Appreciating independent magazines
Perhaps it's my own penchant for layout design, but there is something so alluring about independent, small run magazines. Gazing across a table stacked with unique and niche magazines is heartening. The smell of heavy inks printed onto heavy paper notwithstanding.
Usually these magazines aren't cheap. For a magazine with perhaps just 25 pages, you might be looking at a cost of £10. Understandable, since for small-run magazines, the economies of scale to drive down production costs don't exist. Additionally, the teams creating these magazines tend to be smaller and multidisciplinary. I only get the pleasure of buying them maybe once or twice a year.
Maybe I'm bowled over by the design freedom that these magazines have. The publishers don't have 100-year-old brand constraints to adhere to. These magazines take risks with their layout, often in lovely ways. Routinely, the designs in these publications break convention whilst maintaining legibility. A tough trick to master. Yet sometimes, they follow a rigid grid.
I routinely leaf through magazines to borrow layout ideas and to see how content can be structured in a similar way, online.
Do you have any examples?
I sure do. The following magazines always catch my eye. They feature rich, lovely photography and elegant typesetting.
- Standart. It's a magazine tailored to those who work in the coffee industry.
- Bloom. Like nature? Magazine features lovely, wholesome articles and glorious photography
- Fare. Each release focusses on one city. Exploring the city's intersection of history, culture and food
- Rucksack. Contains photo essays and travel stories.
Everybody knows the quip "don't judge a book by it's cover". But I've never heard the expression "Don't judge a magazine by it's cover". So please, go ahead and do just that.
Thomas -