Mondial magazine from Rapha

Murray GM October 8, 2016

There's something about cycling that seems to brings out the best in graphic designers. I'd seen a few pieces about Mondial magazine from the British cycling brand Rapha on the design blogs, but hadn't seen it in the flesh until I visited their San Francisco store. Rapha has been around since 2004. They launched Mondial in 2015 and it's a bi-annual magazine about cycling, but as they put it, it's...

"A WIDER VIEW OF THE ROAD"

With intelligent articles and interesting asides, it's much much much more than a cyclist's zine.

The thing is, Mondial is gorgeous. Which seems appropriate, as Rapha the brand is 100% design driven with incredible attention to detail. For me Mondial is one of the most elegant and beautiful magazines I've seen in a long time. Not only that, it's also brave with it's design and it's editorial. Everything is on the money; stunning typography, beautiful photography, wonderful colour work, lovely stock and of course great writing - it's the full package. When I first picked it up it reminded me of Zembla and Vince Frost's work, but it's more disciplined. The design team of Jack Saunders, Alex Hunting and Ben Brannan have produced a stunning piece of work. They never let the design idea take over, it's always kept it in perfect balance. Stunning.

Look at the fun they have with numbers, type and colour:

This is my favourite spread, really shows off their custom font; Mondial by Colophon Foundry. And it's a great piece of typographic layout.

The grid(s) work really well, lending great structure but also plenty of options for negative space. Which they aren't afraid to use. Even the photography reflects this sense of space, focus and room to understand the visual idea. The contents pages alone in a work of art.

All that's left is to flag this wonderful statement about cycling, however I'd suggest switching the word 'cycling' for 'design', as that seems equally appropriate.

Great work.

Grab a copy from their online shop here: rapha.cc/Mondial

Zembla Magazine issue 1 - words, pictures and graphic design gorgeousness

Murray GM May 18, 2016

Since the early 2000s there's been an explosion in high quality independent magazines. These are often lovingly crafted, hugely indulgent, hyper focussed niche offerings. Not aimed at mass distribution or high ROI and usually not the most successful business models. One of these magazines that appeared briefly (only 8 issues) on the mainstream newsagents' shelves was Zembla. It positioned itself as a literary magazine, with words fundamentally at it's core. Designed by Vince Frost, it's was a wonderful playground for typographic ideas, letter play and bold graphic design. It's not the grunge and dirt from the '90s but rather a rediscovery of type and the printed form.

Here's issue 1 from September 2003, with the rather special Tilda Swinton on the cover.

Vintage I-D Magazines (1981, 1983, 1984, 1985)

Murray GM April 23, 2016

Rediscovered some old issues of I-D Magazine. They range from issue 5 (1981) to issue 28 (1985) and cover the mag's early progression from fanzine to fashion mag. First up is issue 5 aka the Lady Di issue. A spectacularly good typographic pun for the cover by 'Malcom "hot rod" Garr-art' (Malcolm Garrett), although I've also seen Linder Sterling credited.

I-D Magazine Issue No.5 Do-it-yourself Manual of Style (aka the Lady Di issue)

Here's the back cover with the 'cut out and keep' Lady Di parts.

By 1983 the magazine had been going for 3 years and issue 13 in March was the '3rd Anniversary Issue' or the Wet 'n' Wild issue. By then the magazine was beginning to change, it's still under the editorship of Terry Jones but you can see now the have a little more cash - they get bigger ads and colour!

By the time we get to issue 18 in September 1984, it's a fashion mag. No longer using the landscape format or the fanzine style production and cut-up design, it's the real deal. That's not to say it doesn't retain it's edginess or integrity, it's still challenging and has plenty of the punk attitude it started with.

And here are some of the ads. At the time I-D demanded that your ad 'worked' for their magazine. So even fairly straight brands did some pretty cool work.

And finally for those top-knot wearing hipsters who think they are so cool and so original, here's a little reminder that your dad beat you to it.

Prince Alter Ego Comic 1991

Murray GM April 21, 2016

On a very sad day. Here's a few pics from Katrina's copy of Prince Alter Ego Comic from 1991, that sits on our bookshelf - loving preserved for 25 years by a true fan.

RIP Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016)

The wonderfully poetic Science of the Secondary

Murray GM January 17, 2016

Recently I was given this bumper bundle of the amazing Science of the Secondary, an atlas of things not yet discovered from Atelier HOKO and I've just spent a very rainy Sunday in SF devouring each of them. I have the first six issues and each one tackles a single object. They are beautifully indulgent and poetic design exercises. From the stock to the print quality, they have a wonderful tonality that perfectly balances the way each topic is handled.

The six issues are: Apple, Cup, Clock, Window, Door, Pipe.

Here are a few shots of the spreads. But it's more than the wonderful design, it's the tone of the content and the depth at which each idea is explored that makes them so exceptional. Truly wonderful, much thanks to Donald Farmer for sharing them with me.

Included along with the last three issues was Another Mad Afternoon at Home. This is a pack of 20 postcards or "instructions" for things to do and then send back to Atelier HOKO. My 20 (a random selection from 60 created) include the gems (an adults rainy day playbook):

#06 Open a window and let this card fall out of it. Describe its flight
#22 Without permission, touch a stranger's door for an extended period of time
#50 Press your ear against an exposed pipe. Listen. Imitate sound.

Should make for a loverly mail art piece when they collate the returned postcards.

2018 Update - here’s issue 9; The plate