Issues: New Magazine Design

Issues takes an incisive look at the influential, exciting, and original new genre of graphic design found between the covers of today’s hottest magazines. Right now more and more magazines are being published outside the mainstream and art directors have unprecedented freedom to experiment with format. Issues highlights the publications that have revolutionized magazine design and examines the concepts behind their format, page designs, covers, words and images. David Carson’s Raygun, Terry Jones’ ID, and Visionaire are three powerful examples that have broken traditions and forged images that are aesthetically individual and unique. Around the world countless magazines are published on a regular basis and the competition to attract readers is extremely fierce. But why is this compact, portable and highly accessible medium so effective in disseminating information to the public, and why contrary to predictions has it not been eclipsed by the world wide web? Issues answers these questions and demonstrate clearly why the digital encounter has proved unequal to the delightfully tactile and spectacular reading experience afforded by print. If a magazine is ‘a storage place for explosives’, then Issues is a complete arsenal of the most highly explosive magazine designs ever created.