst for starting my own zine and I'm sure the founders of many of today's gossip rags can say the same.

Gazette du Bon Ton-
My mother (and her grandmother before her) collected these beautiful magazines and kept them as treasured keepsakes for decades. I can remember sitting on the floor in my mom's dressing room and pouring over Bon Ton's 80/90 year old pages very very sloooowly, soaking in all of the brilliant Art Deco images (my first introduction to Erté) and the stunning lines and falling hems of post-Eduardian couture. As this magazine was only in print for about 12 years until the mid 20's, the oversized pages were frail as my grandmothers skin and brittle as dried leaves, but strong too. These pages had survived the Great Depression, the Great War, and the Great Changes of Fashion-through-Industrialization. And yet still, even now looking through them (when they're not under glass and frames), the writing is contemporary and the images iconic. Every fashion magazine I've encountered since has been somehow less-than... a knock off; constantly inspired by, but not quite living up to the magical quality of La Gazette du Bon Ton.

R-Kive-
Obviously not the best known of zines, but a great part of my life and a venture in writing/editing/guerilla-publishing that would help transform me from an awkward, self-alienating teen, to an awkward, self-alienating adult with minimal trauma and maximum awesomness. The zine introduced me to people and places that I had only seen in the glossy pages of Circus, Rolling Stone and Spin or heard about on MTV's little-known Sunday-at-midnight show "120 minutes". R-Kive was my sounding board, therapy session, and ticket out of small-town mentality; Along with many more like-minded zines of the time (Sourpuss, Girl Germs, Expansion of Life, and Spilt Milk come to mind), it was a turning point in my life and the most profound reason that I am who I am.

Swindle-
Shepard Fairey on Banksy... Need I say more? It's every wannabe graffiti nerd's wet dream. And the Icon issues? The photos alone are enough to make it worth the cover price, but on top of that the stories are short, sweet, to-the-point and yet provocative. Also it's fearless, and I love that. Who else can go from Philippe Starck to Billy Idol to the Space Invader, without coming off a schizophrenic mess? Somehow they pull it off and it's seamless. Of all the contemporary periodicals, Swindle is by far my favorite classic in the making. It's the one I see my son flipping through back-issues of ten years from now.

Metropolis-
Architecture porn. I'd say that since my first year of college I've had an architectural bug. Probably longer, but living in Austin and being far away from home for the first time- thinking that I had it all figured out, suddenly this great art form found me and it's had a very stronghold ever since. So I studied "Falling Water", Wright, Ando and Kahn... I knew the greats, I read the Digest, and later I got a subscription to Dwell. I was well versed in archi-nerd speak and could definitely hold my own in a conversation among laymen. Then one day a few years ago, my architect neighbor's mail was accidentally delivered to my door and among the crappy coupons and unpaid bills was a giant and beautiful magazine called "Metropolis: Architecture-Culture-Design". Ten minutes later, I had gone from Architecture-loving pseudo-intellectual to all out PHONY! I knew squat about anything! Metropolis opened my eyes and blew my mind. A week later I was visiting the Cal Poly admissions office picking through leaflets on their Master's program. And incidentally... the neighbor never got that issue.