Recently in 47 Category

A Night at the Gala

SPD 47: The Gold & Silver Winners Are...

SPD 47: Inside the Photo Booth

SPD 47: Magazine of the Year: Bloomberg Businessweek

Magazine of the Year Finalist #7: Bloomberg Businessweek

Magazine of the Year Finalist #6: Lotus

SPD 47: Members' Choice Entries

SPD 47: Magazine of the Year - 15th Anniversary (Part 3)

Magazine of the Year Finalist #5: New York

Magazine of the Year Finalist #4: Port

Magazine of the Year Finalist #3: GQ

SPD 47: Magazine of the Year - 15th Anniversary (Part 2)

Magazine of the Year Finalist #2: IL

Magazine of the Year Finalist #1: TIME

SPD 47: Magazine of the Year - 15th Anniversary

Save The Date!

SPD 47: Arem Duplessis's Favorite Magazine

I was introduced to LOTUS Magazine at the photographer Tom Schierlitz's studio. He shot an entire portfolio with over 25 pages of Lotus car parts. The pictures were quite beautiful and so was the magazine, I immediately dove in and took notice.

The architecture in the FOB is easy to get through but it never gets old and formatted. Each page is a new adventure but the brand stays consistent and alive. Other features include tons of sexy women, fast cars and travel stories. The photography is amazing and is always accompanied by super powerful type that owns the page. The canvas on this over-sized mammoth is well used. Lotus magazine is aggressive but sophisticated, all in the same breathe. Respect to the CD, Anton Ioukhnovets.

SPD 47: Jean Snow's Favorite Magazine

When I first moved to Japan over 10 years ago and started digging into the Japanese magosphere, Brutus was one of the first titles I latched on to, and it introduced me to the idea of entire issues that focus on a theme. Sure, this wasn't a new notion, but it was interesting to me how so many of Japan's culture magazines used this, and how these themes really ended up touching on sections beyond the feature well. Brutus continues to do this, and although I won't check out every issue, I will pick it up if it's a topic I'm interested in, like the current issue's "Mellow Out" theme, which points us to some of Japan's best spots to take in a coffee or drink, accompanied by a soothing soundtrack. It was also one of the first mainstream magazines I encountered that regularly included beautiful inserts using a different paper stock  in the current issue, it acts as a pull-out guide to the featured spots.

SPD 47: Debra Bishop's Favorite Magazine

I've chosen Uppercase because I love the whole package. It is playful and "up," without being over designed. I tip my hat to Janine Vangool who is the publisher, editor and designer. She has created a beautiful format and each page is kind of a feast for the eyes-- not just the design but the featured content. If you love "how-to," and are the "curious sort," about how beautiful graphic things are made it's hard not to enjoy this publication. This issue included intricately carved crayons and the art of paper cutting. Loved the "handy guides," collection.  I admit that I am seduced by the beautiful paper and even the smell of fresh ink when I open the package. In this time of troubled publishing it's nice to learn that this wonderful publication, is created by a small team (3 people I think!) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

SPD 47: Edel Rodriguez's Favorite Magazine

Blabworld is an annual collection of articles, sequential art, cartoons, paintings, drawings, and sculpture, all beautifully reproduced. There are no photographs or advertisements,  which creates a unique reading and viewing experience from cover to cover. Blabworld is curated and designed by its founder, Monte Beauchamp, which has allowed the periodical to maintain a clear editorial voice over the years.

SPD 47: Francesca Messina's Favorite Magazine

My favorite magazine? Impossible to name one. But my fave discovery in the past year was Vintage magazine, which gives an obvious nod to the great FLAIR in it's mission statement, to bring "the eloquent voices of today's writers and artists, the impact of history on our present culture. The term "vintage" is used in its broadest sense-- focusing on the excellence of, the finest of things, both in content and presentation". Handcrafted with die cuts, foldouts, and hand-stitched binding, it represents the current craving for handcrafted zines that live alongside the tablet apps that are flooding the magazine landscape.

SPD 47: George Karabotsos's Favorite Magazine

DON'T HATE ME! My fave magazine? Please! I've been in the publishing business way to long to have a simple answer to that question.

Yesterday it was one magazine; last week, another; and last month it was definitely an old issue of FMR that I came across in my partner's studio. And for those 20 minutes, FMR was the only thing that mattered in the entire world. Amazing photography. Simple, elegant layout. Content that thrilled and titillated. You don't know FMR? An Italian art magazine that showcased art from around the world, but they specialized in more obscure artists. They introduced me to many artists I never knew about (Like Romaine Brooks; American portrait artist from the 20s). Yes, I'm using the past tense on purpose...they ceased publication. No more.

You can always Google "FMR" and we'll chat at the next SPD Gala.

Speaking of finding things online, a constant new source of design inspiration comes to me currently from eBay: OLD MAGAZINES! The crazy stuff they did in the '60s, '70s, hell, even the '80s. Check out these spreads from Family Circle (excuse my bad photography). Turns out we have a whole collection at home of old Family Circles. I've spent way too many hours with them....

So, for all those folks that hate me for being so retro...I'm ALSO really loving some of the cool things magazines are doing on the iPad, and other digital devices, these days. There's some totally cool stuff out there that takes the 2D of the printed page and throws you into a multi-dimensional world, way beyond anything print could do. Let's hand out a few more SPD awards for these innovative guys!

SPD 47: James de Vries's Favorite Magazine

There are lots of fun magazines in Australia. And happily there is a resurgence of independent and creatively different magazines being published.

Frankie Magazine is building a really dedicated following http://www.frankie.com.au/ it seems to have tapped a new energy and a non-traditional female demographic. Monster Children Magazine http://monsterchildren.com/magazine/ is lots of fun and new indie magazines like Collect Magazine are looking beautiful, http://www.collectmag.com.au/

My favorite is more about what magazines do better than anything else; the ability to connect with a 'club' of readers, to tantalize and transport them through imagery, words and unspoken style. It's Vogue Living Australia, an interiors, travel and food magazine that is really a magazine about beauty. A throwback to the idea of luxury being an inspiration for all. Finely edited and assembled, it is a high point of commercial magazines in Australia because it proves the power of the medium. I'm looking forward to Vogue Living grappling with their digital future. If they do it well, a whole new world of readers opens up to them.

SPD 47: Jeanette Abbink's Favorite Magazine

Case Da Abitare has a bold visual identity and content structure that supports it's distinctive editorial vision issue after issue that I find appealing. I love the rigor of the content, photography and typography. I have all of the issues since it's redesign in 2008.

SPD 47: Jeffrey Saks's Favorite Magazine

Esquire is my favorite magazine. It is the perfect marriage of smart design and smart editorial content. Every page is a visual surprise; I am consistently in awe of the graphics and imagery. How do they do it? Not only is the print edition spectacular but they have done an amazing job of translating that energy and spontaneity into a fantastic iPad edition. In my estimation they are the benchmark of what a print magazine or a digital magazine should be. Cool. Fun. Surprising.

PUB 47: Merit Winners Announced

SPD 47: Matthew Ball's Favorite Magazine

Beer is the member magazine for the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), the independent voluntary organisation promoting good-quality real ale and pubs in Britain. Jes Stanfield is the creative director and it's produced by Think Publishing.

The magazine makes you feel part of a club. Each cover has a unique design which generally has a handmade quality that reflects the craft beers promoted inside. The design is warm and chatty and follows the seasons, just like the ale and pubs celebrated throughout. The photography and illustration capture the perfect drinking moment and almost force you to pop into your local, sit down in front of the fire with a packet of pork scratchings and sip a warm pint of great beer!

SPD 47: Michael Bojkowski's Favorite Magazine

Picking just one mag is hard. My mag addiction gone kind of 'meta' of late. I've been going through phases of following certain art directors and editorial teams, so my faves have been flipping about. There are constants though and Little White Lies is the only magazine I've re-subscribed to year upon year. Even when I went to Australia for a year, I made sure I was getting my bimonthly fix.

Why Little White Lies above all else? Let me count the ways... Firstly the editorial format is so well considered, the way the mag is divided into chapters--I heart that. Secondly, it looks like nothing else. The imagery contained within borrows, not from other magazines, but from the vast history of visual culture, using cinema as it's starting point. The use of illustration over photography not only solves the problem of dealing with the over-photoshoped hell that is the modern movie marketing gumph but also contributes to it's unique and vibrant feel.

It's one of those mags that I don't want to imagine the world without. It's a rare gem of a mag that suggests it should be collected and coveted. It is also the very antitheses of the throw-away culture mainstream magazines have cultivated and has become their un-doing. Long may it, and the team behind the title at Church of London, survive and prosper.

SPD 47: Steven Gregor's Favorite Magazine

BUTT, Fantastic Man and The Gentlewoman are my three favourite magazines... a triptych of first class editorial design emulated (and envied) on many an art desk. Classic fonts (old fashioned, even), simple columned pages, honest photography, no fuss. These magazines are less "look at me" and more "go on, you know you wanna read me". And, as editorial designers, isn't this our job???

Art director Jop van Bennekom's work is the antidote. Respect.

SPD 47: Violetta Boxill's Favorite Magazine

OK, I admit it. Undivided magazine loyalty evades me. It always has.

To me, magazines are like food. Different publications satisfy different needs on different days in various periods of my life.

That said, I have do have reoccurring cravings and Eye is one of the titles I revisit.

Many magazines on Graphic Design excessively focus on showcasing the talents of the publication's art direction. Eye understands and resists this trait.

Although multiple stocks and special inks are the norm, they are used to celebrate and aid the content providing a beautifully restrained but highly produced platform. Layouts have this understated confidence born from brilliant, unexpected and thoroughly researched content.

It's beyond fashion. Encyclopedic in nature but accessible in spirit. You don't manically devour

Eye, you quietly savour it.

SPD 47: Medal Finalists: Magazine of the Year, Print and Digital

With our British co-chairs and the overseas success of the SPD iPad App, we received more entries from foreign talent, and once again tripled the amount of digital entries. We will be back at Cipriani Wall Street on Friday, May 11th to honor the Gold and Silver Medals from the following list of Medal Finalists.

SPD 47: Sandra Garcia's Favorite Magazine

Because hardly a day goes by in my office without I or one of my colleagues starting a sentence with: "You know how New York Magazine does..."

SPD 47: Andrew Horton's Favorite Magazine

What's not to love about LOVE magazine? Fantastic production values, brilliant typography and a collection of some of the funniest fashion photography on the stands. Seriously, every issue I've picked up has had a photo essay or fashion spread that has made me laugh out loud; it's transgressive, of questionable taste and gorgeous. This particular issue has a series of Terry Richardson shots of Liza Minelli which was worth the cover price alone.

What I appreciate most, though, is its heft. You get a lot of magazine for the money. You could easily knock out a copy-editor with this thing. Aerodynamically, it's not the most sophisticated missile, so don't try throwing it at the interns. They're much too nimble. But the next time someone tries tracking in your carefully kerned copy, stamp over to their desk and get your backhand ready. LOVE it.

SPD 47: Carla Frank's Favorite Magazine

Vogue Gioiello (translate Vogue Jewel)--is a gem!

This Italian edition pays homage to the cover as a poster.  Each is extraordinary, unpredictable, sophisticated and somehow innocent. They have a certain oddity that captures the eye, like all great art does.

Remember when covers for magazines did not follow intensive online market testing and get all same-y? Super-fun!

The typography throughout is slightly awkward, even clumsy. Interestingly, because it's  coupled with sophisticated subject matter and slick sometimes conceptual photography, it triggers a mish-mash of emotional response that somewhere between insider-trade magazine-bohemian-gloss. What a fabulous crash!

Now I only wish I could actually read it.

I can feel it though the paper = rich as cream!

Bravo Bravo!!!

SPD 47: Rob Hewitt's Favorite Magazine

Monocle magazine, published out of London, England has set the standard for what smart navigation and immersive magazine making has come to be. The design is so compact that it almost seems like non-design (if there is such a thing). They've managed to utilize the page in a way that makes it seem very easy to find each story on the first pass yet find something new on the second or third. The photography -- like the design -- is very clean and journalistic in a friendly way. The throwback-style illustration is brilliant and creates a unique contrast to how global, and sometimes serious, the coverage can be. Ironically it's all produced under the discerning eye of Tyler Brulé (a Canadian) who seemed to have the journal size of a tablet in mind from the outset.

SPD 47: Criswell Lappin's Favorite Magazine

I am not sure if I have a favorite magazine, but when I picked up Colors this year and it was kind of like running into my best friend from college. And in this case all my friend wanted to talk about was shit. This is the kind of brazen, but informative editorial decision that kept me coming back when Oliveri, Tibor and Scott were first cranking out their social commentary in the early 90s. The table of contents give you a good sense of the depth of coverage. The photography is honest--making me laugh on one page, and wince on the next. Diagramatic hand-drawn illustrations and simple vector icons are used in support of the editorial coverage and add to the overall level of craft. It is a very humanistic experience that I appreciate in a physical form.

I also like the idea behind the online archive of Colors notebooks. They send you a bound blank magazine with nothing but an outlined COLORS logo on the front. You are given the autonomy of curating the editorial [or non-editorial] experience of your choice. You can find them at http://www.colorsmagazine.com/notebooks.

SPD 47: Florian Bachleda's Favorite Magazine

This issue has already been stolen from my office.

SPD 47: What the Digital Judges Liked

SPD 47: Judging Weekend

SPD 47: Gustavo Lo Valvo's Favorite Magazine

This is a monthly independent magazine about movies designed by art director Mariana Marx. 

Simple, clear, almost minimalistic most of its pages are printed with just one ink. It is an extremely low budget magazine where design plays a very important roll. A good example of respectful design as well as for reading and content.

All the people involved: editors, writers and designers are cinephiles. 

Unfortunately after uninterrupted twenty years, the next few issues will be the last printed.

SPD 47: Don Morris's Favorite Magazine

Quintessential packaging (how could Milton Glaser DNA be a bad thing?) with the most contemporary storytelling, revealing photography, and the wittiest infographics. All done in a week. New York's the prototypical reality show. Put a camera in that office!

SPD 47: Mitch Shostak's Favorite Magazine

I like to read business magazines and have worked for BusinessWeek and the NY Times designing them, as well as designing several in our studio over the years. When JK (no name dropper am I) redesigned Fortune a few years ago, I did something that I've never done before. I became a Fortune subscriber and it is now one of my favorite magazines. The redesign made the magazine sing. The typography is very highly tuned ... not decorative or overly ornate ... just really well crafted. The photography, illustrations and info-graphics are sophisticated and smart. I still miss Portfolio. I also think Fast Company is looking really good as well. 

SPD 47: Paul Martinez's Favorite Magazine

One of my new favorite magazines is PORT. A mens lifestyle & fashion magazine beautifully executed with a nod to the past but with a thoroughly modern edge. While the typography is clean, graphic and incased in a minimal grid system it holds some of the best fashion, travel, still-life and portrait photography. The resulting overall effect feels grand, luxurious and modern.

Pub 47: What Happened in 2011?

SPD 47: Brandon Kavulla's Favorite Magazine

I realize this is not the most original selection, but man I just always love it.

There really is this dry windsor-knotted sense of humor throughout the book that comes across in the writing, headlines, design, photography and especially the mix of stories.

In taking itself so formally, it ends up being intentionally self deprecating and really freaking funny and entertaining. (everyone written about is "MR.")

I am also a massive fan of center axis anything; text, headlines, page structure....and pretty much all of Fantastic Man is center axis. The result is an elegantly brutal symmetry that ends up being yet a another expression of it's hysterically overdone formality. (Like calling everyone "MR.")

And the mix of stories! A peruse through the (center-axis-ified) front of book: A headline reads "Pocket Squares are the New Tits", then a full page on a fashion/art film on ice skating moves, then a picture of a nice umbrella (the headline is "Nice Umbrella"), then an old school etching of Ground Parrots for an article on bird watching, followed by a short piece on using aluminum foil....(yeah the stuff you bake tater tots on)....as a creative tool.

What. The. Hell.

Hysterical. Awesome. Riveting. Audacious.

I love it.

I also love when design or creative thought takes full advantage of a medium; in this case print. They will change stock inside the book from full color glossy pages suddenly to newsprint and black and white imagery. The cover has this pebble texture that feels like leather (how manly). I remember one issue had this little loose note between the pages fall out that just said "we wish you a wonderful summer." (how thoughtful)

Fantastic Man achieves what I feel is the ultimate compliment to a magazine maker: not wanting to throw it away. The feeling that this mass produced book is somehow special, and worth saving. I've never thrown away an issue.

SPD 47: Kris Vesselman's Favorite Magazine

One of my favorites is the cheeky and intelligent Monocle - at once a reader's magazine and a visual buffet. A broad range of topics are presented cleverly with clean information graphics, sometimes retro photography and quirky illustration. Every issue provides surprises. I can't wait to turn the page.

SPD 47: Tom Alberty's Favorite Magazine

I received a complimentary subscription to Lotus magazine after I bought my first Lotus (the yellow one). What a pleasant surprise. Graphically, it's bold and clean like the numbers on a classic Formula One car. There's plenty of automotive porn: profiles of cars (new and vintage Lotus, naturally), professional drivers, even a car parts portfolio. All that plus cheeky style and culture stories. In all, it's racy in a mod way. 

SPD 47: TJ Tucker's Favorite Magazine

I find myself picking up Popular Mechanics more and more. The book is organized is such a beautifully complex way but still manages to feel simple. I love what they've been doing with covers. Using a simple small centralized image and then assaulting the surrounding real estate with type and color. The covers always feel like they have movement; like they're leading you somewhere exciting.

SPD 47: Randy Minors's Favorite Magazine

IL magazine--every issue is a gem and they are highly coveted by the design staff at New York magazine. I don't understand a word of it--but don't really need to--to be entertained/fascinated by it. Special shout-out to their charting abilities. Unparalleled!

SPD 47: Ben King's Favorite Magazine

More impressive than 2009's smart editorial overhaul, or the savvy redesign, the consistently amazing illustration and photo selection, the unexpectedly wonderful covers, the quirky theme issues, the hypertextual touts encouraging you through each issue, or the thorough research and clarity of presentation, is that Businessweek have somehow managed to get a massive and diverse audience (even designers!) to read business arcana on a weekly basis.

SPD 47: Erin Mayes' Favorite Magazine

I love Garden & Gun...so much I could eat it.

It's elegant without trying to be something that it's not. The design and photography is all really well crafted. And reading it reminds me why I appreciate all the oddities of the South.

SPD 47: Ina Saltz's Favorite Magazine

Mental Floss isn't my absolute favorite magazine (that would be Vanity Fair, the only magazine I could not live without if I were stranded on a desert island), but it is a fine, fun read and is really tightly designed, has good typographic hierarchy in its many infographics, and you have to love the tagline: "Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix."

SPD 47: James Reyman's Favorite Magazine

Steve Jobs once said that good design is not only about making things look better but making them work better. A well designed magazine, to me, is one that looks beautiful and reads well. It's paced well and I want to read it cover to cover. The typography, photography and illustration are stunning and the words hit home. The articles mean a lot to me. It's not a small thing, not inconsequential. A good magazine can help you make decisions in your daily life, can help you define yourself.

I am not aware and have not seen most magazines in this world so my point of view is very narrow. I'm sure there are brilliant magazines in many countries, in many languages that I cannot read. I like a magazine that is intelligent, serious, has a sense of humor, is informative and has moments of sheer brilliance. There are many magazines I love to read. I love the New Yorker, the articles are magnificent. The design is minimal and secondary but the art is magnificent. I love Guitar Player magazine. It's a wonderful magazine and I've read it for years. It a great magazine for guitar players, and it speaks to the guitar player in me.

The one magazine which I find always interesting, however, always well written and magnificently designed is Esquire. I guess I started reading it when Robert Priest was there. Didn't he have the Mercury typeface created by Jonathan Hoefler back then? The John Korpics issues were brilliant. I asked John at the time how his relationship was with his editor. He said it was the best relationship he had had with an editor. It showed in the issues.

The Curcurito issues are also wonderful. In the magazine, after you read many fascinating, funny articles on many interesting subjects from war to politics to health to business to beautiful, interesting women, you come across the 'What I've learned' page, which really explores the human condition. It's funny and compelling. The magazine is so good I can almost forgive them their fashion spreads where they will, (like in the current issue) photograph a casual winter outfit (coat, sweater, trousers) which goes for a total of $15,360. I guess they occasionally go too far.

SPD 47: Arthur Hochstein's Favorite Magazine

In today's world, what does "magazine" even mean? Print, tablet, online. I'll stick to print for my choice. It's awfully hard to pick a "favourite"--there are so many excellent ones. But one that stands out is Bloomberg Businessweek--it's one magazine that I always feel compelled to look at to see what they are doing.

BBW may not be technically the best designed or most beautiful magazine, but it has three things going for it:

SPD 47: Donna Braggins' Favorite Magazine

Choosing a favourite magazine has to be as tough as choosing a favourite friend. I'm always impressed by how many good magazines Canada produces in a market that measures about the same as one American state.

Magazines also have such diverse, distinct personalities and I enjoy their design for many for different reasons. But I've chosen a magazine that does what my favourite magazines do well - engage me with images and text that share the job of making ideas come to life. I think the best magazines showcase a strong collaboration between editor, writer, and art director, designer that makes everything work together with a distinctive and entertaining voice.

The Walrus has a very quiet design style that makes text accessible and sets the stage for strong imagery, whether photography or illustration. It's structure is simple and restrained but effective and it allows the voices of the illustrators and photographers to be as powerful as the writers that define the magazine.

SPD 47: Gretchen Smelter's Favorite Magazine

Acne Paper is an artful, intelligent blend of fashion and portrait photography mixed with interviews and narratives about people and culture in the creative world. I find the large format and beautiful matte paper a perfect vessel for the gorgeous, evocative images, typography and words inside.  The printing of the magazine is also practically museum quality--something we don't get to see very much these days in magazines especially in the US!

The typography is somewhat quiet and minimal, with a simple color palette (mostly black and white) with just the right amount of white space that really makes page after page of images and art stand out.

I can't wait to sit down and pour over every page and wish the magazine came out more then 2x a year. I also use the magazine for inspiration not only for the gorgeous imagery, but also for it's effortless balance between timeless and modern layout and design.

SPD 47: Andrea Dunham's Favorite Magazine

I likey them fetishistic trade magazines that, when you crack their spines, they smell like petroleum and blast out the retinas with their blindingly white, glossy 92 lb. paper stock. And though I'll likely never set foot in a car that costs as much as condo, LOTUS magazine's opulence-meet-austerity aesthetic allows me to pursue my delusion that I'm merely a paycheck away from the purchase price.  After all, their tag line is "YOUR CAR/ YOUR MAGAZINE".  I have an '08 Subaru Outback--and it's white-- never mind that, it's not stopping me from responding to this accusation emotionally, it's so gratifyingly art directed.

Every spread a centerfold, every page a poster, it's testosterone tempered by taste, I turn these pages wishing I had the balls to abandon my dwindling expense account and offer to intern  in their spare, minimalist offices in--wait. It may be the work of couple a guys freelancing. Who probably work from home.  In their skivvies. Unnerving. I digress. Back to the subject matter; vintage to modern Lotuses, exemplars of engineering and design, hot women, exotic foodstuffs, expensive hobbies like underwater archeology, power celebrity and more hot women. A natural draw for creative expression, it's a sex bomb paired with a minimalist, elegant but still decisively masculine font and it's done so f*ing, achingly well. In the Summer 2011 issue there's a feature called "Street Cars Named Desire" with 42 pages of insane cars designed kind of like giant trading cards. I'd list more faves but head to LOTUS's accompanying website, magazine.lotuscars.com for the splash/page sizzle reel that'll show you more sexy spreads. Though not quite as dynamic as it deserves, the site is smartly organized and typographically pleasurable.

SPD 47: Ola Carlson's Favorite Magazine

Recently redesigned magazine Hemslöjd (Crafts), made me instantly fascinated of stuff that I'm not normally interested in. An achievement in itself. All of a sudden I had learned some hidden design history, read a long piece about buttons ? and got the rough idea about how to embroider a Vogue cover (!). Uncoated paper on both cover and book, with beautiful, surprising typography accompanied by simple but really good photography.

SPD 47: Nathalie Kirsheh's Favorite Magazine

The simple grid incorporating breaks, the monochromatic typographic palette, the combination of classic typeface textures with minimal flourishing elements injected into the title designs along with the alternating paper stock, all integrate to accent BON's handsome photographic air. 

     It would be great to see the visual department's tasteful handy work receive accolade from the SPD jury someday!

Meet the Pub 47 Digital Judges!

SPD 47: Joe Zeff's Favorite Magazine

I love Post because it is so smart and sophisticated, and experiencing it makes me feel smart and sophisticated. Its navigation is almost invisible, and I feel empowered by understanding where to go without being addressed like a kindergartner to tap here and swipe there. There's an incredible surprise on nearly every screen, some pulled off through complicated tricks like the manipulable 3D cover in Post Gravity and others through simple visual juxtapositions like the Currents section in Post Matter. I really love the way the editors reference other iPad memes, such as their "Elements"-inspired periodic table of accessories in each issue. The content presents itself in waves, with one mind-blowing experience after another. I close the app feeling inspired, and wanting to share it with anyone nearby. Many thanks to Charlie Melcher for sharing it with me.

SPD 47: Andy Cowles's Favorite Magazine

I love it when you see a new magazine cover or app that is so breathtakingly brilliant all you want to do it stick under the nose of the nearest person and say, 'Whoah! have you seen THIS?'

You'll do just that when you look at Guitarist Deluxe. The regular Guitarist magazine is a steady seller in print and as a PDF in Apple's newsstand. But the Guitarist Deluxe app, currently available there as a free preview issue, moves the goalposts so far they're on a different pitch. The blend of video, typography and captioning on the cover alone is well worth paying for.

OK, so guitar playing is well suited to soundtracks and videos, but the thing I'm inspired by is that Guitarist Deluxe is not a fashion brand as such. It has no pretensions, doesn't seek to prove how clever it is, just to tell it's story in the very best way possible for it's reader.

Good specialist titles have always had to serve both the in-depth requirements of their core reader, as well as making the subject matter accessible enough for a floating voter. I don't even play guitar right now, but when I do, I'll know exactly which brand to turn to.

SPD 47: Dirk Barnett's Favorite Magazine

I'm obsessed with British ELLE's ELLE Collections, it has such an eclectic mix of the vibrancy of a fashion mag with the tight design precision of a science manual. I can look at this mag over and over and still discover new beautiful design details. They push the basics of magazine design and stretch them to the limit with brilliant use of grid, runway photography, street photography, illustration, even different paper stock and dimension within the issue. But it's the "Catwalk Colour" spreads that always get me: the seasons color trends using intricate wallpaper grids of catwalk photos that bleed off the page...it's mesmerizing and addictive.

SPD 47: Andrew Diprose's Favorite Magazine

A clever, independent magazine showcasing a well considered mix of photography paired with neat, restrained typography and 5,000-word features...??

...And it's about BMX!

SPD 47: Patrick Mitchell's Favorite Magazine

I rarely see this magazine in the SPD competitions-and have never been sure if it's been for financial or moral reasons. Whatever the reason, it's sad to not see Interview in the pages of the SPD annuals among the other recognized work. Since the return of Fabien Baron it's been consistently extraordinary. I admire the magazine because it doesn't try too hard. There's no FOB look, nor BOB look, no feature-well look. There's just an Interview look-from cover to cover. They know who they are and ok with it. I think Andy would be proud.

SPD 47: Robert Newman's Favorite Magazine

I love everything about Letter to Jane: its simplicity and cleanliness, its aesthetic, the spareness of the photographs and design. What might seem cold and detached in print works perfectly as an app. It's brilliantly efficient and elegant, and the interface is smart and original. The fact that it's all done by one person, Tim Moore, makes it even more inspiring.

SPD 47: David Curcurito's Favorite Magazine

What kind of super douche am I for selecting something with Esquire's logo? Oh contraire mon frere, this happens to be Russian Esquire (not French) the most independent of our foreign editions. Now I don't speak Russian, I couldn't tell you what one article is about. For me the magazine is about art, design, absurdist visual humor, mind-bending photo portfolios. The type is clean and elegant and at times violent and bold. I look forward to getting this every month because it inspires me to be even more irresponsible as an art director. I suppose it's because I can't read it or understand the confines of Art Director Maxim Nikanorov's content and overall structure. For me its a beautiful art book that I marvel over while I daydream of working on a magazine that has zero boundaries or confines at all. Oh yeah, its also printed on some Russian enchanted forest paper that's like 1 million pound stock so it feels pretty special too.

SPD 47: Courtney Murphy's Favorite Magazine

The Australian bi-monthly, Donna Hay Magazine, is for everyone who loves to cook and anyone who wants to try. Its pages are like its content -- FAST. FRESH. SIMPLE.  BEAUTIFUL. Even after ten years, its seamless marriage of yummy photography and clean typography continues to inspire me both as a CD and as a foodie. It's the only magazine I refuse to share.

SPD 47: Luise Stauss's Favorite Magazine

I trade The New York Times Magazine with the German Sunday supplement Die Zeit every week. Designed by Bureau Mirko Borsche, this magazine is a pleasure to read. It starts with a double cover; an opportunity for subtle story telling, question and answer, reveals and puns before you even get to the TOC. This magazine is elegantly designed, it showcases young and emerging European photographers as well as heavy hitters like Paolo Pellegrin, who has the center spread every week. I love the visual language of Zeit, it's quiet but confident and utterly contemporary.

SPD 47: Tuomas Jaaskelainen's Favorite Magazine

I chose a magazine called Trendi from Helsinki, Finland, a fashion/lifestyle magazine for young women. Trendi is in a tight spot in the Finnish market, competing against local editions of Cosmo and Elle. So far they have been doing great.

What makes Trendi stand out is its unique design. It is very brave and uncompromising for a mainstream publication. The attention to detail is remarkable. The small design team is having a lot of fun with their pages. Trendi is a great reminder of the importance of creating a distinct visual language in order to make a magazine successful.

Trendi is published by Forma Publishing. Recent news says that their parent company is on the block. I hope that Trendi finds a good home. It deserves that.

SPD 47: Grace Lee + Robert Priest's Favorite Magazine

I believe Monocle is exactly what a magazine should be. They always have articles of things that I think I ought to know but didn't. It's like being in the presence of a really cool and intelligent friend and hoping some of that vibe would rub off on you.

SPD 47: Kristina DiMatteo's Favorite Magazine

I've recently been loving Apartamento. The artful range of well curated content is housed between special inserts, papers and unique commissions. Makes for an intimate experience and is perfect for a book that reveals personal space. It also doesn't hurt that I'm a sucker for interiors.

SPD 47: DJ Stout's Favorite Magazine

The best issue of a magazine I've seen this year, or maybe in the last five years, was the Bloomberg Businessweek special edition on Steve Jobs. I was asked to speak at a national magazine conference, the UCDA Conference, in Phoenix about university and alumni magazines shortly after Steve Jobs passed away. I ended up showing every single page of this issue during my presentation. I used it as an example of how print publications can still be vital and significant to the global conversation. This remarkable issue, created in a record-breaking 17 hours, uses painstakingly researched news and archival photography, intelligent info-graphics and time-lines, witty and pertinent writing and even a glossary to tell a rich and meaningful story about a man who changed the world.

SPD 47: Scott Dadich's Favorite Magazine

As much as I adore Fantastic Man, The Gentlewoman hits me in a way few magazines do. It's as much about the anachronistically brilliant use of Futura--my favorite typeface of all time--as it is the falsely modest layout and grid. It's "The Wrong Theory" writ large, fearless and aggressive. This magazine is superlatively brave in an era where so many titles settle mindlessly into conformist notions of modern publishing design.

SPD 47: Jan Zimmeck's Favorite Magazine

There are lots of magazine treasures, but I'd have to say I like TIME. They put my favorite picture of Steve Jobs on the cover. So great to see that come in the mail! They always nail it. It's been a very helpful resource over the years. The design, photos and art are strong. I like the cohesiveness and consistency in its presentation.

SPD 47: Majid Abbasi's Favorite Magazine

1. Neshan is the only magazine in Iran and the Middle East solely dedicated to Graphic Design. The magazine covers specialized, educational and research oriented content and aims at connecting designers in Iran, Asia and across the globe.
2. In seven years of its publication the magazine has gone through many improvements, finding its optimal present format as designed by Studio Saed Meshki in Tehran.
3. Neshan features an exclusive typeface designed by Damoon Khanjanzadeh for this publication. Bold combination of type and image allows Neshan to stand out among other art and culture publications in Iran.
4. Neshan features original texts by leading Iranian and international writers and contributes to the ongoing conversations in our industry.

I believe strong design paired with unique content makes the magazine a viable candidate.

SPD 47: Matt Willey's Favorite Magazine

Eureka is a monthly science magazine that comes with The Times newspaper (it is, in fact, the only reason I ever buy The Times). It's not my 'favourite magazine' (I don't know what that would be - probably something unlikely to win a design award) but it's brilliantly put together and it's brilliantly designed.

The Design is thoughtful and playful (and sometimes very beautiful) in the way it responds to its content. Intelligent and responsive in a way that somehow feels rare in mainstream newspaper publishing (in this country at least) these days. It makes the most of a fascinating subject matter and presents its ideas and information with what feels like an exciting and unrestricted confidence. I admire its ability to do fantastically dynamic graphically-led pages and be equally assured when doing something refined and simple. It manages that pitch-perfect balance exceptionally well. Everything seems so well considered - from the tiny details and page furniture through to the fantastic illustration and infographics (much of it done by the brilliant Nathalie Lees) and the use of photography. It's a stand-out example of how exciting and enjoyable a publication like this can be when in the right hands.

SPD 47: Get Yourself on the Timeline of Magazine Greatness

SPD 47: Simon Esterson's Favorite Magazine

I am in love with so many magazines, but the Italian magazine Inventario sits on the corner of my desk and I keep finding myself drawn back to it. Covering design, architecture and art it features an amazing range of ideas and images. Printed on uncoated paper with very restrained typography, it has the ability within one issue to look like both a busy sketchbook and a formal art catalogue. Editor: Beppe Finessi. Design: Artemio Croatto/Designwork.

SPD 47: Emily Crawford's Favorite Magazine

Full disclosure: I wouldn't normally have chosen this publication, although I think the cover of this issue is quite strong. I picked it because the magazine essentially jump-started the Occupy Wall Street movement----which, to me, is proof of how powerful and relevant magazines still are and how they can sometimes even change the world.

SPD 47: Khoi Vinh's Favorite Magazine

My favorite bit of 'editorial' design is an iPad (and iPhone) app called Reeder. It's an RSS aggregator. Actually it's just an interface that plugs into my Google Reader account. But it makes surveying a ton of news sources, blogs and update feeds simple, elegant and even addictive. I read it every single day.

SPD 47: Walter Bernard's Favorite Magazine

A Dutch women's magazine unlike any in the US. It uses real people as models, covers taboo subjects, and is presented in a high-spirited bold design with equally bold photography.

SPD 47: George Pitts' Favorite Magazine

Purple is a favorite largely for the long interviews with artists, and cultural figures that range from across the arts, from Alejandro Jodorowsky to David Lynch to Taryn Simon; and also for its adventurous, often racy photographs, with pictorials ranging from Juergen Teller to Steven Klein, and numerous emerging talents.

SPD 47: Luis Mendo's Favorite Magazine

I've chosen IL because design-wise it fulfills everything I want to see in a mag: brave typography, great imagery and a strong personality. The design team has made something special out of what could be just another newspaper supplement. The recent re-launch has made it even better than it already was. The new typography feels familiar and the mag is now a better version of itself, a grown up where you still can see the child. And I am so fond of their weakest point: the paper. Although coarse, thin and cheap in the feel, the team of designers, pre-press and printers does its best with it. The result is very pleasant to look at, despite everything. I love the smell of it too, but that's another story.

SPD 47: Dora Somosi's Favorite Magazine

I was given this copy of Polka Magazine by an inspiring young photographer named Ethan Levitas, whose work is included here. The feature well consists of portfolios by photographers mostly engaged in documentary and/or fine art work, with imagery by both legends like Elliott Erwitt, and future giants like Levitas. The design is simple--reminiscent of old layouts from Life and Vu--the photography well curated, and the reproduction very fine, all of which will surely make Polka a collector's item.

SPD 47: Luke Hayman's Favorite Magazine

Designed by Anton Ioukhnovets, the custom publication Lotus is a riff on an old-school men's magazine with hot cars as the center folds. This is an English sports car brand with tremendous heritage which the design captures while simultaneously being contemporary. The format is large and lush - a spread covers the area of 4 ipad screens - and it's well used. The typography and design is deceptively simple. This magazine is a pleasure.

SPD 47: Jeremy Leslie's Favorite Magazine

The best editorial ideas are deceptively simple, and right now English-language German culture magazine mono.kultur is my favourite example of beautifully executed simplicity.

As its name suggests, each edition features just one artist. They're the focus of an in-depth interview which is published alongside examples of their work. See what I mean about simple? Subjects have included fashion designer Dries van Noten, actor Tilda Swinton, photographer Ryan McGinley and author/performance artist Miranda July.

The physical format of the magazine changes every issue, as does the layout design. The only constant is the basic size, a petite A5, and the tiny title text on the cover. The Dave Eggers issue, no25 (shown), unfolded to a poster-sized scale mimicking a book printers running sheet; no19, featuring cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, ran in a filmic landscape format. There have been multiple throw outs, tip-ins, various combinations of papers and special inks - including the use of special scented ink devised by smell artist Sissel Tolass.

mono.kultur is a beautifully designed and produced piece of print that introduces and records the work of leading contemporary creative voices. It has become a highly collectible series and has just reached its 29th issue, about musician Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear.

SPD 47: Richard Turley's Favorite Magazine

Music magazines are cursed by the paradox of musicians never having anything interesting to say, yet people asking them loads of questions anyway. And whilst I can't claim to have read everything in 'Sup, it's such a great-looking mag I have to buy it just to feel like I read it.

From an art point of view, the magazine is really about photography, which pushes you all over the place from crunchy black and white, color-saturated portraits, contingent still lives; it feels temporary, accidental, never forced, always fun. The design is out of the reductive school of trying to look like your not obsessed about the position of the headline even though you know there has been a lot of care going into each page. But the real skill is in the pacing. All the articles are very similar (interview plus photos) which can be tricky to manage, but there is real surprise when you turn the page and that sense of surprise and messing with the reader which I love in all great magazines.

SPD 47: Your Favorite Magazine

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