Grafik Mag
- Started
- Last post
- 52 Responses
- Arran
This magazine has gone downhill in a big way. It tends to feature the same design studios/friends of grafik and this is a shame because theres so much interesting work going on out there. Alot of the work featured is interesting enough, but id really like to learn more about others out there who are doubtless producing challenging work rather than the same old studios being showcased. (And no i havent submitted work and been turned down, bitter etc)
I just got the august issue through the post and feel severely let down for however much it was that i paid for my subscription which i am hoping will run out soon - im definitely not gonna be spending £8 each month when it does run out.
Also, the design of the mag itself is questionable – not to my taste certainly.
Wouldnt be surprised if this has come up before, but had to let it out anyhow.
Rant over, i feel better now
- Bluejam0
spend even more money on this magazine
http://www.eyemagazine.com/
it's so much better
- gramme0
I'd really like it if that magazine would also set their articles in legible type. Not Avant Garde. Fine for headline. Not paragraphs. Sheesh.
- @ Grafik, clearlygramme
- oh come on,
A) its not that bad
B) could be worseMeeklo - Like Comic Sans worse? Or Keedy? Scratch that, set the whole thing in dingbats FTWgramme
- +1 GAZILLION. so true. I have thought about this again and againDancer
- And that's the double truth grammegoingpublic
- foreverwhatever0
i liked grafik more when they had nice paper stock... now its not so nice.
- DaveO0
I think it's alright. Some nice work in there – so much sexier spread of work than other design journals. Eye has much more substance and whatnot but I can't really knock it.
True about paper stock though.
- Meeklo0
name one magazine that has not at some point include articles about friends/ connections.
Clock starts... now!
go:
- BaskerviIle0
Hey Arran,
totally agree with you there. The same seems to be true of creative review to some extent, but I like CR's blog.
Eye is definitely a proper design magazine, much more academic, not just for style whores.
Also magazines like Idea and Frame are really interesting to read, I like reading outside of just graphic design. It's all ideas in the end, graphic design tends to be pretty insular.
Luckily I get to read them all for free in my studio so I don't have to shell out for them.
Grafik's only worth a quick flick usually
also totally agree about it being typeset in avant garde, complete idiocy.- grafik titwank...pretty trend based student stuff...babaganush
- idea is awesomeshowpony
- modern0
Least its not creative review, horrible pile of adverts and barely anything else.
- ********0
too expensive for me
- hektor9110
what do you thinks about CREATIVE REVIEW?
- Dancer0
At last someone who agrees that grafik is wrong and over priced.
now I can walk towards the light....
- PromotionalUseOnly0
Was good when it first launch (i did the original site for it... but they took that down, to replace it with a holding page with a weird email address on it)
- ********0
I don't think I've ever looked in Grafik. Didn't it use to be something else, and before that Graphics International, and before that something else that was a sister magazine to Blueprint?... or, was it actually Blueprint once upon a time?
Creative Review became a very matey sort of deal in my opinion. I've long since stopped reading it but I used to love/hate how they would include a typeface design in the 'What's New In Design' (or whetever its called) section every month, and it was always the same typeface, 'designed' each month by some other fontographer graduate nobody had ever heard of, and always based on a blocky font, or a bubble font, or gridfont that was done in the 60's anyway.
It went downhill when they had that 'New Broom' period, when Chris Ashworth and Substance re-designed it. The re-design was really good I thought, but the nambypamby new editorial direction it took at that point sucked and has tarnished it ever since. Just a sychophantic chumfest with nothing valuable to say.
I wonder how insubstantial flickthroughs like CR can survive when things like ffffound (love it or hate it) can provide that visual fix wider, faster, deeper and cheaper.
Do they still produce Baseline? That was always a good hearty smorgasbord back in the day.
- CR has no substance these days, more like a student look book.********
- CR has no substance these days, more like a student look book.
- iluvsoul0
my new fave design mag is IDN...
- honest0
I believe Grafik has turned into a Caroline Roberts' friends and family pick of the month newsletter. It lacks range and stinks horribly of that Hoxton chic so much that one feels that Sam Sparrow's jism has replaced the usual cow gum to stick those horrible A5 postcard showcases. The writing is vanilla and one can't ascertain one issue from the other unless it's the bumper edition in January when they do a cop-out and review the year's previous design greats by reprinting and rehashing old articles.
Somebody needs to grab hold of Roberts' knicker drawer and dollop a generous helping of chilli powder in a bid to give that once great magazine some wellie (or at least give her a creative orgasm).
With the price that they demand, you'd think that the ads would be of better ilk and that the guest contributors would put more effort into the articles and have more attitude.
Christ, whatever happened Graphics International? Am I turning into an ancient flatulent?
- haha! wise words...hoxshite.babaganush
- 'The writing is vanilla' - brilliantly put! I forgot to mention how much the writing style winds me upArran
- Hahaha very well put honestuncle_helv
- PromotionalUseOnly0
IDN has changed too recently hasn't it?
- honest0
I blame the current economic down turn. In fact it's my favourite excuse these days. Rain? Yeah, that's the credit crunch. Your wife won't have sex with you? Hmm, that's objective investment.
- uncle_helv0
You can tell SEA have stopped designing it, both the layout and choice of paper stock have gone downhill, although I guess both are a money saver, it is definitely aimed at the student market, can't remember the last time they had a consultancy profile that didn't use a Lubalin inspired decorative serif or stylised illustrated photographs of birds or something! Although the typographic review at the back end is something I like, and I wish they would think a bit harder about the content, Eye is a far superior magazine, more book than than mag, I concur IDEA, FRAME, and Baseline are all better choices, however with the money I save on mags I buy books instead...
- gramme0
Wasn't Madethought involved w/ Grafik at some point? Am I making things up again?
- SEA took over from MD (Malone) and they worked off the original template created by MadeThought.uncle_helv
- RIZ0
Yeah I'm pretty sure MadeThought designed an issue, or template??? I still dig it, managed to get some of my work into the May 2008 issue, so I won't complain...
- craighooper0
It's fallen hard and fast.
Used to be such a great publication, now it's just become a repetitious shell of it's former self.
Each month is almost identical to the last—the same style of print-based layout and design, spotlights on the same small design studios, and some random, irrelevant design-related articles.
The "spotlights", while being of the best intentions, are often just re-hashed, amateur fluff.
It's become eye-candy, nothing more, nothing less...