A Things almost entirely dedicated to scintillating magazines

Quite frankly, I’ve gone mad for mags this week. Once you delve into the world of independent magazines, you realise there are more on offer than your commute could ever possibly be long enough give you time to read them all. Those cherry-picked by yours truly this week explore documentary photography and the photo-essay, (Huck and Aint-Bad ), cruel corporations (Adbusters ) and independent magazines themselves (Gym Class). For a dash of variation and because it was simply too lovely to leave out, a box of charming notebooks printed by French studio L’imprimerie du Marais for your visual delectation.

Adbuster: Issue #114

For this issue of the iconic activist magazine, team Adbuster have taken on the big bad boys: the corporations. Titled Birth of the Corporate Charter Revocation Movement, it’s a history lesson in how corporations came into being, from the East India Company to Standard Oil, Coca Cola to Apple, a survey of the dirtiest companies of them all and a deconstruction of their charters. Self-consciously anarchist and informative, it also features some good old “subvertisements” and is a joyous rallying call for those of us who are about as likely to choose to work for (or be wilfully employed by) General Motors or Goldman Sachs as the panda in Edinburgh zoo is to give birth.
www.adbusters.org

Huck: Issue #46

As for team Huck, they’ve put on a documentary photography special for this edition. In an age in which photographs whiz about the internet with dizzying speed and media agencies scrabble to post the most eye-catching, clickable images, Huck wonders whether we’re really “getting the full picture”. A series of visual essays follow, exploring British subculture and small towns, Australian social work and skateboarding, voyaging from Ukraine to Swaziland. Objectivity is weighed up against subjectivity and the photographer’s story is given its own space alongside the pictures.
www.huckmagazine.com

L’imprimerie du Marais: Notebook II

Taking a break from magazines, we have some divine notebooks produced and printed by French studio L’imprimerie du Marais. Working with eight design studios – including Anagrama, Homework and Partel Oliva – they’ve created a beautiful box full of amazingly textured, tiny notebooks. A delight to run your hands over, some are intricately embossed in gold, whilst others have a brighter palette complementing the pink and purple of the box itself. Inside the stitched cover, the delicate geometric designs continue. A true indulgence in stationery fetishism.
www.imprimeriedumarais.fr
www.thenotebook2project.com

Aint-Bad Magazine: Issue #8

We’ve raved about how Aint-Bad is, in fact, rather great, before. For this issue, it sticks close to home, looking at the changing face of the American South from its base in Savannah, Georgia. How do images of the South define it? And how close are they to the truth? Focusing on large spreads of glossy photographs, the magazine showcases the work of several local photographers as they document areas of American life which seem so iconic as to be cemented in an unalterable identity; cowboys, football, rodeos, Elvis memorabilia.
www.aintbadmagazine.com

Gym Class: Issue #11

“Editor-in-mischief” Steven Gregor has collated interviews written for a variety of other publications with influential names in the magazine world – like Jeremy Leslie and Gert Jonkers and Jop Van Bonnekom – with equally fascinating articles produced for this zine. The editors of Zeit Magazin talk through the ethos and the evolution of one of the world’s most successful newspaper mags, the New Yorker‘s creative director explains how he went about the delicate issue of redesigning such a well-loved cultural cornerstone, and Steven looks back on 70 issues of Monocle. “A zine for the guy chosen last”, it’s also a zine for the lover of all things magazine.
www.gymclassmag.bigcartel.com