This week has been pretty swell cancelling out all the misfortunes of this week which I by now have well forgotten. Some highlights include: Getting to see Picasso's artworks up close. Having good laughs and lots of smiley moments with my uni friends. Dancing a distorted form of tango with mum. Singing made-up theme songs for each other with dad. Coming home to new uploads on
Archer&Archer and a pleasant surprise of Bakuman episode 25 and the final episode uploaded (Oh how that anime makes me chuckle).
And if I wasn't being pampered enough, the universe responded to my mental call the night before last night of wondering when my pre-order of
Offscreen magazine would arrive. Yesterday I woke up in the
morning noon to a pleasant surprise (delaying an already delayed breakfast) which, according to my mum, sat on the floor kind of under our front door:
As I laid in bed, I felt the excitement surging through my veins, delighted by the envelope in my hands, I observed and admired every inch and corner of the package.
The magazine still wrapped its in a layer of plastic was in (as expected) absolutely perfect condition. A magazine has never felt so new... I think I'm probably over excited as this was the first time I've ever received something bought online... but it most certainly brightened up yesterday's dreary weathered afternoon.
Note to self: When I go to die Schweiz I must go to Berlin's Do You Read Me
The magazine which currently has the design community talking, is printed in (and sent from) Germany on 100% recycled paper and the cover has a wonderfully smooth coating feels somewhat like laser jet texture. It also has a lovely smell like freshly new timber furniture in a workshop. My only little disappointment was that it felt rather small (and its size
is a little smaller than standard magazine format) but after having a flick through & reading the articles, I realised that its well worth it as it's more packed than it looks especially as its a magazine without the bulk of heavy advertisement. Sponsors do of course take up a few pages (in support of the production of the magazine) but it has been designed to blend in with the style and content of
Offscreen so you don't notice at all that they're even about promoting their sponsors.
And just in case you didn't know yet,
Offscreen is a magazine, dreamt up by
Kai Brach (an interactive/web designer) about the people behind "the pixels" - interactive, application, web and basically anything digital design. It takes on a similar concept of Dumbo Feather Magazine with interviews as the main feature but instead focusing on the people in the 'pixel' industry. Often in our media packed world we forget that there are people - humans - behind every interactive and digital interface you experience and
Offscreen aims to bring us closer to "the human side of websites and apps".
I love that it comes with a range of different features, the naming which I found clever and relevant to the industry. It's personal and rich in the stories about people, including essays, 'log book', 'chatroom', 'workspaces', 'outlook' and '10 things', which glimpses into what the industry is like behind the screen: from the view outside the office (outlook), to a diary (logbook) of a typical day of a bunch of designers. And in keeping with the trend of photographing what's in ones bag or desk -
Offscreen has also taken this aboard with their 'Desktop' feature showing 10 items "on the desk of" a selected designer.
For a magazine that's related to pixels it certainly did very well in print. Design is clean, clear & simple - easy on the eyes & easy to navigate yet bold & engaging. The folks certainly knew what they were doing... You could even say
Offscreen defines design of today. I do see some design features which bears some resemblance with dumbo feather magazine's new makeover such as the centred structure and hierarchy of the type on the front page, use of photography to document the lives of people featured and use of the occasional pastel coloured pages, however I think the guys at
Offscreen certainly executed it much better in terms of design readability - it stands out without having to be too flashy or going overboard with having 'designerly' features. (I'll talk more about Dumbo feather later)
But I also notice that
Offscreen takes on some current design trends with their old school minimal approach, bold inline condensed all caps type, use of lines below and/or above headings, black/white photos-medium-opacity-over-pastel-coloured-page, and there's even a page with vintage style typography. And I admit I absolutely love it and while it's not necessarily a bad thing to be trendy (after all it is a beautiful magazine) I'm starting to realise that trends do exist which became rather apparent to me after discovering this
tumblr which poked fun at current "hipster" trends. For personal practice's sake it's good to learn why they work but it's best (as much as I do like it) to not always depend on them. After all I think it is our role as the next gen of designers to bring in fresh ideas and more unique visual languages instead of depending on the unwritten formulas of design. But back to
Offscreen its still the first of its kind to actually bring this concept of "the people behind bits and pixels" to life - it's not a how to magazine but rather it pulls people from their screens, to take the time to get to know the people who make the magic happen online, to savour it in a tangible format minus the distraction of facebook or twitter. I have absolutely no regrets that Offscreen was my first online buy.
More images
here
