Top 10's - Magazines

Recently I was asked by another graphic designer, what are my favourite design magazines, fonts and many more. So I thought I would a few top 10's this week. They will include todays post which is magazines and later fonts, album covers, design venues and designers. So my first is magazines, these magazines are in no particular order I couldn't possibly decide which is the best!


Amelia's Magazine:
Amelia’s Magazine is a beautiful creation that aims to bring together the very best in new music, fashion, art, illustration and photography. Renowned for its very special covers (previous issues have been encrusted with Swarovski crystals, lazer-cut, made out of furry flock, scratch ‘n’ sniff in different flavours and glow-in-the-dark) it is lovingly edited, designed and crafted by Amelia Gregory. 

Issue 4:                                                                                 

 Issue 2: 

Issue 4: With an innovative scratch ‘n’ sniff cover with three flavours. This issue came with an exclusive set of smelly pens that can be used to colour in the colouring pages by assorted illustrators. Features include photos of American Halloween decorations and interviews with the likes of The Long Blondes.
Issue 2: This came with a unique lazer cut cover by illustrator Rob Ryan that detached from the magazine, and a limited edition necklace by either Tatty Devine or Reino Lehtonen-Riley.

Amelia’s Magazine was printed biannually for 5 years from 2004-2009 across 10 issues, many of which are now collectors’ items sought after by creatives across the world. Amelia’s Magazine online is now the place to come for exclusive articles on the best underground creative projects in the worlds of art, fashion, music, illustration, photography, craft and design.


Creative Review:
Creative Review magazine was launched in London in 1980. We now have subscribers in over 80 countries and readers online in over 120. The aim of Creative Review is to inspire, inform and stimulate debate among our readers in graphic design, advertising, digital media, illustration, photography and all other fields of visual communication worldwide. We do this in a number of ways.
At the heart of Creative Review  remains the printed, monthly magazine. In addition, a website extends the content to embrace filmed reports and interviews (in the CRTV section), the CR Blog and Feed, showcase section which allows registered users of the site to upload their work to appear alongside projects chosen by CR editorial staff.

Grafik Magazine:

Grafik lasted nearly a quarter century as an independently published magazine. It started life as Hot Graphics International in the mid 80s during the ‘digital revolution’. With help from Meta and a new editor Tim Rich, the magazine was transformed into a monthly magazine Graphics International. In 2001 Caroline Roberts took over the role of editor and in July 2003 the magazine underwent a radical transformation of rebranding and re-designing by London-based graphic design agency MadeThought. The magazine was now called Grafik. The role of publisher and editor-in-chief was taken over by Caroline Roberts in 2009, and the new editor was Angharad Lewis.

The magazine focused on contemporary graphic design. Regular features included reviews of notable design events and exhibitions, showcases of new and established talent, critical viewpoints and special reports, often covering a piece of design history with a particular relevance for today. There were also now regular features on logoforms and letterforms, and copious book reviews of both graphic design books and those of a more general interest to the creative community.

Sherbert Magazine: 
Started as an idea between two friends in Denver Colorad 2001 Sherbert began with and still exists on one simple idea: to inspire and to be inspired. 

Each issue of Sherbert is based on a loose theme and features emerging international talent in the fields of illustration, photography, design, and literature. Sherbert is an “open submission” based magazine and are always looking for new artists and writers to submit work for possible inclusion in an upcomming issues. 

Sherbert does not contain traditional advertisements instead it raises funds to print each issue by accepting sponsorships at various monetary levels. This funding and support comes from small businesses, art entities and individuals. Sponsors are recognised in a concentrated area in the back of each issue. 

Issue 5:

Focusing on Childhood as a theme. illustrators, artists and photographers submitted there work to create this issue. The issue is 48 black and white full bleed pages printed on heavyweight stock and comes packaged with a Wooster Collective vs Sherbert Magazine coloring book, a mix CD from DJ idiom from Denver, and 3 pixie sticks. Limited to 800 copies, each issue is hand numbered and each cover is hand stamped with a sponge logo.

Cube Magazine:

Cube was first published in 1998. No expense was spared on design and production. The issue was designed to be a small table as well as a magazine. That trend has continued as Giorgio De Mitri and Patrizia Di Gioia based at Italian design agency Sartoria, continue to produce a visually rich and inspired production. Cube is a work of passion more than anything else it is aimed at people De Mitri knows, it is not for sale he only distributes it to his close friends and family. A shame I would love a copy!

Dazed and Confused:

Founded by prodigious photographer Rankin and writer and cultural enthusiast Jefferson Hack, and taking its name (and freewheeling spirit) from the classic Led Zeppelin song, Dazed & Confused started life as a limited-run fold-out poster in 1992. Early cover stars profiled by Hack included Bjork, Harmony Korine and David Bowie, who all contributed to the magazine over the years. Also on the cover in the early days were PJ Harvey, Damien Hirst, Richard Ashcroft,Chloe Sevigny, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Robert Carlyle, Kate Moss and Milla Jovovich. It was during this time that Dazed cemented its growing international reputation for daring to extend its editorial remit beyond fashion, music and film not just to include art and literature, but to tackle local and international social and political themes.

With its fashion, photography and art content long established as the best in the world, Dazed brought its music and film editorial up to similarly world-beating standards with a long list of UK and world firsts, including the likes of Eminem, the Libertines, Pharrell Williams, and Alicia Keys. Under its current editors Nicki Bidder and Rod Stanley, recent cover exclusives have included The White Stripes, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bloc Party, Zooey DesChanel, Sofia Coppola, Justin Timberlake, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Selma Blair, and Madonna.

Today, still 100 per cent independent in ownership and in spirit, Dazed & Confused is perhaps the most influential monthly magazine in the world. Far from resting on its reputation, Dazed Digital is now pushing its taste and influence into new areas, bringing the brand to life in more ways than ever, and engaging a new generation of switched-on, intelligent, aware and influential individuals.

Eye Magazine:
Eye Magazine, The International Review of Graphic Design is a quarterly print magazine for everyone involved in graphic design and visual culture.

Plastique Magazine:

Creativity, Bravery, Fearlessness. Life is a journey so is Plastique. Think for yourself.” Plastique magazine reaches a broad readership of style conscious women and men aged 20-35 years old.

Contagious Magazine:

Contagious was launched in London in 2004 by Paul Kemp-Robertson and Gee Thomson, in partnership with Xtreme Information – a market leader in the provision of global media intelligence and competitive advertising monitoring.

The inspiration for Contagious came from the fact that the marketing industry had shifted 180-degrees, yet there didn't seem to be a single news and information resource to help advertising professionals navigate their way through the new landscape,' says Kemp-Robertson. 'We thought it would be useful to create a global intelligence resource and competitive monitoring tool for the future face of marketing communications.'

'Our mission was to become the bible of "non-traditional" marketing,' says Thomson. 'We were fascinated by the impact of new technologies and the potential of social media; the different ways in which people were connecting – and the ways in which advertisers could help them to connect.'

At the heart of Contagious lies its flagship magazine, DVD and online resource, covering topics such as: branded content; mobile marketing; social networking; user-generated content; word of mouth; viral; interactive; blogs; video games; retail initiatives; design innovations and emerging technologies.

WUW Magazine:

WUW is an International Arts Magazine that helps showcase the best upcoming Illustrators, Photographers, Architects, 3D designers, Fashion designers and everything in between.
They are available in over 1,500 Whsmiths and Borders stores in the U.K alone and soon to be stocked in Canada, America and Europe.