Need a guide to LA’s graphic design scene? Shoplifters’ new issue has got your back

Good old Actual Source. In its work as a multi-format publisher, brand and retail store we’re constantly hopping on Actual Source’s website to see what graphic design picks they’ve got for us from books to its own magazine, Shoplifters. We know you’re all big fans of it too, so when we saw the latest issue was a peek inside Los Angeles’ design scene we ate up its brilliantly designed double-page spreads.

Shoplifters regular format is as a biannual publication celebrating the work of contemporary artists from photographers to illustrators and the designers keeping it on its toes. Without a single identity, the publication shapeshifts in layout and typographic choices from issue to issue, redesigning its size, paper choice and overall tone each time it goes to print. Where its last issue took hold of a blue colour palette and put the work of the designer’s featured first, its latest issue uses a black and fluro-yellow and represents Los Angeles as a design landscape, rather than designers in pockets over the globe.

In this sense, the new issue is more of a guide, a tourist pamphlet for designers (imagine), and takes you through lists of bookstores to visit and museums and galleries you must go to if you’re in town. Alongside being a “296-page survey of contemporary art and design in Los Angeles, CA,” the magazine also features a bunch of studios and designers based in the city including Folder Studio, Chris Svensson, Inventory Press and Studio Ella. On top of this, rather than just straight up interviews the issue also includes LA-based studio visits to others, peeking inside the offices of Public Library, Lux Typo and Family Book Store, to name just a few, and introduces readers to those participating in the Otis college of art and design residency too. What more could you want?