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Following yesterday’s post of U.S.–based US: A Paperback Magazine, the Quebecois underground periodical Mainmise is a parallel endeavor from north of the border. While The Electric Information Age Book focuses primarily on subject matter published in the U.S. (for the sake of completing the book in less than a decade), we came across numerous international examples of mass-distributed weirdness. Mainmise (French for “stranglehold” or “seizure”) is amongst our finer finds; birthed from the groundswell of Quebec’s l’alternative utopique, the publication carried ties to the Underground Press Syndicate, and purveyed counterculture subject matter through an imaginative and varied graphic approach. |
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Combining an underground press outlook and aesthetic with mass market distribution, US: A Paperback Magazine, was edited by Richard Goldstein and published by Bantam Books. US provided “all the news that’s fit to eat” over a three-issue run from June 1969 through May 1970. |
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If there is one project that I’ve seen recently that made me say, “I wish I had done this,” it was Jordan Metcalf’s lettering for Boston magazine’s “Best of Boston 2012” issue. This typography feels unlike anything I’ve ever seen. He masters the drop shadow, gradients and textures—creating visually striking dimensional typography. |
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Un Sedicesimo is a 16 page magazine curated by the Italian publisher Pietro Corraini. 17 centimeters wide by 24 centimeters high. It’s not a traditional magazine; it hasn’t got an editorial office nor a subject nor a fixed design. Each issue has a different author, whose job is to create a 16-page long project. |
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Designer Andrea Manzati is greatly skilled in digital illustration, but it’s her handmade typographic designs that are the most impressive. For this particular design, created for Italian magazine IL, Andrea used plasticine modeling clay to craft ornate letters made of body parts and muscles for a beautiful tactile effect that almost comes to life right off the page. |
