46th Publication Design Annual
Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d – 14.02.2012
ISBN – 9781592537501
46th Publication Design Annual by Society of Publication Designers and published by Rockport celebrates the most outstanding editorial design produced in 2010, created for editorial publications across all print, web and tablet platforms. From consumer, trade, corporate and digital magazines and newspapers. I personally found some of the magazine covers a little cliche, but it is the illustrations inside these magazines and newspapers which really took my breathe away. Some of them are so thought provoking and time consuming to produce. For example a data visualisation of Facebook’s network, or an intricate health diagram of the human foot which just communicated the intended message so powerfully. The book is split up into the following categories:
- Magazine of the year
- Members choice
- Design
- Photography
- Illustration
- Digital
- Spots, and
- Student competition
The designs, judged by 40 experienced visual journalists, are fun and innovative works, it is difficult to fault the quality. The works are presented with large images fully exploiting the large, beautifully printed pages. The book is very consistent in how it is laid out which is appreciated and of course mentioned the credits, category and client for each project.
You can find magazines featured like Go with the funny Tracy Morgan or sexy spreads with much loved Miranda Kerr, or perhaps the rough-edged Sylvester Stallone might tickle your fancy. Or perhaps the random nude and quirky cover designs will tickle your fancy. There really is something for every kind of artist out there. There’s even a sizeable chunk of Ipad magazine developments. Which was cool, but in essence it looked no different to a magazine or a newspaper it is just on an Ipad. Really a printed book is never going to communicate the touch and interactiveness that many of these Ipad magazine designs exhibit.
Like most competition books, 46th Publication Design Annual lacks criteria and justification. Also like most competition books, 46th Publication Design Annual doesn’t lack inspiration or publication merit. This title is well suited for all graphic designers, educators, students, corporate communications executives, editors and publishers. I would also throw in developers and engineers who have that great technical knowledge but need that design edge that is so important to differentiate your application or media to the audience; as there is a big pool of apps and online magazines out there.
[rating:3.5]
