Most TDOD readers are probably familiar with Stack, the magazine subscription where the latest issue of a random, high-quality independent title is sent to readers every month. I’ve been a subscriber for around 9 months now and wanted to write on here about what I think is a great resource for design students and professionals.

Month-by-month I’ve received a number of interesting titles, many of which I wouldn’t have ordinarily bought but have thoroughly enjoyed. There’s been a strong leaning towards designer-friendly titles such as idN, Grafik and It’s Nice That but I’ve found it’s the non-design titles, such as the quarterly news digest Delayed Gratification and the Food magazine Fire & Knives that have led to me eagerly awaiting the next surprise at the begining of each month. However one thing all the titles have in common is that they are lovingly crafted, with a lot of attention given design and layout.

Which brings me onto the reason I’ve written this post, because as my stack of magazines has grown it has formed the basis of a great resource for me as a designer. An archive of interesting layouts from titles I otherwise might have missed. From seeing different ways of communicating information which are all unique to their subject matter, to becoming more aware of the different paper stocks used by the titles and seeing how the different art directors have handled type and photography, it is giving me a new appreciation of skills I’d started taking for granted.

It seems to me a great way for students especially to start building a collection of  print and publishing references which aren’t just limited to the usual industry titles we all pour over  – and the real fun is not knowing what’s coming next. Highly recommended!

Via here and here.

If you have a spare few minutes, its brilliant to flick through. As an 80′s child myself, the toy section in particular brought back lots of childhood memories.
Its also really interesting looking through the different sections. How different fashions and products have changed over the last 25 years. Some have changed little, but other sections have changed massively, especially the technology department; computers and televisions.

It’s also interesting looking at the design and layout of the catalogue and how this has changed.

Heres a small selection of the pages:

When it comes to studio culture, how do you provide the environment and create the conditions under which creativity can flourish?

At Interbrand Sydney, we get all the benefits of being part of a large and multifaceted communications group – interesting spaces, 300 plus people, grand boardrooms, a roof top terrace bar and so on – combined with the family atmosphere of our own smaller studio.

We fundamentally believe that a culture can only be as creative as the people contributing to it. From production staff, writers and strategists, to client services and of course creatives. All have been employed as much for their rich and varied personal interests, as they have their exceptional professional capabilities. This automatically gives us an interesting and energetic dynamic.

Once you have a studio full of naturally creative people, the cultural framework can be based on just a few simple principles: ownership, encouragement, opportunity and recognition.

Ultimately, we have over 30 staff, with one common aim – to produce great work, and that is everyone’s responsibility.

A few examples of work:

The Interbrand Sydney team:

A useful resource site dedicated to magazines for download.

Pdf-mags.com is your infobase for pdf magazines made all over the world.
Here you can find links and information about over 200 free PDF magazines from around the world with main focus on art, design, illustration and everyday culture.

Thanks to 2nd year design student Dan Freebairn for sending this in.

(Images ‘ShelterMag’).

Some well known faces

Some well known teams

…and some informed opinion

The Apple Z generation: with the simple touch of the two key combination of ‘Apple’ and ‘Z’, any potential creative trial, test and thought can be gone forever. What we want to know is: Are we too quick to dismiss/undo our work?

Albert Einstein once said “the only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas”.

As a society we are far too quick to dismiss creative exploration because of an ingrained fear of failure. We are raised within a rigid school infrastructure that is highly results driven and actively discourages trial and error.

Students who begin studying the design process for the first time are often deeply inhibited by this conditioning. They are paralysed by the fear that nothing is good enough – expecting fully finished concepts to just appear as if by magic. Because of this, fledgling designs are often undone or dismissed as quickly as they are conceived, with many pupils too afraid of the error to undertake the trial.

The truth is that failure is an essential part of design success. Wieden + Kennedy – one of the worlds most creatively awarded agencies of the past five years – have the mantra FAIL HARDER emblazoned across a five meter wide wall in their Portland head office.

James Dyson has placed the idea of ‘innovation through failure’ at the heart of his organisation (now boasting $3 billion in sales worldwide). His first bag-less vacuum cleaner was the product of no less than five thousand iterations. That’s five thousand failures before he had his solution, and not an Apple Z in sight.

What W+K and Dyson both realise is that you can learn more from failure than success. This is because in failure you are forced to evaluate what didn’t work and do better. As designers we often have to take steps sideways, even backwards, in order to move forwards. We should never undue, or dismiss these vital steps, as each failure brings us closer to something new and original.

In the words of Dyson himself “keep failing, it works.”

Intelligent life is the quarterly lifestyle and culture magazine from The Economist. It covers the arts, style, food, wine, cars, travel and anything else under the sun, as long as it’s interesting. It shares The Economist’s fondness for crisp prose, dry wit and free thinking. But rather than covering politics and economics, it is about life in general and making the most of your time off, from tailoring to museums, hotels to philanthropy, choosing wine to going green.

Click here for more info y’all.