Blanket

The two things that I am obsessed with most in my life are printed matters and music. They are the reason why I can't seem to unclutter my life. The music I have been able to go completely digital. That's easy, though I do dearly miss the packaging simply because a small thumbnail on your iPod isn't really "cover art"

Now, the printed matter is an entirely different thing altogether. I tried to go digital sometime back, but nothing seemed like a good replacement. I mean, most times you can't even find an ebook version. Also, they keep producing those luscious art books that I can't seem to pass up. And of course reading graphic novels on your computer isn't quite the same experience.

But one type of printed matters that I can't seem to get rid of is the magazine. I have way too many subscriptions to magazines that I don't even have time to read Then there's the habit of going to a good magazine rack and find a really nice one out of the pack.

I am getting rid of some this year though. I don't know why I still subscribe to some of them. One particular tome of an art journal is going bye-bye. You know. The one with the 80-20 percent ratio in advertisement-content? Ridiculous. Actually I've found another local art magazine that I like with good critical writings. So I think that one's going to be a mainstay for awhile.

I don't think I'm into these magazines necessarily for the designs either. Because back before everyone started a blog, I was heavily buying up xeroxed zines wherever I can find them. Sometimes I lament the fact that you can't really get Factsheet Five anymore. At least I don't think anyone has picked up publishing that zine again.


But my obsession with zines continues. In the current class that I'm teaching, Desktop Publishing, I'm making my students produce xeroxed zines for their final project. The ideas are so varied that I'm such a happy camper. I do agree that laying them out in InDesign can be an overkill. But I'm afraid that's the subject I teach. (Incidentally, I personally believe that all you'll ever need to be a designer are pen, paper, and a good xerox machine. It's not a hardset rule. I mean I do all my designs on my Macbook Pro. But I definitely do little things all the time in my sketchbooks that no one gets to see but me. Well, unless of course I feel like sharing them.)

A couple of years ago I started to realize that PDF zines seem to be the way to go. There are a couple that I've been following off and on. They vary greatly from art to video games. It seems like a lot of really good efforts are going into these type of zines.

This get me to the subject at hand. I have been friend with one Pikaland on flickr for awhile now. It's only been recently (very recently) that I became aware that she's a blogger. Not very Magnum, P.I. of me. So in going through her posts, I discovered a mention of the PDF zine Blanket.

It apparently comes out bi-monthly. Each is a themed issue. But the nice thing about it is that it features some really interesting illustrators, designers, and photographers. Er, can we just call them "artists?"

The current issue is the Travel Issue. Aside from some nice contributions about traveling, there are also interviews with a couple of really good designers.

The other issue I'm digging is the Music Issue. Obviously. Nothing like awesome music graphics to go with articles about music.

So I guess this little zine is going on my permanent Delicious bookmarks. So far there are twelve issues so I've got something to read every month for the next year.

Incidentally Blanket was also the name of a comic book series I used to love back in the 90's. Illustrated by David Mazzuchelli and friends. I miss that series. Though Mazzuchelli shows up here and again in anthologies and, of course, pages of magazines, where he does editorial illustrations.