UNLESS you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few months, you can’t have failed to hear about the ‘My Favo(u)rite Magazine’ project.
Earlier this year, US magazine art director, Robert (Bob) Newman had an accident, which left him in a coma for some weeks, and this has impacted seriously on his long-term health.
With his family struggling to meet medical bills, friends Andrew Losowsky and Jeremy Leslie hit upon the idea to create a compilation of other magazines – and publish it to raise cash for Bob.
They called for submissions through social media, and eventually around 90 people around the world identified their one favourite magazine, sending in a mini article and images. Jeremy and Andrew put the magazine together with the support of Newspaper Club, and the profits from the one-off publication go towards Bob’s medical bills.
This is a great opportunity to support a man that has dedicated his life to producing fantastic magazines, and is a true devotee of the medium – promoting them voraciously through his Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Tumblr accounts.
It’s also a great way of to get a feel for what other magazine industry folk and enthusiasts actually rate; remember, they had to choose only one magazine, and that’s tough in a world where there are so many amazing titles out there.
There are some obvious, and some less obvious titles in there, and they come from as far back as 1957. There are intriguing tales of what drew the contributor to that particular title, and photographs of the issue itself.
What did I choose? You’ll just have to buy a copy to find out.
Neil Braidwood is head of CMYK magazine design and publishing company. He is also vice-chair of PPA Scotland.
