Xplicit Grafx once was among my top 5 motivations to be into graffiti. We’re talking about 1995. The body of XG has survived my activity as a graffiti writer, but has the spirit survived too? This picture—the cover of last issue—seems to prove so. (Although there isn’t much graffiti actually going on in this image!)

Photography by ozkar

Found it in a copy of Lui from the early 80s. Not bad for a world without photoshop..

the last issue of vogues hommes international, art-directed by our friend Patrick Roppel uses the Romain BP of B&P typefoundry, which—as everybody knows—also is the font used (and specially developed) for Sang Bleu!

Lucky vintage find, Kitsch isssue 1. French fetish/art/photography magazine from 1970. Featuring work by Guy Bourdin, Richard Lindner, Robert Crumb, etc. It was worth getting for just the cover alone!

Latest eBay obsession, 70s biker magazines like In The Wind, Iron Horse and Easyriders. Hell’s Angels, hair and Harleys. Not sold on the unicorns and butterflies for girls, skulls and eagles for the boys rules mind…

It is a very subtle mix of elements that makes one appreciate a particular magazine. Some of these elements are exchangeable, or exclusive, but here is what comes to mind (randomly):


Size
Materiality (binding, stock, wrapping, etc.)
Pagination
Printing
Price
Title
Frequency of publishing
Content:
—editorial structure
—theme
—photography (quality, style, content, titling)
—writing (quality, style, content, titling)
—advertising (quantity, type of advertiser, aesthetic quality of)

and then, some more subtle relations between these aspects:

Writing vs photography proportion
Design
Consistency between issues
Ability to renew itself over time

Maybe this unexpected mix of classic (pedantic?), but high-quality writing, cheap stock, neutral design, obvious celebrity covering, conservative views, luxury advertising and systematic excellence of the (regularly unexpectedly provocative) photography… In my opinion half (ok, maybe a third) of the most memorable fashion series last year were published in W. And if you don’t agree… maybe, you’re right. In any case, last issue is worth buying. With Madonna on the cover, which comes as a relief after the Pitt/jolie overdose. Now what was I saying? Oh, Steven Klein manages to drain out of Madonna the very last drops of substance she has to offer… Chapeau. Same for the story shot by Juergen Teller very severely reminds of the infamous F/W 2001 Sisley Campaign shot by Terry Richardson, but—let’s admit it—totally successfully. The Craig McDean story is nice too in the middle of the post-Lang snapshots. Worth buying, definitely.