This year at the PPA conference, Top Gear magazine’s editor-in-chief Charlie Turner made an excellent presentation about what was surely the biggest motoring scoop of 2012. When the new Aston Martin One-77 was launched a couple of years ago, it was so expensive (£1.2 million) and so exclusive that Aston decreed, ‘No journalist will […]

A few weeks ago here on this blog, I served up a form guide to the PPA Cover Of The Year Awards that suggested the Time Out cover was a 100/1 outsider. Whilst I proclaimed it to be ‘Highly successful’ and an example of ‘unalloyed utility’, I clearly got the price well wrong! The decision, […]

This recent issue of Harper’s Bazaar came my way as part of a motorway service station ‘value pack’; six quid for this, along with Elle and Elle Deco. On one hand, this commodification of premium content is clear evidence of the publishing industry’s difficulties, on the other, I got to sample magazines that I might […]

Typography is a pretty dark art at the best of times, but this new font blew me away. My ten year old son Olly, who is dyslexic, wrote about it on his blog, proving not for the first time, that he knows more than his dad. The font has been specially weighted to stop the […]

Last night the PPA unveiled the shortlist for the Cover Of The Century competition, as part of their own centenary celebrations. Creating such a list is a thankless task, but I think the PPA have done a good job here, given the need to produce a ten decade spread across the industry. Like everyone else, […]

Following the shocking murder of two of their vendors a few weeks ago, The Big Issue have created this fine cover campaign celebrating the very thing that makes them special, their vendors. But the beauty of this work lies not just in the cover (which is excellent) but in the hashtag, #celebrateyourvendor. A magazine cover […]

Creative Director and Advertising Legend Mark Denton came into IPC media last week, and gave a genuinely inspiring talk about his work to a totally packed house. Mark has won an astonishing number of advertising and design awards across the spectrum. Press ads, posters, sculptures(!), books and logos, along with a solid stream of self promotional material. […]

Here is Time’s person of the year, double issue cover. No doubt about Obama, but I was excited to see Nadav Kander as the photographer. He’s clearly well liked in the Time photo department, as Nadav also turned up in their recent list of photographic covers of the year. That was for his fine portrait […]

Here are a pair of excellent covers from two of Britain’s biggest and best-read magazines. TV Times and Radio Times are part of the very fabric of British cultural life. Until TV listings were de-regulated back in 1991, these titles were the only way of finding out what was on the telly that week. You […]

Here’s Rihanna, in the latest promotional picture for her new album, Unapologetic. I haven’t heard the record yet, but I’m mightily impressed by this image. Magazines are Young! Sexy! Fashionable! And judging by the dangling doobie, dangerous to boot. She’s even kindly shut her eyes, to make sure we’re not distracted from any of the […]