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Any beautiful and/or interesting magazines you like?
I always loved magazines. Like, real paper magazines. Lately I realized that I can find digital versions or scans somewhat easily and it sparked a new obsession. I'm weird, I know. But there are so many beautifully designed magazines, such as the Japanese travel-related Transit or the men's lifestyle Brutus. Even their websites are beautiful and worth visiting. There's also this independent Brazilian retro gaming magazine called Jogo Véio that is almost like a love letter to the classic video game magazines.
I think I've been craving creativity lately, in a World of AI slop and "content" creators. So any magazines you like? What do you like about them?
Nanaō (link for buying, en description, not official) , (official,jp) - Japanese cultural Arts and kimono, with some illustrations as well. Even just the way panels are laid out feels beautiful. Feels also less "I'm too old for this" like Furisode Byori (振袖日和) magazine aimed towards the "get hyped: getting a Furisode when I turn 20" crowd *, and less narrowly focused on just kimonos than ---
Utsukushii Kimono (purchase, en), (official, jp) - their portraits are pretty, and also close ups of embroidery and dyed fabrics and such. There's also usually an artisan feature where they talk about their craft that contributes to kimonos. Digital sample pages here
Your mentioning transit.jp reminds me that I actually enjoy airline travel magazines they stick in the pockets. I know they're just ads but they have to be somewhat fun while business-clsss style, contain a variety of interests without being too niche or have anything offensive in them. Kinda interesting.
'* Edit: I'm obviously just super jealous that I'm not 18 years old with money to burn in a "congrats happy for you" way - it's a super cute and fun magazine
I am subscribed to Frames. It is a photography magazine, and it only has small texts and plenty of photographs. For me it is important that the print and the images are both high quality.
And they are.
Since I am genuinely interested in photography, it is fascinating to see other people's work in a more curated way.
Im not sure where you are based but every now and then I will browse this site and look for interesting magazines. Iv bought a few from there that have been super interesting as well as having interesting layouts.
https://store.magalleria.co.uk/
here are a few iv bought in the past
https://store.magalleria.co.uk/products/realreviewantenne?_pos=1&_sid=0fd741a7d&_ss=r
https://store.magalleria.co.uk/products/weird-walk-wanderings-and-wonderings-through-the-british-ritual-year
https://store.magalleria.co.uk/products/a-bestiary-of-the-anthropocene (this is actually a book but still sick)
https://store.magalleria.co.uk/products/thefunambulist?_pos=1&_sid=a2b6b4de6&_ss=r
You can view all the issues on the internet archive: https://archive.org/details/emigre-magazine-archive-1984-2005/
Overall this magazine is a bit scattershot and sometimes hard to parse. A heady mix of esoteric poetry, essay, patchwork visuals, and sardonic critique of the design world as it flowered into the digital, multi-billion dollar industry it is today. My favorite is Issue 9, since I love the what the record label 4AD was putting out in those days in terms of visual artifact.
...oh, vaughan oliver was totally my jam around that time; i always sensed a strong synergy between his work and the likes of dave mckean's burgeoning ouvre, which i suppose were both emblematic of a broader post-modern collage expressionism sweeping through graphic design in indie music, comics, games, and eventually advertising by the turn of the millenium...
Slightly unrelated, but I got REALLY into the whole concept of the Sibylle magazine during the second half of 2025, while I was researching historical data for my minecraft base/art project on the new tildes minecraft server.
But, alas, sadly there are barely any openly accessible online archives (legal or illegal) for it, as far as I could tell, and the book that was written for it is sold out... Aside from random content here and there, I've not been able to find much. :(
Maybe try emailing them to ask how it's going and if you could take a sneak peek? https://uwmahler.de/en/ at least might be fun to read a fan letter :)
I may be shy as fuck and I don't have any hopes for a positive result, but worth trying out, honestly. Thanks for the idea :)
It sounds like they painstakingly collected them and are digitizing them precisely for
viewersfans like you. Even if they don't reply or if it's just "thanks, not ready yet, join the mailing list", I'm sure it's nice to read fan mail, esp what with all the bad news and people being mean these days. :) The sample photo pages from the Forbes article look bold and beautiful and timeless -- the magazine probably gave so many fellow women an inner strength and a psychological home that transports them from the grim reality and daily grind. Thanks for the recommendationTYPEONE is a magazine focused on typography & graphic design, and I love it because of how much care and effort goes into each issue. You can really tell the people behind this are in love with the medium and subject. My favorite issue is 06 because it’s theme is experimental and I’m a weird guy who loves weird things.
For me, non can top National Geographic magazine, it's what sparked the interest in photography and writing for me!
Btw, do you have access to Overdrive? It'll allow you to borrow digital magazines from your local library 😊
Thanks, I had no idea about Overdrive! But I see it's supported in the country I live, so I'll figure out how to subscribe to some of these libraries.
Emergence Magazine is lovely - https://emergencemagazine.org/ - they are online but they do have an annual print edition.
I enjoyed this article about the history of various pigments:
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/museum-of-color/