At this stage I find it necessary to research into books / magazines, but more into the implications of why they've been created such as target audience and production. I decided to look at a variation including Brick magazine, Mundial, Mount Fuji 360 and a selection of Counter Print books.
Brick is an "intelligent union between fashion and music", the visual style of hip hop is such an easy genre to stereotype but Brick rejects the stereotypical hip hop style for a clean and contemporary style. What I like about Brick is the powerful images, I'm not entirely interested in hip hop but the images make me appreciate and engage the magazine and this is why I believe they have a broad target audience. Obviously Brick appeals to anyone interested in hip hop but on a visual level I think it draws in a different audience who enjoy the content through the images.
In terms of design influences Brick takes on board is assorted, Elvis Presley annuals from the 60s, Issey Miyake adverts from the 90s and vintage Indian posters mixed with traditional German typography to name a few. So a really diverse selection which accomplishes an exclusive style to hip hop publications, I'm sure in the near future other hip hop or even subculture publications will appear aiming to replicate the approach Brick has made by mixing up a stereotype. What I found most helpful from researching Brick is seeing how the creators had the audacity, to to mix up a stereotype of a subculture and present it in a physical object.
Mundial is a football lifestyle magazine in love with the travel, the fans, the kits, the boots, the world and the people surrounding the game, in my opinion it stays away from the 'money' and sticks to the untapped part of the game. Football magazines like this are becoming more popular in independent book stores today, Soccerbible to name one but the rise in these publications is possibly down to a target audience that love the game but want to break away from the stats and sky sports, it offers a personal level of football that in recent years has disappeared due to the financial power of the game now. The magazine costs £7, so is in a higher cost bracket of football magazines with the likes of Fourfourtwo costing £4 but this magazine captivates a audience that may acknowledge design more, and a £7 price tag is cheap for a quarterly magazine.
Drawing on both art and architecture, the award-winning 360° book allows the reader to get a 3D, panoramic view of Mt. Fuji and makes you rethink what a book is. The artists behind the book trained as a architect so comes from a unusual background in terms of producing a book, the sculptural object is made from 30 individual laser cut images bound into a book, then fanned 360 degrees to view it. Once closed the book is placed into a outer casing that makes it easy to store on a bookshelf. This book stands out, makes you want to purchase it to take home and show people as it questions what a book is and engages the viewer in a new way. Retailing at £25-£35, the book is high in cost which is down to production cost, 30 individual pieces are printed then binded by hand which is a timely production method.
Counter Print is dedicated to the publishing, selling and promotion of graphic design and illustration books. I'm a huge fan of counter print books as they prove an excellent reference point for research and inspiration regularly, the books are also relatively cheap as the books above all retail from £7-£12 so affordable for students such as myself. In fact I believe Counter Print does aim a majority of its book at students, I make this assumption because of the price and production of the books. All their books are softbound with a few having dust jacket covers for durability but this is one problem I find with Counter Print products, softbound offers flexibility but easily damages.
The image above shows the dust cover on the book 'Book cover design from east Asia' the cover provides protection for a small size book, but in terms of function the book is hard to flick through due to the dust cover. I tend to remove dust covers when I purchase these types of books mainly because of the restriction when reading them.
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