Library Paper, by Catalogue Library, returns with its eighth issue: trips

Date
12 December 2017

Catalogue Library is back with the eighth issue of its “up-to-date representation of varied design and art practices from around the world,” – Library Paper. “Giving readers an insight into the artist’s process,” previous issues focused on “romance” and “the new” and this time Catalogue Library settled on the theme of “trips”. Although this could be interpreted at “trippy”, it also denotes a literary trip somewhere, or a literal journey through the publication.

The magazine began back in 2012 as an extension of the newly formed publishing label and its design reference blog Back Catalogue. “We wanted to put something into print that was quick and easy for people to digest explains Oliver Shaw, co-founder of Catalogue Library. He goes onto explain how, “designers and artists making work specifically for the magazine and answering questions on how they did it seemed like an interesting concept and at the time we were just starting out so we were pretty nosey when it came to people’s work that we admired.”

Library Paper’s strength lies, largely, in the calibre of its contributors. Its varied and diverse pool of creatives sees some of the better known artists sending in iPhone images instead of their actual work and others providing work that already exists on their hard drives but that resonated with the theme in some way. “This is something we love,” explains Ollie, “because people who are looking for a certain type of work from someone are getting something completely different and personal.” Some of the included work in issue eight comes from the likes of Peter Sutherland, Jason Revok and Eric Elms with Ollie describing them and everyone else as “some of our favourite ever artists”.

The cover of issue eight features a ghostly black and white image of a silhouetted branch, shot by Geordie Wood. Having taken photos of the likes of Barack Obama, Geordie’s submissions to the eighth Library Paper reflected a much more experimental approach to both taking photos and printing them. It was this which drew the Catalogue Library team to the work so much, with this particular image seeming the most fitting for the theme.

In keeping with previous issues, the work included in “trips” is all full-bleed giving it a somewhat undesigned aesthetic. At the beginning of the publication there is a foreword and, at the back, an index with all of the artists’ details. This was a conscious decision by Catalogue Library as the team wanted to ensure the work was the focus of magazine. “We change the typeface each issue to keep it a little different, but aside from that we try to keep it exactly the same so it’s more of a portfolio than a design magazine,” he explains.

The 60-page publication also comes with a silkscreened bandana by Braindead.

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

Above

Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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Library Paper Issue 08: Trips

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About the Author

Ruby Boddington

Ruby joined the It’s Nice That team as an editorial assistant in September 2017 after graduating from the Graphic Communication Design course at Central Saint Martins. In April 2018, she became a staff writer and in August 2019, she was made associate editor.

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