Foreign Design Magazines

I absolutely love design magazines, especially ones that are like books with large pages and thick paper. I recently splurged on a $20 design magazine from Australia called InDesign. Instead of issue numbers there are Volume numbers, making it more reminiscent of a book. The Magazine is thick and filled with some of the most interesting buildings, products, and art. The majority of buildings and environments featured are located in Melbourne. I've looked through this magazine maybe a hundred times and I still find articles and pictures I haven't read yet that I find fascinating. It is definitely worth the extra money.



JA (The Japanese Architect) is a magazine I found online. The layout and photographs and everything that it features is streamlined, simple, and clean. It has great photographs and features great buildings in Japan for design firms and such. JA's sister magazine A + U (Architecture + Urbanism) is also a Japanese magazine that is available in Japanese, Chinese, and English. I prefer A+U over JA simply because it is less simple! JA is too simple for me and is almost boring. JA's only strong point is that it features fantastic buildings. A+U features articles about architects, products, buildings, and all sorts of design. A+U is more of an international magazine considering it features everything from the Chrysler Building to a state of the art airport in Germany. I don't think I would want a subscription to either of these magazines, but I would enjoy owning a few copies.



Before I start, I just want to say that Italians are some of the best designers in the world. Domus is a very professional Italian magazine with clean well planned layouts and articles. Just looking at the ads is interesting because they are from a different country so I have never seen this type of design. Ads in many American design magazines are easily disregarded, but the Italians know how to advertise. My favorite part about this magazine are the graphics. Graphics help explain the articles and features in a light that is much more interesting than simply text and photographs. Domus is a beautiful and professional Italian design magazine that thick and will keep your eyes glued to the pages for hours on end.

(I found this interesting piece created by Vered Zaykovsky. It is a coffee table created with no glue and no cutting. It is glass and six Domus magazines folded in a way that is sturdy and quite pleasing to the eye.)