Issues: New Magazine Design [Paperback]

Jeremy Leslie (Author), Lewis Blackwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001

Issues takes an incisive look at the influential, exciting, and original new genre of graphic design found between the covers of today's hottest magazines. Right now more and more magazines are being published outside the mainstream and art directors have unprecedented freedom to experiment with format.

Issues highlights the publications that have revolutionized magazine design and examines the concepts behind their format, page designs, covers, words and images. David Carson's Raygun, Terry Jones' ID, and Visionaire are three powerful examples that have broken traditions and forged images that are aesthetically individual and unique.

Around the world countless magazines are published on a regular basis and the competition to attract readers is extremely fierce. But why is this compact, portable and highly accessible medium so effective in disseminating information to the public, and why contrary to predictions has it not been eclipsed by the world wide web? Issues answers these questions and demonstrate clearly why the digital encounter has proved unequal to the delightfully tactile and spectacular reading experience afforded by print. If a magazine is 'a storage place for explosives', then Issues is a complete arsenal of the most highly explosive magazine designs ever created.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...provides insight into the design of both traditional and nontraditional publications." -- HOW Magazine, October 2000, Megan Lane

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Gingko Press (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584230258
• ISBN-13: 978-1584230250
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,233,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, April 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Issues: New Magazine Design (Paperback)

one of the best magazine design books, hands down. this book showcases the most progressive magazines out there as well as some nicely designed spreads. more than just pictorials, it goes into what each magazine is about and the concept behind it/cover. well designed and a great resource

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More Design Porn, June 21, 2006

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Issues: New Magazine Design (Paperback)

This is a decent overview of what happened to magazine design when desktop publishing became mainstream in the '90s. Each of the book's five sections are preceded by a pretty decent 2-page introduction to the various elements (format, covers, pace, words, pictures) and are inset with a section highlighting particular magazines (Blow, Vanidad, 2wice, Speak, Econy). The lessons learned aren't particularly shocking: indie magazines have more flexibility of format, the excesses of Raygun designer David Carson led to a backlash of formalism, sometimes less is more, etc. The book is chock full of examples of covers and spreads (mostly from European fashion and style magazines), which is all very nice and most designers will find inspiration here and there. My own favorites are the vertical format of Spanish magazine In Juve and the covers of the magazine produced by British newspaper The Independent. However, like almost every design book about magazines, it's not particularly practical for the average designer (eg. the constraints imposed by advertising are glossed over), but serves more as design porn. And while it's kind of interesting to see how some designers push the envelope on format, examples like the $425 issue 24 of Visionaire are more alienating than inspiring. Finally, Leslie apparently thought it would be interesting or "designery" to run all the captions perpendicular to the the rest of the contents, forcing one to turn the book 90 degrees every spread. That's not interesting, it's just stupid and annoying.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must!, January 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Issues: New Magazine Design (Paperback)

Being an avid reader of magazines for as long as i can remember, i found that this book was very informative on the reasons why they are so appealing: with many interesting examples of avant-garde magazine designs, or just simply intelligent concepts, this book is a must for any magazine addict. A great addition to my library!