The latest issue of Sentimental magazine is inspired by monsters (and mayonnaise)

Date
4 October 2016

The third issue of Sentimental magazine, founded by French photographer Romain Seller, was published last month. The new issue, themed monsters, comes with four different covers shot and contains work by contributors including Philip Kremer, Paul Rousseau and Fillip y Kito, amongst others. “Each photographer responded to the brief in their own way,” says art director Bruce Usher. “Some were fairly obvious in their response, and others dealt with it in a more psychological way. The theme isn’t mentioned in the issue. It’s not didactic in that way.”

The images tell a story using the visual language of the photographer, so Bruce and Romain were faced with the task of unifying the magazine with typefaces that linked the stories. “We started off looking at the language of B-movie title slides from the ’50s and ’60s, but it felt like an homage rather than something new,” explains Bruce. “We wanted to create a language that felt premium — in keeping with the stature of the photographers — and something that provided a point of difference on the shelf.”

The answer lay in the most unlikely method: Bruce created the typeface using a tube of mayonnaise. “We very quickly decided that colour would distract the reader from the images,” says Bruce. “We used mayonnaise from a quirky tube to create a typeface with splats and spiky breaks. It’s like a more serious version of the Goosebumps typeface.”

Each page of the new issue is perforated, where the past issue had been ring bound. Bruce explains that he hopes the magazine has images that will be inspired and pulled out and stuck on the wall. “There’s a physicality to the issue,” he explains. “I remember one of the very first issues of Acne Papers I bought as a student. I tore pages out and used them as references. I hope the same thing happens with Sentimental.

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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Romain Seller and Bruce Usher: Sentimental

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About the Author

Owen Pritchard

Owen joined It’s Nice That as Editor in November of 2015 leading and overseeing all editorial content across online, print and the events programme, before leaving in early 2018.

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